Agra and the Taj June 30, 2010
Posted by admin in : India , add a commentThe only issue of our 26 hour delay was the fact that we had 2 days in Agra to see the town. Although we this was the only place that we were going to to only see a tourist sight 2 days would have been good.
We landed at 12:30pm and had our train out to Varanasi the same night at 9:30pm. This makes me nervous know that we know the general rule to add 30% extra time to anything that should take x time then we have little time to see the Taj or anything else. The good news was that we no longer needed to stay in Agra and pay Rs700 (11 pounds) for the pleasure to stay in tourist town. The better news was that the hotel had already arranged a pick up for us, which we used to get to Agra city train station in order to secure confirmed bunks on the next train, which we had to do as priority. The rickshaw driver was used to tourists and had a book of recommendations and was really useful (makes a change) in figuring our plan of attack. Although he was hunting for us to pay for a full day tour we used all the needed information, declined and went to the booking office. A dedicated tourist booth, which was empty due to low season was really useful and made things quick- a novel benefit associated with a tourist town for sure.
Michael L. Kaufman at the English language Wikipedia
The two sights in Agra are The Fort (above), which was where Shah Jahan, the man who began building the Taj Mahal was imprisoned by his son Aurangzeb, who later transferred the capital of India to Aurangabad and continued building Daulatabad (interesting considering we had just seen Daulatabad a week or so previously). The next needs no introduction and the clear winner, the Taj.
After some extortionate offers for a rickshaw ride (knowing the distance) we decided to walk towards it until a reasonable offer turned up. We walked along the grounds of “The Red Fort”, took so good photos. We realised that you could buy a combo ticket for both and were tempted, but getting to the ticket office we decided to focus on one, took a photos of the commanding battlements (See above photo, which is pretty much the same shot) and main fortification and I was happy enough to give it a miss.
Further down the road we saw a horse drawn cart, which was quoted at Rs40 (60p) to the Taj, same as a crappy auto-rickshaw. What a way to arrive! Done! So despite the horses looking a bit ‘broken in’ let’s say we were whisked down the road on a flimsy cart and Laura ‘drove’.
The Taj is Rs50 for Indian people and Rs750 for foreigners, something that hurts as the visitor, but something I applaud in terms of policy and something I think the UK need to adopt. Proving access to your history as priority, while charging visitors more (or at least some) for the maintenance of the sight is a must. Anyway, we coughed it up and walked through the first arch that frames the main Taj structure perfectly. Again, we are not aiming to see the typical sights on the trip and want to avoid sightseeing tourists, but this is a must. Truly spectacular and amazing to compare it to the “poor man’s Taj” in Aurangabad. The marble keeps it’s colour, maintained it’s sharp edges through resisting erosion and sparkled. Certainly a romantic structure that deserves it’s wonder of the world status. We managed to usher people out of the way of the classic picture view so we could get the classic picture and were pretty much awe struck the whole time.
With our tourist kit as part of the Rs750 package, we were given water (needed) and shoe covers, so we didn’t need to walk barefooted on the boiling marble like the poor locals who didn’t cough up. The building is perhaps unsurprisingly the most well kept thing I have seen in India and the semi-precious stone inlays in the marble are still flush and crystal clear today. In the burial chamber the infamous marble screen is truly incredible. How you can carve decorative voids into panels of marble an inch thick is beyond me, let alone with the technology available in the 1650’s. We managed to capture an illicit photo, purely because all the Indian tourists were using flash everywhere and the armed guards were paying zero attention.
We wandered around the other Muslim structures on site and sat in the garden looking at the Taj for a few hours before deciding to find a rooftop terrace overlooking the Taj for dinner before heading to the station. Surprisingly we were relatively undisturbed by the usual “let’s have our picture taken of a westerner so we can tell them how many foreign friends we have” (seriously this fact has been verified by numerous people now). A few were taken of Laura when I was taking a shot, but my new line of “That will be Rs100 please, my wife is a model and gets payed a lot for having her picture taken” ensured pictures are deleted in front of me quickly.
We found the ideal place and apart from a few tables of Lonely Planeters (a word I have just invented to describe people wandering around clutching the book for dear life) we had 4 hours watching the sun set over the Taj with a beer and now typical Indian curry (Dal fry, rice, 1 tandoor roti each and a share dish of veg, this time muttar paneer- peas and unpasturised cheese).
We headed back after our lazy afternoon of staring at the Taj and decided to catch a cycle rickshaw to the station. 4 modes of transport in one day is not bad. Now to pick up our nights supply of water and snacks for the next journey to make a total journey time of 23 hours in 3 days.
Ellora Caves and around Aurangabad June 10, 2010
Posted by admin in : India , add a commentAfter a day’s washing, sleeping, getting cash and finding our way around the city we headed out for a day in Dalautabad. Catching the bus was a bit of a nightmare. Feeling a little ropey from food the night before, we managed to squeeze through the massive pushing match, screams and kids being crushed so people can get on the bus, finally on I find a bag halfway on the seat and so put it in the baggage area above and sit down. A guy then comes up immediately shouting and pointing at us, to which the bus start debating the merits of the situation. Turns out that Indian people throw their bags onto a bus as it is pulling into a depot to “claim” their seat. Obviously we didn’t know this, but as a religious (Muslim) person didn’t expect to be shouted at without some reasoning first- so much for religious people’s tolerance. Things didn’t improve when the bus driver took our money and failed to give us a ticket. I asked him if we can have one, “No…. Senior Citizen” he says, well strange then that everyone is getting on. We insist and by the time we get a ticket out of the conductor he kicks us off as we have missed Delautabad. Landing in a nowhere place in the baking sun isn’t great. The nearest sign tells us we were off by 10km. Laura this time is fuming instead of I. The Ellora caves are only 4km away so although we try to avoid them as much as possible took on to regain a sense of momentum to our day.
Ellora was a treat that made up for the journey there. Built in 700- 900 AD these cave temples are in such good condition due to the hard stone hill they are excavated from (200,000 tons of rock removed to build them). There were 3 sets of caves representing the Buddist, Hindu and Jain faiths, in a period of religious tolerance (clearly we are digressing in this respect!), the largest temple called the Kailesa temple was massive and the oldest temple still in use today. The best in my opinion was the Buddist “Music Hall”, where the incredible acoustics were demonstrated by a standby guide. The massively echoed chants he produced in this chamber that is reminiscent of church roofs (curved to amplify sound) was truly mesmerising, which clearly was designed to put followers into a trance- it worked on us.
The next day we relax as we decide to have one day of sightseeing and one day not. I finally get in touch with a business contact I have made and meet up over lunch just after moving to a hotel (the hostel closed due to refurbishment work) and we found the best value for money place to eat yet; good quality and yet not expensive. The Thali I learnt means plate in Hindi and why the dish is named as such. Faiz is a gregarious man who quickly starts creating a daily timetable for us to see everything that Aurangabad has to offer. As we were not really into the planning style this is over facing, but it is good to know what a local thinks of the various sites.
After a bite to Faiz invites us to some of the sites around town, so we head off in his decrepit car and are shown around the university as well as the university history museum. I ask whether he thinks that keeping 700 AD stone sculptures outside was ok, but he seemed to think it wasn’t a problem- I am not so sure considering they were kept in a cave for millennia previously. Either way seeing the medieval weaponry and artifacts was fairly interesting.
Next however we headed out of town into the hills where we are told that the Buiddists when they arrived came to produce the temples, but the rock was not good enough quality (too soft we concur) and so they moved their efforts to Ellora. We do not go in, but have a quick picture moment of the cityscape below and caves from a distance, enough due to seeing Ellora a few days previously. It is absolutely baking at this point and even the wind feels like it from a furnace. The landscape is baron, arid, dusty and dead, but even then a lone guy in the middle of nowhere is pushing a wheelbarrow somewhere!
The last step with Faiz via a lime soda (the best for rehydration, which Laura needs at this point, looking very hot and red) is Bibi Ka Maqbara aka the “poor man’s Taj Mahal”. This is a sand and limestone version of the Taj built by the grandson of Shah Jahan (the person who built the real Taj Mahal), after Aurangzeb, Shah Jahan’s son killed his father and marched everyone to Aurangabad (what a family!) The detail is not amazing due to erosion, but a good effort to say the least. The only trouble we experienced was mock-celeb status that we have been getting to an extent, but nothing like this. Girls following me and guys staring Laura up and down, pictures taken of us without permission and the one sit down before we look around we are circled, I have a baby placed on my knee and at least 8 cameras snapping away. Laura isn’t feeling great but they don’t care, as long as they have “one for the album”, for what meaning exactly I am still not sure.
Now the heat has completely drained us we head back to sleep. This is where Laura’s trouble starts. I suspect sickness is the result of a combination of overheating, sun exposure, eating and then being driven across the bumpiest roads ever. Lucky the next day was a rest day as Laura slept all day, unable to eat or even leave the room.
