Day 19: Agra Fort

Trip Start Sep 21, 2006

228

Trip End Jun 01, 2007

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Flag of India Agra, India
Tuesday, October 10, 2006

I am up at 5.15. The path to the right of the East Gate leads to a small blue temple where, for a fee, you can persuade a boy to take you on his boat to the far bank of the Yamuna for the classic view of the Taj Mahal reflected in the waters at sunrise. Ibises, spoonbills and red-wattled lapwings wade in the river as the orange light bathes the Taj's marble and the sandstone of the Jawab and perimeter walls. It's worth every second of lost sleep.
A small group of us take cycle-rickshaws to Agra Fort, India's largest, built first by the third Indian Mughal emperor, Akbar the Great, then added to by his son, and his grandson, Shah Jahan. It later became Shah Jahan's prison. Our guide furnishes us with the history, but most of the decoration of gems and precious metals has been torn away by invaders. We are smuggled in (at a cost of baksheesh) into the best-preserved room, the Hall of Mirrors, under renovation, where candlelight makes the ceilings sparkle as it bounces off the convex-mirror tiles - magical.
Overall, for scale and history, the fort is worth a visit, but the lack of original treasures disappoints.
A nerve-wracking race through dark lanes against oncoming traffic for one hour and we're at Tundla Junction for the overnight train to Varanasi. It's three and a half hours late. We retire to the 1st Class Ladies Waiting Room, a hangar with benches and a couple of fans. One hour later, there's a wail. A rat is running about, then the lights go out. We're in darkness with a rodent on the loose. Then, the lights come back on but the rat has disappeared.