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.
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 20th 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 20th 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.
