My first weekend in India started very early with a 4:30 checkout from the Delhi hotel. Andrew (my Chicago teammate) and I had arranged for a weekend tour of the "Golden Triangle" and a tour guide car picked us up at the hotel to take us to the New Delhi train station to board the Bhopal Shatabadi Express to Agra in the air-conditioned "executive class" car. The train wasn't fancy but it did include a three course breakfast (tea and biscuit; cornflakes with hot milk and white bread with jelly; and veg cutlet and mixed veggies) to pass the time.
We arrived at Agra around 8 a.m. and were met immediately on the platform by a representative from the tour company. We were escorted out to the waiting car and started on our way to the Taj Mahal. Our tour guide, Ali, asked us where we were from. When we told him Chicago, he said four years ago he toured Rahm Emmanuel and his family when they were in the city. He also told us that thanks to the heat (100 degrees) in the pre-monsoon season that not many tourists were in town and he was going a week to 10 days between tours since they were being rotated between all the tour guides in his office.
This was my second trip to Agra, but I did learn some new things and am glad I went again. This picture above is back to the gate while standing next to the Taj Mahal. The picture below is a close up of the outside wall (no pictures are allowed inside of the masoleum) to show the inlays of semi-precious stones in the marble that Agra is known for.
Two noteworthy things happened at Taj Mahal: the first is that I was requested to take my first photo. It was with an adult man, so that was creepy and I walked away. The second is that I noticed all of the signs for "High Fee Ticket Holder Route" (i.e. foreigners). Since our ticket was 750 rupeees (approximately $15) instead of the Indian resident price of less than $1, we had shorter routes we could take into the masoleum.
After our tour at Taj, we went to Agra Fort where the royal family lived. The Shah who commissioned the Taj Mahal for his favorite wife, had this view of it above from Agra Fort when he was held under house arrest by his son. Agra Fort had a combination of Hindu and Muslim architecture, and it was a beautiful scene for picture taking. But by this point in the day were were practically melting, so the tour was relatively quick.
Our last stop was the "Baby Taj" which was beautiful - and had the lovely inlay pictured below - but just too much. By this point I was tired of handing out 200 and 300 rupees on additional admittance fees, and it felt like the tour guide was trying to find "just one more thing" to tell us. I was tired and the wind was blowing dust in my eyes, and the bathrooms were swarming in flies. But, had I known what awaited me in the next part of the day, I may have not been so concerned about a quick exit from Agra!
