Day 64

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Trip Start Jun 19, 2008 Previous
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  Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
Monday, August 25, 2008

Soon after getting into Agra we go to our hotel for a quick lunch and change into our 'Taj' outfits.   We then got back onto the bus and headed towards the Taj Mahal!   To go to the Taj Mahal I bought a special outfit (as promised): a silk purple and gold sari!   I had help putting it on--including my roommate Benazir and YouTube.com videos of how to tie a sari.  A sari is traditional dress for the women in India, they come in all sizes, colors, and materials, many older or important women wear them everyday, although most of the students at the university just wear jeans.  I even bought jewelry and gold shoes to go with it.   It was all a lot of fun.
It was a lot fun to walk around in a sari.   I actually liked the way
it felt around my waist.   A lot of people commented on it.  Because it
was not high tourist season for foreigners most of the other visitors
there were mostly Indian.   I had many Indian women come up to me and
tell my how beautiful I looked in the sari-a few asked to take a
picture with me.   While walking around I saw many girls point at me and all I could hear was hindi-hindi-something-something-SARI-hindi-hindi

11-Taj Mahal

.  It was pretty funny.  Before we went in the gates of the Taj, one woman saw that I was having
trouble with the part that goes over the shoulder.   She asked if I
wanted some help.  She took out her necklace that was full of very
useful stuff like bobby pins, safety pins, little bits of string.   She
used a safety pin to make the folds of the sari neat and then pinned
them.   It made walking in it a lot of fun because I didn't have to worry about it falling.
While she was doing it a guy came up and tried to take a picture of me
and her husband yelled at him and told him to not even try to take a
picture.   It was really nice.
When you get to the Taj you enter from the side gate and see a large wall that surround the Taj Mahal complex.  Then you go through the arches which frame the Taj Mahal.   While we were there the pools of water were not full, but still the gardens surrounding the Taj were gorgeous.   Walking around the Taj is pretty much a blur, we only had about an hour before sunset and we wanted to see it from every angle.   It was pretty spectacular. 
Andrew and I took all of the steriotypical "toursity" pictures, like ones holding the Taj, and one from "Diana bench" the bench where Princess Diana sat and had a famous picture taken.  There were a lot of "professional photographers" around who offered to take our pictures, but other than that they did not allow any other salesmen into the Taj complex, which was a nice change from Fatehpur Sikri

13-Taj Mahal

.    I think there was a lot more to the Taj then what we got to see in the short  two hours that we were there.  I kind of wish we had more time, but at the steep price of 800 Rs admission, we didn't have a chance to go back the next day (and because we were leaving Agra). 
My feelings are mixed about the Taj.  Many call it the greatest monument of love.   However there is some controversy behind it.   It was built by Shah Jahan, the Grandson of Akbar (the builder of Fatehpur Sikri), who was equally notorious as his Grandfather for drinking and smoking opium.   The Taj Mahal is said to be the ultimate symbol of love because it is a tomb for his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal.    However, the Shah Jahan is said to have died having many concubines and from an opium overdose.     Whichever story you choose, the Taj Mahal is massive and impressive architecturally.
The sun started to set and everything turned pink as we were leaving.  The gaurds yell at you and force you out.  It was a lot of fun lingering behind and catching last glimpses of the Taj.  After getting back into the bus and going back to the hotel, everybody was in a really good mood.  We explored the hotel a little bit, peeked up on the roof and into the bar, but we were all so exhausted we just went to crashed into bed after an hour. 

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