Live Like a Raj at the Taj

Even before we moved to Singapore, the Taj Mahal has been on our (well, mostly Julie’s) bucket list of places to visit.  We talked about it for about 2 years before FINALLY picking a date and booking plane tickets. 

India is a unique and complex place.  Doing things almost always take longer and requires more work than you would think, but it’s totally worth it.  Our first decision was when did we want to go.   Julie follows Katie Couric on Instagram and when she went last November and had a wonderful time was the first clue that November would be the time of the year to go. 

November in Agra is significantly cooler, but the air quality is not as good.  Living in Singapore we are used to hot and humid weather (nighttime lows of 24C and typical daytime temps of 31-34C), but June and July in Agra while clear is unbelievably hot, approaching 50C.  So we decided to take our chances on visibility in exchange for cooler weather, we had temperatures of18 to 25C. (Note: We did have a bit of regret 3 or 4 weeks before when the air quality PMI readings reached 700-800 in Agra.  Luckily there were down around 150 when we were there.)

Our good friend Lauren said she wanted to join us as it was a bucket list item for her too, so we happily included her and we booked flights from Singapore to Delhi, leaving around 4pm on a Friday and returning Monday evening.  Next were the in-country logistics.  There were a couple of options.

The first is to take the Gaitman Express tourist train from Delhi to Agra.  It leaves Delhi in the morning and returns in the evening, so a day trip is possible, but we thought that would be a little too much.  We looked into an overnight with transportation by the train, but we doubted it would save us much time as we would have to get from an airport hotel to the downtown Delhi train station.

The second option was to go to Agra by car.  We have learned that car travel in Asia ALWAYS takes more time that you would expect as the roads are narrow and tend to go through the center of city, towns, and villages.  We also learned that they have built an express toll-road between Delhi and Agra and it would take just over 3 hours.  It sounded like our kind of plan.

Searching on the internet we stumbled across Perfect Agra Tours and reached out to them.  We outlined exactly what we wanted: There would be four of us, pick up at our hotel, the Holiday Inn at the Delhi Airport and be taken to Agra.  There we wanted a hotel (3 rooms) and guide for the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort, then be driven back to our Delhi airport hotel for our next day’s morning flight to Singapore.

Perfect Agra Tours responded promptly and after a little back in forth clarifying things they quoted $115 USD each for 4 people (total $460 USD).  That included the car and driver, hotel, and guide in Agra.  Ashish kept in touch via WhatsApp in the days and weeks leading up to the trip.  We arranged to pay him in cash while in Agra. 

The Holiday Inn in Delhi was great.  We arranged in advance for transportation from the airport to the hotel (as we always do—so much easier).  After leaving the Arrivals Hall we found our name on a sign and we were quickly on our way to the hotel where we checked in.  Travel in Asia has so much more friction that traveling in the US with immigration at arrival and a more complicated hotel check in process (copies of all passports etc.)  Needless to say it took about 2 hours from landing until we were in our room.  Welcome to India.

We woke up that morning early what with the 2.5-hour time difference.  Plenty of time to shower, pack, and partake of the breakfast buffet included with our room.  We were to meet our driver in the lobby at 10am and in a very un-Indian way, we met Rajis about 10 minutes before the appointed time.  Soon we were in his nice Toyota mini-van and on our way to Agra.

We followed the outer beltway around Delhi until we hooked up with the beginning of the Yamuna Expressway.  This expressway is a wonderful way to travel.  Much like a US freeway, it has limited access and 3 lanes in each direction.  The speed limit is 100 kph, which means the trip to Agra would be a little over 3 hours.  There was the occasional tractor towing an overloaded trailer full of farm products as well as people gathered at key spots waiving down busses—so you knew you were in India.

There was a rest stop about halfway there, which had 3 important features: 1) Clean restrooms, 2) Some tourist shopping, and 3) Starbucks.  We made use of all three and were then on our way pretty quickly.  We passed through an area that we could only assume was a brickmaking district as there were at least 70 quite tall smokestacks, part of the kilns of the firing process.

Ramada Courtyard Fountain

Rajis delivered us safely to the Ramada in Agra.  We checked in and then headed to lunch at Bon Barbeque.  Geared towards western tourists, there was a buffet on the first level that had a wait.  We decided to head to the upstairs where there was an ala cart menu—we made the right decision.  The highlights were the cashew nut chicken curry (deeply layered flavors) and the mint paratha (just the right amount of char).

It was there too that we met Ashish, the operator of Perfect Agra Tours, who I had been WhatsApp’ing with.  He had me send him a selfie of myself so he could readily find me.  He talked through our program and told us that our guide would be Hapy and that Hapy was a happy guide.  With that, we headed out to meet Hapy and see the Taj at sunset.

Agra is city of about 2.5M people which, for me anyway, made it easy to get my mind around and oriented (unlike Mumbai and Bangalore (which are HUGE and confusing).  Driving through it you know that you are in India; no sidewalks, dirt, vendor carts, wandering cow and dogs, and people everywhere.  It turns out this is “wedding season” in Agra and the wedding venues were all running at full tilt.

We headed to Mehtab Bagh and made it just before closing.  This is directly across the Yamuna River from the Taj Mahal and is a good place to view sunset.  Sunset at this time of the year really isn’t that special as the omnipresent haze means it’s less of a sunset and more of a general reduction in light.  But this was our first view of the Taj and a great introduction.  While there were others there, it wasn’t what I would consider crowded—especially for India.

Mehtab Bagh is a symmetrical garden aligned with the Taj across the river.  It was originally going to be the site of The Black Taj which Shah Jahan was going to build for himself, but he got sidetracked when his son Aurangzeb imprisoned him in Agra Fort for the rest of his life (he fared better than Aurangzeb’s brothers who were all killed by Aurangzeb).

We headed back to the hotel for what Lauren calls “Dirty Gins”.  Now I assumed that this was a dirty martini (which I consider a sacrilege unless you are a using the olive brine to cover up the taste of cheap gin), but I was wrong.  This is having a cocktail, any cocktail, after a day’s activities BEFORE taking a shower and freshening up. A great way to end a great day and a tradition that we will be adopting.

The next morning we met our car and driver at 7am to see “sunrise” at the Taj.  At this time of the year sunrise is a little before that.  But also at this time of the year with the haze and fog there really isn’t a sunrise, just a gradual lightening of the sky.  On the way to the East Gate we picked up Hapy our tour guide.  I’d like to say that Hapy wasn’t so happy that morning as he had been at a wedding until 3am, but you would never have known it.  He was great.

We paid for our tickets (about $15 USD each —with a discount for card payment) and headed in.  The first thing to know at the Taj is that you are limited on what you can bring in.  No Food is seriously enforced and which the local monkeys love as they raid the trashcan of spoils for breakfast (Lauren donated a protein ball and made a monkey happy). 

We hopped on a golf buggy and were dropped off at the South Gate.  Hapy began to explain to us the history of the Taj Mahal.  It was here that he began to point out some of the inlayed stone that, among other things, makes the Taj Mahal so special.  It was also here that we saw a flock of parrots on the grass—something you don’t see every day.  The buildings in this section were made or red stone from Jaipur. 

Everything about the Taj’s design is about symmetry.  We entered through the South Gate and then saw our first daytime glimpse of the Taj through the gateway arch.  As we kept moving forward more and more came into view; the sky-blue reflecting pool, the 4 minarets, and, of course, the mausoleum.  Every Taj image that we had seen throughout our lives was there in front of us.

This place is Instagram heaven for those that are so inclined and there were many that were so inclined.    The crowd was much more American than anywhere else we have been in Asia.  And while there were people, it didn’t feel crowded. 

Hapy did two main things for us while on the Taj grounds.  First, he gave us history in bite sized chunks.  (We have had guides other places that spew a firehose of facts at us and our brains quickly overflow, not processing what we are hearing.) Secondly, he either took pictures of us or, more importantly, took us to spots where we could take wonderful pictures.  And we did!

Hapy moved us forward in stages, each time getting a little closer to the huge marble pedestal foundation that the Taj sits on.  And at each stop he showed us or told us things we would have otherwise missed.  We learned about the Mughal emperor who built it in memory of his wife and his son who imprisoned him (and killed his siblings). 

We put on shoe covers to protect the marble as we stepped up on the pedestal of the Taj. On the outside of the main entrance, Hapy pointed out the inlay work that forms a filigree of design on the outside of the buildings.  Semiprecious stones from different parts of Asia are shaped on hand powered grinding wheels.  At the same time the marble is carved a millimeter or two to be able to take the shaped stones.  They are then bonded together with a secret glue and after they are cured, the stone is polished.   (Later we went to a stone shop where we saw this in action). 

We went inside the mausoleum where the tombs are (no photography allowed).  Here is one of the few places where symmetry has an exception: His tomb is bigger than hers.   One of the docents held up his small flashlight to red inlayed stones and it glowed.  The inside is quite dark, but you get some light that penetrates through the marble walls.  These translucent properties of the marble are what allows the Taj to almost magically change its coloring as the light changes.  It is supposed to be spectacular during a summer’s full moon.

We headed out the back to the river side of the Taj.  We could look across the river to the planned site of the never built Black Taj where we were the night before.  Down the river there was Agra’s Dhoby Ghaut, which literally means washerman's place in Hindi.  Julie and Christopher have been to Mumbai’s Dhoby Ghaut where all of the hotel laundry is done.  And we have one in Singapore which used to be the washing place, but is now a sprawling MRT station.

As we left the Taj proper the 5 of us climbed into a tuk tuk to head back to our car and driver at the gate.  This was a pure sensory experience with the cacophony of horns and voices, the smells, the chaos of the streets (including wandering sacred cows, one of which headed into the main entrance of an restaurant).  This five minute ride WAS INDIA!

After going back to the hotel to pack up and eat breakfast, we headed out again.  This time we were off to Fort Agra.  The fort is at the center of Agra.  Its imposing red walls are huge and are surrounded by double moats. 

We bought our tickets (this time about $7.50 USD with a similar payment card discount) and walked through the main gate.  The sheer size of the walls was impressive.  You could clearly see the double moats that provided additional layers of security.  We walked up a sloping stone ramp that was also part of the security.  Stones could be rolled down the ramps towards invaders while, at the same time, hot oil and water could be poured down from slots in the walls above. 

At the top we looked at one building that appeared to have a couple of Stars of David inlayed above the doors.  When asked about this apparent oddity, Hapy explained that it was a shatkona, a Hindu symbol.  Interesting that the Hindu religion is responsible for both the shatkona and the swastika symbol given their meaning in the 20^th century.

We went into several of the buildings at the fort.  We saw where the British colonials had stripped jewels and gold from the walls, some as recently at the early 20^th century.   We also saw the “cell” where Shah Jahan was imprisoned by his son, but where he could also see his beloved Taj Mahal.  Much like the Taj, it was not overrun with tourists and had a peaceful quality to it.

After the fort we headed for lunch at Pinch of Spice, a sister restaurant to our lunch restaurant the day before.  The food there was great as well.  After our fill of Indian food and Kingfisher beer we were on our way back to Delhi.  The drive was uneventful, which is just what you want at the end of a trip.  And we got back in time for Dirty Gins.

India is such a unique place and Agra even more so.  

So last observations:

• India is work-- Don’t go there for a relaxing vacation, but be expected to be challenged and rewarded.
• Appreciate the noise and smells—there is nowhere else like it in the world that we have found.
• Agra is not a walking place -- You need to be driven (car, tuk tuk, whatever).
• Enjoy the sights -- the 4 wheeled carts selling veggies, the wedding lights being pushed down the streets, and the cows wandering peacefully.

European Adventure

Christopher and I (Julie) traveled to Italy in October to visit Angelica and her Italian relatives. As it turned out Jess, Marco and Alex’s trip there overlapped for a few days, it was so good to see them too. Angelica lives in Sconzo, a village on the edge of Bergamo. We enjoyed walking around the village in the beautiful fall weather. One day we all went to Citta Alta, the ancient part of Bergamo for lunch and a walk around the old city.

Jessica, Angelica, Christopher and I took the train to Turin for and overnight trip to explore a city none of us had been to before. Jess wanted to see the old Fiat factory there and we all got a kick out of the building. It has been converted into a mall including a hotel where we spent the night.

When it was a factory after each car was finished it was tested on the rooftop test track which is still there. We had a great time on the roof walking the track and enjoying the views. Turin also has a car museum that we walked to, there were some great old cars there.

Angelica and I took Christopher on a daytrip to Leolandia near Bergamo that has a model of Italy dotted with miniatures of famous spots in the country. Like a concrete Lego land and Christopher loved it. We had visited Leolandia back in 2013 and Christopher really wanted to visit it again.

One day Christopher and I joined Angelica in Lovere where she teaches English to local teenagers at a school. While she worked, we explored the mountain village on Lake Iseo and we had a great morning.

After a week in northern Italy, Christopher and I flew to Paris for our second part of our trip. My niece Suzanne met us there for our 4 night stay.  Angelica took a bus from Milan to Paris to spend 3 nights with us. Our first two nights were at a hotel near Paris Disney where we spent two days at the parks to complete Christopher’s dream of visiting every Disney Park around the world. He was so excited.

 Disney was all decorated for Halloween, we especially enjoyed the Coco decorations in Frontierland. Our favorite ride was the Ratatouille ride, it was a cool trackless ride that gave you the feeling that you were in the kitchen from the movie. At the end of the ride we could see into the Ratatouille restaurant that looked like fun. Christopher says Epcot in Orlando will have this ride later this year, we are excited to do the ride there the next time we are at Epcot.

The castle has real stained glass windows made by a man who helped to restore the stained glass in Norte Dame in Paris years ago. From a balcony in the castle we could see Maleficent and her menacing tree. Below the castle lives a dragon in his grotto that was very cool to see.

We laughed when we saw the Toon Town, it was barely an alley, which was fine with us because we’re not big fans of the one at Disneyland.

Our last two nights of the trip was in Paris, which was what I was really looking forward to. Last time I was in Paris was 2008 and for Christopher it was 2005 and we had a great time. After checking in to our hotel we wandered around and ended having dinner at a Creperie that we first visited in 2000 and was still delicious. We ended our evening on a Seine river cruise to see Paris at night and it was lovely as always. All the sights were lit except Norte Dame, it was dark because of the fire earlier this year.

The next morning it was cold and raining so Angelica guided us to the Galeries Lafayette where we saw the beautifully restored dome and Christopher loved a new view of Paris for us. We then walked a series of 18th century covered shopping arcades that were so pretty. The rain ended and we were able to tour Sainte Chappelle which has the best stained glass in Paris and then we walked by Notre Dame during the day.

The next morning Suzanne and Angelica left so I asked Christopher what he would like to do and he chose going to the top of Montparnasse, the only skyscraper in Paris. It was a first for him and I hadn’t been to the top in a while and we enjoyed ourselves. We walked through the Luxembourg Gardens to get there and we happened upon one of the three Statues of Liberty that exists. After that we took the metro across the river for a nice view of the Eiffel Tower and I was happy to ride one of the old train cars.

That afternoon we took an Uber to CDG airport for our red eye flight back to Singapore and Christopher got to experience the old terminal that I flew into back in 1980 on my first visit to Paris.