Agra and the Taj!
Trip Start
Jan 28, 2007
1
4
29
Trip End
Mar 31, 2007
Agra,
India
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
From the train we jumped a bicycle ricksahw and rode straight to Agra's Red Fort built by Emporer Akabar in the 16th Century. Pretty impressive and Intrepid organise an official guide to take us through the buildings (about 1 and 1/2 hour tour). He was really good and not dry or boring. Rob and I would have walked in and out of the fort in 1/2 hour because we wouldnt have realised what we were looking at.
I'm writing this 3 days ahead of this day and by now we've had three of these guides at different places and most of the explanations of the big monuments ie
01 The Red Fort
. Agra Fort, Fatepur Sikri and Jaipur Palace boil down to them being big sex houses - the king, price or whatever would have his 4 wifes, if Muslim, and in a seperate building 328 concubines - one for each day of the year minus religious holidays! There is even a raised concrete bed (would have had zillions of cushions on it) which is enormous and where the king guy used to choose 6 women for the night to take to the bed and this is supposedly where the term "King size bed" comes from.Anyway after Agra Fort we dumped our luggage at the hotel and went straight to the Taj, with no need to meet back at our meeting point until after 6ish. It was wonderful arriving at about 3pm as the Taj was in full sun and brillian white, spectacular and pretty croweded. (I'd already actually expected more people there) The people made it even more dramatic as the Indian ladies had all put on their best gear - sorry saris for a special day and to get photos in front of the Taj. (Wished I'd thought of that! - no make up and straggly hair etc ... oh well as the saying goes)
All the group split and Rob and I got photos sitting on the Pricess Di bench hahaha. As the sun went down it gradually tuned a creamy colour but last minute cloud on the horizon robbed us of the real pink colour that is possible with the right conditions.
02 Inside Red Fort
On the way to dinner we stopped at a carpet factory and the process is amazing. It was a place where top grade carpets are made. The wool used is Aust and NZ merino.They are all mede by a village co op where the women make them to specific design with individual knotting and the carpets taking from 6months to one year to complete. The women doing the knotting at home in the villages each night after working in the fields. 4 of the group ended up buying mats. One of the Aussies brought one for $1400 but we think it was actually great value - they were so beautiful.
Dinner at a local restaurant and finally bed after a 5am start! Tomorrow Bharatpur and Fatehpur Sikri.
