Agra-vating circumstances!

Thankfully we had a wake up call this morning, which meant at 4am we were getting ready to head off and catch our train. Our Audley rep was as punctual as ever, and we were driving along the streets of Delhi in what was relative peace and quiet. I say relative because even at 5am there was a hustle and bustle that just doesn't exist in the UK!

It was on our journey to the station that the rep asked me if we had our passports, as the ticket inspector would want to see some form of identity to make sure we were supposed to be on the train and were sitting in the right seats. It was at this point where I realised we might have a slight problem: to save the effort of loading all our cases on and off of the train, I decided to ship those on ahead with our driver, Partap. Even more unfortunately, my passport was in those cases and winging its way to Agra by car!!

I had visions of being kicked off the train, but our Audley man managed to speak to the train inspector and come to some baksheesh style "arrangement", where he would accept my driving licence as an alternative form of identity! This was a welcome relief which meant we could sit back and enjoy the countryside roll by. It was an interesting journey, and reminded me of my time in the East of England as the land was flat as the eye could see.

Agra Station - the trains are mahoosive!

The carriage was an advert for full employment, because as far as I can tell each executive class carriage had its own group of staff serving their needs. Anyway, this is the order of the staff that came and visited us on our journey.

1) man bringing us a complimentary newspaper 

2) ticket inspector (who thankfully accepted my drivers licence!)

3) man bringing us a teabag and biscuit (nice cup of tea even if the bag said Tetley on it!)

4) man bringing hot water for tea

5) man clearing teacups away

6) man bringing cereal and warm milk 

7) man clearing cereals away

8) man bringing breakfast roti curry (I think)

This helped the time fly by and before we knew it were were approaching Agra station and ready to disembark. We were met by another friendly rep, Nitim, who took us to our hotel, and persuaded them to let us check in early to allow us to freshen up. It seems like we were upgraded as our room is on the executive floor, and later on that day we were presented with a dozen red roses and an angel cake, which were a very nice gesture, although we are no sure what to do with the roses considering we are leaving tomorrow and i am guessing they wont travel well!!  

Roses and a cake welcome gifts from the hotel!!

Still back to the tour. We freshened up and within an hour our new guide (called Yesh) was waiting to take us to the jewel in India's crown, the Taj Mahal. It is every bit as spectacular as you imagine it to be, and Yesh clearly loves telling you about it, as he made us not look at the Taj until we could see it through the gate, his reasoning being that should be your first impression of it, not a slightly obscured view you could get on the approach.

The warm up act - the Taj Mahal is through that gate

I always believed two facts about the Taj Mahal. 1) It was built for the love of Jahan's wife, and 2) that the mausoleum has the entire scripture of the Qur'an etched onto the marble. Apparently not according to Yesh. He told us, Jahan's wife died before it was built and there are only passages from some of the Qur'an there. Nevertheless, even with these myths dispelled, I can safely say that this is one of those places you have to do before you die and you won't be disappointed.

There she is!! B-E-A-U-tiful! You wont be disappointed

Indeed it seemed that the day I choose to see it before I died was the same day as a hell of a lot of other people from all around the world (how very dare they!!), so the place was busier than a Primark 80% off sale! Of particular interest was the "Diana bench" where the princess of Wales sat in a carefully stage managed shot, rich in symbolism pointing towards her disintegrating marriage to Prince Chuck. I tried to get Sarah to re-enact the pose, but she was having none of it!! Yesh told us that the actual bench which everyone thinks is the Diana bench actually isn't, it has been moved.

Looking back on the North gate from the Taj Mahal

Inside the building it was pleasing to see the Indian's have had the foresight to make sure people wear the special feet protectors to prevent damage to the marble, which the Egyptians had neglected to do for so long! As a side note, it is also really nice to see so many Indian people passionate about their heritage and wanting to see it. Unlike in Egypt, the majority of the visitors to the sites I have seen so far have been domestic rather than international.

After the Taj Mahal we moved on to the Red Fort, Agra which is even more impressive than the one in New Delhi in my opinion. I guess it is a matter of taste, but the one in Delhi seems so much more politically oriented, whereas this fort seems more aesthetically pleasing  (or it did, until the Brits ruled India and they used the audience hall of the King as an ammo dump!!).

The Red Fort, Agra - completely different to the Red Fort, Delhi

The kings audience hall used as ammo dump for the British army

There are some lovely buildings in the white marble variety, which evokes memories of the Taj Mahal, and so it is no surprise to find that the Emperor who built the Taj Mahal, also had a hand in the building of this one (before being imprisoned there)

The Emperors Harem - Note: the women in shot are not his concubines!

I suppose a main advantage of this fort which made it all the more impressive was because of the fact that you could see the Taj Mahal from certain vantage points.The builder of the Taj Mahal, Shah Jahan, was imprisoned in this fort (by his son) but he was afforded the luxury of being able to look out and see his handiwork every day with a lovely balcony over the edge of the fort.

The balcony at the Red Fort. Oh Jahan, O Jahan, wherefore art thou Jahan?

View of the Taj Mahal from the Red Fort, Agra

The ceiling was laden with gold, but was melted off and taken away by invaders

Can you spot the swastikas?

After the Red Fort we were suppose to go and see another mausoleum, nicknamed the Baby Taj, but again the heat and feet had got the better of us and poor Sarah had to miss walking around half of the Red Fort as her feet were so bad, so we decided to call it a day on the touring to get some rest.

Yesh, when he found out about the bites and the pain Sarah was in, went out and got us some local antihistamines and I have to say the improvement was noticeable and Sarah can now walk again without any pain! That said though we decided to stay in the hotel tonight and rest up from a whirlwind couple of days and indulge ourselves in a bit of room service! It won't be long until we are up again (another early start tomorrow, 4:30am - a slight lay in compared to today's start!) as we are going to watch the sunrise over the Taj Mahal in the morning before getting on a train to Jaipur that afternoon.