AGRA, UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA
Today I started a three-day tour of the "Golden Triangle," the area between the northern Indian cities of Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur. I'm traveling in an SUV with four other folks (plus our driver): A nice retired Indian couple from Chennai, a Japanese kid named Tatsuya from Tokyo, and a 36-year-old IT project manager from France named Benoit. All of 'em nice people, and Benoit and I hit it off pretty well, so we've been hanging out for a lot of the trip.
This morning we drove south from Delhi on the dusty road to Agra, some 200 kilometers away, stopping briefly on the way at a rest area of sorts while our driver had some paperwork taken care of. There we got to see some uniquely Indian entertainment: Two snake charmers with real live cobras in baskets(!), who ran right up to the car and began their act. It was really cool to see the snakes "sitting up" with their hoods flared inches in front of these guys, just like in the movies--of course, they weren't reacting to the flute playing, just following the side-to-side movement of the flute. Benoit was a little disappointed that they weren't "dancing," but I was just impressed at the fact that there were deadly snakes about! At one point one of the cobras actually struck out at the snake charmer, biting his robe just inches from his leg, but the guy was completely unfazed. I don't get it--I would be totally freaking out. The snake charmers also occasionally tapped the cobras on the heads to make them rear up, which is also something I don't think I'd attempt. Anyway, it was pretty interesting. Oh, and there was also a guy there with a couple of trained monkeys--well, they were trained to jump on our SUV and screech, at least.
After about three hours of driving we stopped outside of Agra at Sikandra, where we visited Akbar's Tomb. Who's Akbar, you ask? Well apparently he was the greatest of the Mughal emperors, and built a lot of stuff in his day (the 16th Century, I think). His tomb is an unusual and beautiful combination of Hindu, Muslim, and Persian architecture, built of sandstone and marble, and it sits in the middle of four symmetrical gardens filled with grazing deer or ibexes or something like that, which I thought added to its exotic-ness.
It was impressive, but not a patch on our next stop, the world-famous Taj Mahal. You all know about this one--"the world's greatest monument to love," "a teardrop on the face of eternity" and all that, built by the emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife Mumtaz Mahal. Between 1631 and 1653 over 20,000 people worked on the tomb, and amazingly enough, their descendants are still the ones who do repairs and maintenance on the place. And yes, it really is as beautiful as in the pictures. The white marble reflecting the harsh Indian sun makes the building really glow, and its perfect symmetry (it looks the same from all four sides) is simply stunning. We walked around the gardens, took the obligitory pictures in front of the tomb, and then walked inside, where under the main dome are "decoy" marble caskets of the emperor and his wife (for some reason, their actual coffins are under the floor, directly below the fake ones. Up close, I could see that there are huge Quran verses decorating the sides of the Taj, as well as delicate floral patterns all made of colorful inlaid stones (blue lapis lazuli, red coral, etc.).
Our last stop of the day was the Agra Fort, built by emperor Akbar in 1565 and continued by Shah Jahan. It's similar to Delhi's Red Fort in that it's a combined military structure and royal palace built of red sandstone, although I would have to say that this one is even more architecturally interesting and well-preserved. There are various imperial halls inside as well as a mosque, and part of the fort overlooks the Taj Mahal. In fact, Shah Jahan himself was imprisoned here for eight years by his own son--but at least his quarters overlooked his late wife's tomb. Man, what a view!
After an hour or so of poking around the fort, it was back to the car, where we drove a good 40 minutes outside Agra to our hotel, the Gulistan Tourist Complex. It's a fairly large courtyard-style hotel--not bad, really, but it seemed a little strange that it was in the middle of nowhere and we were apparently the only ones staying there! Making things a little more Twilight-Zone, the electricity kept cutting off, including while I was at dinner (and the only one in the restaurant). Everything went pitch black, and I had to just sit there in the dark with my vegetable biryani until they brought me a candle.
Today I started a three-day tour of the "Golden Triangle," the area between the northern Indian cities of Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur. I'm traveling in an SUV with four other folks (plus our driver): A nice retired Indian couple from Chennai, a Japanese kid named Tatsuya from Tokyo, and a 36-year-old IT project manager from France named Benoit. All of 'em nice people, and Benoit and I hit it off pretty well, so we've been hanging out for a lot of the trip.
This morning we drove south from Delhi on the dusty road to Agra, some 200 kilometers away, stopping briefly on the way at a rest area of sorts while our driver had some paperwork taken care of. There we got to see some uniquely Indian entertainment: Two snake charmers with real live cobras in baskets(!), who ran right up to the car and began their act. It was really cool to see the snakes "sitting up" with their hoods flared inches in front of these guys, just like in the movies--of course, they weren't reacting to the flute playing, just following the side-to-side movement of the flute. Benoit was a little disappointed that they weren't "dancing," but I was just impressed at the fact that there were deadly snakes about! At one point one of the cobras actually struck out at the snake charmer, biting his robe just inches from his leg, but the guy was completely unfazed. I don't get it--I would be totally freaking out. The snake charmers also occasionally tapped the cobras on the heads to make them rear up, which is also something I don't think I'd attempt. Anyway, it was pretty interesting. Oh, and there was also a guy there with a couple of trained monkeys--well, they were trained to jump on our SUV and screech, at least.
After about three hours of driving we stopped outside of Agra at Sikandra, where we visited Akbar's Tomb. Who's Akbar, you ask? Well apparently he was the greatest of the Mughal emperors, and built a lot of stuff in his day (the 16th Century, I think). His tomb is an unusual and beautiful combination of Hindu, Muslim, and Persian architecture, built of sandstone and marble, and it sits in the middle of four symmetrical gardens filled with grazing deer or ibexes or something like that, which I thought added to its exotic-ness.
It was impressive, but not a patch on our next stop, the world-famous Taj Mahal. You all know about this one--"the world's greatest monument to love," "a teardrop on the face of eternity" and all that, built by the emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife Mumtaz Mahal. Between 1631 and 1653 over 20,000 people worked on the tomb, and amazingly enough, their descendants are still the ones who do repairs and maintenance on the place. And yes, it really is as beautiful as in the pictures. The white marble reflecting the harsh Indian sun makes the building really glow, and its perfect symmetry (it looks the same from all four sides) is simply stunning. We walked around the gardens, took the obligitory pictures in front of the tomb, and then walked inside, where under the main dome are "decoy" marble caskets of the emperor and his wife (for some reason, their actual coffins are under the floor, directly below the fake ones. Up close, I could see that there are huge Quran verses decorating the sides of the Taj, as well as delicate floral patterns all made of colorful inlaid stones (blue lapis lazuli, red coral, etc.).
Our last stop of the day was the Agra Fort, built by emperor Akbar in 1565 and continued by Shah Jahan. It's similar to Delhi's Red Fort in that it's a combined military structure and royal palace built of red sandstone, although I would have to say that this one is even more architecturally interesting and well-preserved. There are various imperial halls inside as well as a mosque, and part of the fort overlooks the Taj Mahal. In fact, Shah Jahan himself was imprisoned here for eight years by his own son--but at least his quarters overlooked his late wife's tomb. Man, what a view!
After an hour or so of poking around the fort, it was back to the car, where we drove a good 40 minutes outside Agra to our hotel, the Gulistan Tourist Complex. It's a fairly large courtyard-style hotel--not bad, really, but it seemed a little strange that it was in the middle of nowhere and we were apparently the only ones staying there! Making things a little more Twilight-Zone, the electricity kept cutting off, including while I was at dinner (and the only one in the restaurant). Everything went pitch black, and I had to just sit there in the dark with my vegetable biryani until they brought me a candle.
posted by John Kuge at 10:10 PM
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