Tuesday
Oct 11, 2005 - day 12 - Agra/Taj Mahal - Kathy: 261 photos, Bob: 180 photos
Today we got up bright and early. Well, early anyway. I wasn’t feeling too bright. Early mornings and I don’t get along. We got up at 5:00 in the morning so we could
get to the Taj Mahal when it opened.
This turned out to be a wonderful strategy because we were the first
people to enter the place and the photos were much better without all the
people. Much to my dismay, I couldn’t
bring my tripod. I’m beginning to think
that it was a waste of money. Oh
well. I only paid fifteen dollars for it
at a garage sale.
The government of India made a wise decision. In order to protect the Taj Mahal from
pollution and damage, they restricted all traffic to the area. The only vehicles that could approach the Taj
were bicycles, bicycle-rickshaws and strange electric tuk-tuks. So we had to park our bus and take a tuk-tuk
to the Taj.
After waiting for the site to open at 6:00am, we went
through the security checkpoint where we went through metal detectors and
pat-downs. Finally, we got inside the
complex, and walking through the gate, we saw the beautiful white marble of the
Taj. It was just sunrise, and we could
take lots of photos without the normal huge crowds of people everywhere.
We took hundreds of photos;
the most we’ve ever taken.
So many, in fact, that I had
to empty Kathy’s flash card twice today.
The Taj Mahal, of course, is the tomb of a queen. The king loved his wife so much that he built
this enormous structure out of white marble to house her tomb. After his death several years later, they
buried him in the same tomb, next to his beloved wife.
After seeing the Taj in the morning, we went to the red
fort in
There was an impressive
multi-tiered gate system with huge fortress walls and a mote. Very cool.
This was a big structure with a large courtyard,
lots of buildings,
passageways and things to see. There was
an overlook that had a misty view of the river and the Taj nearby.
There were even a few monkeys
around posing for the cameras.
Needless to say, we took lots
more photos.
On the way out, I noticed that a man was just sitting on
the roof of the palace, a living gargoyle looking down on the world.
I thought that was rather
odd.
After the red fort, we had lots of free time. But you know us. Kathy does not allow us to rest. My nickname for my wife is: Kathy “I’ll sleep
when I’m dead” Peterson. So instead of
resting and recovering, we asked Sujay to hire a car to take us to the
“Mini-Taj”.
This monument was built by
the same guy’s mother. At the time, she
wanted to build the biggest monument in all of Islam to commemorate her beloved
husband when he died. So the Taj Mahal
was actually built by her son in order to surpass her lovely idea.
The Mini-Taj was beautiful.
It was quite a bit smaller
than the Big Taj, but maybe more beautiful because it was so ornate and
colorful.
Even the ceilings were
beautiful.
Not many people get to the
Mini-Taj, so it wasn’t crowded, and I think it is a wonderful place to
visit. It was colorful and creative,
whereas the Big Taj is just so much white marble. The Mini-Taj is more colorful, and you can
clearly see a woman’s touch in the decoration.
We went to a marble factory where they tried to sell us
very expensive, over-priced carved and inlaid marble items. They were beautiful, but once again, way too
expensive.
At sunset, we went back to the Taj Mahal again to take some
final photos before sunset.
It was beautiful, but of
course, there were a lot more people.
We noticed that our hotel had the traditional Bible that
you see in many American hotels, but in addition, they had a copy of the
Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu Bible!
Actually, Sujay said the Gita is the tenth book of the Mahabarata, one
of the many holy series of ancient books for the Hindus.