The Taj Mahal

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Oh, forgot to mention Matt and I went to watch a Bollywood movie in Delhi! That was an experience. People clapping, yelling, singing and spitting along. Yeah, spitting. I think they chew some kind of tabacco when they watch movies. The floor is plastered with dried brown patches. They also put their feet up on the seat in front. I was flanked left and right buy dirty feet just inches from my head. The movie we watched was Badal, about some outcast guy who redeems himself and falls in love with a woman from a well to do family (a police chief's daughter). Well funny. Didn't understand a word, but the occasional English lines ('by the way' being the most common amongst 'what are you talking?', 'just shoot me!', 'thank you', 'I will kill you' etc) made us laugh quite a bit, totally out of line with the rest of the audience.

Arrived in Agra by train yesterday. If you think the touts are bad in Delhi, you haven't seen anything yet. Agra, being the top tourist destination in India, unfortunately has become a playground for con artists and people trying to sell you anything from hash to fake marble replicas of the Taj Mahal. They are even more persistant than in Delhi, grabbing you by the arm or following you for hundreds of meters.

Matt and I took a taxi from the train station towards Taj Ganj, the area east of the city, surrounding the Taj Mahal. We couldn't drive all the way to the hotel due to an exclusion zone around the Taj Mahal to prevent pollution affecting the structure, although I don't see how this helps, as there's a constant thick smog over the whole area from Delhi to Agra. You can see the smog easily in the photos.

We walked the 5 minutes to the Shah Jahan guest house, run by a very friendly old muslim man who is amazingly well travelled. He's been practically been everywhere. He's also an avid collector of items, from old coins and marble tiles from the moghul era, to foreign currency, especially limited edition notes. He wasn't trying to sell, just happy to take you into the little room on the ground floor to show you his collection.

The rooms weren't fantastic, the sheets pretty grubby, and the toilet leaked (from the pipe from the water tank, not the outlet luckily!). Glad I brought my own sheets and pillow case! This was all made up by the fantastic view from the 4th floor cafe on the roof. Matt and I wanted to save sighting the Taj Mahal till we visited it the next morning (it's closed on Friday), but we had to sneak a look. You could see the dome, minarets and part of the tomb from the roof.

Since the Taj Mahal was closed, we went to see th Agra Fort instead, which is much more impressive than the Red Fort in Delhi. The original red sandstone structure is quite well complimented by the white marble buildings that Shah Jahan installed when he moved his capital there from Delhi during his reign. After exploring the almost maze like interior of the havelis and royal apartments, Matt and I had a nap in the garden in the shadow of a tree for a couple of hours since we had little sleep on the roof of Ajay's in Delhi (remember we checked out at 1am and took a 7:15am train!).
Went to bed pretty early that night, so that we could get up at 5:30am to be one of the first into the Taj Mahal. We were told that seeing it during sunrise is one of the best times. Before the sun had even risen, we bought our tickets and headed into the small entrance garden before the massive Persian arch opening into the main garden. I have to admit, my heart was racing a bit as we stepped into the archway, and into view, perfectly framed by the Persian arch was the main structure of the Taj Mahal.

No words can really describe the scene. Everything you have read about the Taj Mahal is true. It's simply magical, really out of this world. It's probably the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life. Your breath honestly catches, and you can't help but have a tear in your eye from sheer joy at the magnificence of the building. Matt and I simply stood there for 20 minutes, barely saying a word, just mesmorized by the sight.

As the sun rose, we walked through the garden toward the main structure. It's then that the size of the Taj Mahal complex becomes apparent. Surrounded by four minarets at each corner, and flanked by a huge three arched mosque at the west side (larger than the Jamia Masjid in Delhi), with a mirrored structure to the east just to maintain symmetry, it dwarfs every human standing in it's shade.

The tomb inside isn't spectacular, Mumtaz's tomb in the center (Shah Jaham's wife whom he built the Taj Mahal for), and Shah Jahan's own on the left (west). No photos allowed inside I'm afriad! The room itself seems small compared to the size of the structure.

As we exited, the sun had risen proper, turning the Taj Mahal from a dark grey at dawn, to a brilliant orange white. Thus all the photos I have taken showing the changes of light on it!

By then, the place was totally packed out. Went we came in, there were maybe 50 people, but now at 7am, an hour after we entered, there were literally hundreds upon hundreds. Matt and I decided to leave quickly, so as to not destroy the magic of the place. It was almost like going to Disneyland with all the people standing under their trademark palace. To think the Taj Mahal could be reduced to that made us leave all the more quicker.

The rest of the day, we just chilled on the rooftop, looking back at the Taj Mahal, listening to the occasional muslim call to prayers. I ended up falling asleep for a bit before we headed to the train station to catch our 4 hour train to Jaipur.

The train journey was mostly uneventful, Matt and I just talked for most of it. One of the food vendors marching the aisle had the most amazing moustache I have ever seen (see photo). Calls for 'samosa', 'caw-feeee', 'chai' abound during the journey. Not much scenery to look at as the train was in the evening.

So here I am in Jaipur. Staying at the Stephels guesthouse just south-west of the Pink City, the walled enclosure containing the City Palace, and the famous medieval observatory. After arriving, we pretty much went straight to bed. Today, we went up to the Tiger Fort just north of the city. I have taken some photos, but I'll show them all together with the rest of Jaipur. That is if I can get a new camera. My camera has now totally gone crazy, all the photos are streaked (almost like when water runs ink on a piece of paper), and have a purplish-pink tinge.

I really am not having the best of luck with electronic stuff as I said in the last post. Something is conspiring against me!! So tomorrow morning, I'm off to a Sony shop I spied near my hotel to get a new Sony camera. Why Sony? Well, because I had just bought a new memory stick (proprietary) not three weeks ago, remember? So if I change brands, I'll have to buy another memory card for it. *sigh*. This really has put a dent into my travel budget. Digital cameras don't come cheap, and I'm not going the rest of this year without taking photos. Jaipur is probably the last place I can buy one before I get to Mumbai (Bombay) next month. Rajasthan is too nice a place to not take photos!

So if any of you fancy donating some money to the Dom Giles Digital Camera fund (probably need about 300 quid, which is a month's travelling!), I'm accepting! Just email me and I'll give you my account details! ;)