Agra
INDIA
A Taj Tour
By LYNDI
Monday, June 20, 2011
The story of the Taj Mahal is a little bit like a Grimm’s Fairy Tale: an amorous Shah back in the 1600s loved his beautiful and adoring wife and they lived in splendor in the ancient city of Agra. Disaster struck and the empress died during childbirth, leaving her widowed husband in the depths of despair. As a memorial to his beloved, he brought in specialists from around the world to construct the greatest and the most extravagant mausoleum that still stands today and is known as the Taj Mahal.
So that’s the love story – we won’t delve into the rumors that the Shah had the hands of all the workers cut off so that a replica could never be produced, or the fact that his son usurped him and imprisoned him in a nearby fort where he was forced to look at the Taj through bars for the rest of his miserable existence, because that kind of takes the romance out of what has been called “the embodiment of all things pure”.
Aaron and I came to India for a lot of reasons, none of them being to go see the Taj Mahal. But come on – everybody else is doing it. The city of Agra where the Taj Mahal rests is also an excellent stopping point between Varanasi and the state of Rajasthan – so it was also practical!
We arrived into Agra around 7:30 in the morning, and by the time we’d stored our luggage and gotten a pre-paid rickshaw to the monument it was near 8:30 or so. Our rickshaw driver, like every single rickshaw driver in all of India, was also a tour guide. He was very courteous and offered his guiding services and an outline of the day for us and that was all – no pressure, no bargaining, just the facts straight and simple if we wanted to use a guide.
Well, we initially had no intentions of using a guide – we would just go to the Taj Mahal, look around for awhile, get lunch somewhere, and then be bored for a few hours until our train left that night – but after a brief conversation we went for it. So for 900 rupees (or about US$20) we had a driver/tour guide for the day.
It ended up being quite a good deal for us – by 9 in the morning, the sun is already shining so harshly and a fog of pollution has already set in so that photos of translucent marble wouldn’t turn out very good, so we spent the morning visiting nearby sites like the Baby Taj (the monument that inspired the grand mausoleum itself). For approximately $2, we got to spend time in a beautiful, marble structure inlaid with semiprecious stones and we had it all to ourselves. We took our time looking around and relaxed in the gardens for a bit before heading back out to our guide KaKa (pronounced “KK”) and the blistering sun.
Our second stop was the rear of the Taj Mahal. The structure looks out over the Yamuna River, so from the other side there are plenty of photo opportunities. We took lots of pictures, and could already see hordes of tourists crawling all over the place.
KaKa also took us to see “the real Agra” where families live in mud huts and oven-like plastic tents. They are directly across the river from enormous tourist hotels that reek of prosperity and affluent tourists, while they pump water from a well and bathe with the water buffalo in the muddy river. Many of them work as launderers, picking up clothes, linens and sheets from local Indians and washing them in bulk in the river – the rich colors of the saris lying on the ground to dry made a stark contrast to the browns of the countryside and rivers and the hazy clouded sky.
KaKa explained that these people will never go to school, will never move out of their huts or tents and can never hope that their children will have a better life – these are the “untouchables” – the lowest caste in the rigid and appalling caste system in India. Coming from a place where we’ve been raised on “The American Dream”, it’s horrifying to imagine a life where you can never become something other than what society says you are. Anyways, that’s another topic entirely. But if it’s any consolation, they did have quite a nice view of one of the world’s greatest monuments from their work space. I guess that’s all we can say for that.
We then headed back across the river and stopped alongside the Agra Fort – the second most popular tourist attraction in town. We weren’t really interested in going inside, so KaKa just gave us a bit of history and we were off to a nice lunch.
I’m used to tour guides taking us to luxurious tourist restaurants where prices are easily 100 times what they would be on the street so that they can get commission, eat free, etc. But KaKa took us to a place where we could relax in air conditioning for awhile without having to buy anything at all. We ended up splitting a thali, which is a large plate of different types of curries, and bought KaKa a little sandwich and tea since I guess he doesn’t get freebies after all.
After relaxing for an hour or so during the hottest part of the day, we went back out and stopped in the necessary tourist shops. In KaKa’s defense, he asked if we wanted to go see them – if we didn’t want to stop he would carry on. But Aaron and I were curious to see the local handicrafts of the area, so we went in the shops anyways. Surprisingly, the pressure wasn’t too much – we easily walked in and out of the gem stores and carpet stores, and ended up buying a small token from the marble store before finally heading out to the Taj Mahal.
It may seem weird that we came all the way to Agra to visit this impressive and historical monument and then saved it for last, but the intense sun during Indian summers is unforgiving, and to get half-decent shots on our point and shoot camera, we needed the sun to start heading towards the horizon a bit.
Getting in was complete mayhem – inside the gates of the Taj Mahal is where all the preying touts thrive – and they saw us whities coming a mile away. We were constantly hounded by rickshaw drivers, puppet sellers, beggars, guides, water sellers, camel ride guides – you name it, they harassed us.
We finally got through the main gates where the touts have to remain behind and walked straight into the full frontal view of the Taj Mahal. Even from a distance you can tell that the finest marble was used as the sun’s rays are absorbed rather than bounce off, the perfect symmetry is obvious to the naked eye and even the fine engravings and sparkling gems catch your eye.
Naturally, as this is one of the New Seven Wonders of the World and it is still Indian summer vacation – it was packed. Tourists literally pouring through every single gate, doorway, alley and garden. We only had about 40 minutes to tour the monument until we had to head back to the train station, so we quickly walked up to the mausoleum, through the insides (no pictures allowed inside – though all the locals had their cameras out and flashes flaring the entire time) and around the Taj from all angles.
Forty minutes really was plenty of time – you don’t need to spend too much time appreciating the inlaid marble, the engravings, etc. Our biggest problem was that we were white… which means that every other Indian wants a picture with you. And when there’s two of you and a billion of them, it inhibits your time management a bit.
To be honest, Aaron and I were completely dumbfounded – here they are at this miraculous monument that they’ll probably never see again… and they’re taking pictures of us!!?? We posed for about 20 photos, could tell that about 100 other people were sneaking pictures of us, and had to refuse photos to about 10 others because we were running late. It’s not upsetting at all – I’m one of the best at getting photos of people when they don’t know it – it’s just really weird.
So we speed-walked back to KaKa and he dropped us off at the train station, sweaty and satisfied. We barely had a chance to grab our things from storage before boarding our train and taking off for Rajasthan – leaving behind one of man’s greatest accomplishments and a ton of photographic evidence.
