Agro in Agra?
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Agra,
India
Wednesday, August 20, 2003
20th August - Up fairly to join up with our tour of Agra. We met the bus at the train station thinking there would be loads of people but there turned out to be only 7 of us on a big bus. The first stop was about 30km outside of Agra and was the huge abandoned fortified city of Fatehpur Sikri. This was the capital of the Mughal empire from 1571 to 1585 but was abandoned due to water shortage problems. To start with we visited the palace which has been amazingly well restored and is absolutely huge. Akbar, who built the palace, had 3 wives all of different religions. This is reflected throughout the complex as different bits were built for the various wives. The other major part of Fatehpur Sikri is the mosque. This was much busier than the palace complex and again massive. We had to remove our shoes to enter which caused us a few problems because of our delicate little feet on the red hot stones. In the centre of the square is a tomb made completely of white marble with some amazing jali (lattice) screens. As we left there were loads of the usual hawkers selling the usual tat. One lad made the mistake of trying to sell LJ a knife which she then proceeded to threaten to stab him with! It can be quite stressful here sometimes, really - mostly when the hawkers meet LJ!
We were then taken to a hotel for lunch which was ok. I should say at this point that our guide book points out that a few years ago there was a big scam in Agra where lots of the restaurants were deliberately giving foreigners food poisoning so that the local doctors could then charge outrageous fees for treatment. This explains our reason for taking our evening meal at Pizza Hut (plus we were craving western food).
Next stop was the big one - The Taj Mahal. As we approached the TM we had to swap to a battery powered bus as normal busses and cars are banned to try and cut down on the pollution. Unfortunately there are still plenty of rickshaws and motorbikes spilling out fumes. The TM itself was absolutely stunning - indescribable in fact. The white marble is inlaid with thousands of semi-precious stones and the four minarets are built leaning slightly outwards in case they should fall and hit the main dome. It is supposedly the worlds largest monument ever built for love as it was built as a mausoleum for Emperor Shah Jahan's 2nd wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It took 20,000 people 22 years to build and most of the people had hands and fingers amputated by the Emp so that it's beauty could never be repeated. As we sat in the grounds admiring the view various people took our photo. Then two young lads wanted their picture taken shaking my hand. Imagine having your photo taken in front of the Taj Mahal and with Phil Johnson!!! I duly obliged for 10 rupees.
Last stop on the tour was Agra Fort. On any other day this would have seemed an amazing sight but after the TM it paled into insignificance. The fort was built in 1565 and was used to imprison Shah Jahal by his son. There were some fabulous views across the river to the TM.
After hearing so many horror stories about Agra we were pleasantly surprised there and managed to escape without falling victim to any of the many scams. Could this be a turning point in the Indian adventure?
