Delhi. January 5, 2014/ Agra: Taj Mahal and More

January 5, 2014

Greetings…

Made our way to meet the driver with whom we had contracted to take us on the three-hour drive to Agra to see the Taj Mahal… He was downstairs (in the parking area). When you’ve got some arrangement for a driver, you let the hotel guys at the door know and they have these walkie talkies and microphones that beam into the parking area where the drivers wait. When the “call” goes out, the driver then leaves the parking area and heads to the front of the hotel. Our guy (Ram) came — and off we went… sort of. Turns out that Ram had sub-contracted our ride to a friend named Krishna — so Krishna showed up out of nowhere and Ram took off, leaving us to Krishna. There must be layers and layers of the informal economy here in Delhi. We figure that Ram (who showed up at the end of the day as we returned to the hotel to collect the money) takes about 50% and gives Krishna 50%.. Maybe the percentage is even greater. Anyway, off we went to Agra with Krishna.

The weather was awful.. fog and some kind of inversion trapping all the pollution, making visibility near zero. It was actually pretty frightening at times with about 40 feet of visibility – max; couldn’t see anything in front of us or on either side for at least 45 minutes. We laughed saying that the title of today’s report might be “We went to see the Taj but it had disappeared.” It’s a five- or six-lane highway for most of the three-hour journey, and despite the unbelievable lack of visibility.. cars were honking and passing the whole way.

Agra sits on the banks of the Yamuna River. And as we approached Agra — a really dirty town with a population of about 1,700,000 — a mere village. Women are washing clothes in the river and laying everything out to dry on the edges of the water. Four and five people are sharing rickshaws that seat only two. And as you get closer, people are trying to sell you little Taj Majals.

It took more than three hours given the fog— and we were beginning to worry whether or not we’d even see anything. Arrived in Agra and decided to have lunch before seeing the Taj. Went to a hotel and ate lunch.. and then took a pedal-powered rickshaw from the restaurant to the entrance of the Taj. India has an interesting approach to entry into its monuments. There’s a two-tiered fee structure: locals pay one rate and all foreigners pay a rate that is about 10 times greater. (Actually this part was the same in Nepal and Tibet, although not to such a great extent.) But once you get your “special” ticket, here in Delhi — you are referred to as a “high-value ticket holder” and you consistently go on different lines (actually adjacent lines) to the locals (who have the low-value tickets!).. So while the entry line snaked and snaked and probably would take about 30 minutes just to get to the front entry.. we were escorted right in.. no one on our lines. Again, though — a line for men and a line for women.. because of the security involved and the pat downs. So once again, I was in before Mike..

Hard to really describe the Taj and the grounds that surround it. It’s huge.. but basically it’s a white marble mausoleum built by the Mughal emperor to memorialize his third wife who died in childbirth delivering their 14th child!!! Don’t know how many other children were sired by the emperor with his two previous (or maybe simultaneous) wives. She died in 1631 and construction began in 1632 — and lasted for 20 years.. built by thousands of slaves and craftsmen. Supposedly about four million people visit the Taj Mahal annually. I think about 50% of them decided to come today.. despite the fog and mist which made the place both mysterious and mystical.. and also very “flat.” For all its grandeur, it’s sort of simple. Very unadorned; all shades of white and off white.. and just a small amount of inlaid color (muted) in some trim areas.

The walk to the building down paths with reflective pools on either side, is like trying to get into Nordstroms on a day when they’d have a 95% off sale!… but you’re walking between, among, behind, and next to everyone taking pictures — on smart phones, with cameras, with videos, etc. Then as you approach the huge edifice, once again, the high-value ticket holders go down one aisle and the others in a different aisle.. We get to the door very quickly and are also given little paper booties to cover our shoes; the other people have to take off their shoes and leave them in boxes along the way. But once you reach the actual entry arch the two lines merge and then it’s pretty chaotic. Inside the mausoleum it’s claustrophobic (at least for me as I don’t do well in tight spaces that are packed body to body with people).. and there’s only one way out. So you just have to hope that the crowds will not become uncontrollable.

Made it out and back to the parking area to find Krishna. The drive back to Delhi (another three hours) was a tiny bit better but the fog was still incredibly thick.. and merging with pollution and with smoke from coal-burning plants making bricks (we think) that line the highway for a portion of the trip. With white knuckles, we sat quietly in the back of the car.. and hoped for the best. We thought we’d be back from the Taj at about 4pm… Made it back at 7 pm…

Quickly changed clothes and headed to Bukhara — a restaurant located in a hotel about 20 minutes from our hotel. It’s a very highly-rated restaurant and shows up in lots of magazine articles. While the hotel and the restaurant could not have been more poorly designed, the food was fantastic… A traditional Tandoor restaurant.. We shared a lamb kebab (with the lamb having been marinated and covered with all sorts of spices) and a half-order of a pepper stuffed with vegetables and a half-order of a potato stuffed with fruits and nuts… Topped the meal off with basmati rice pudding, Food was quite good..

That’s it for today.. Taj Mahal had been on the bucket list. Check. Check. Done.

Will write my last note tomorrow, just before we head to the airport — Our flight leaves at 3 am.. (so it’s either Monday night or Tuesday morning depending on how long you consider your day. I generally deal with the day as lasting as long as I’m awake.. So it will be Monday night for me; officially it will be Tuesday morning (India time ).

Until tomorrow –

Fern