Today was a fantastically awesome day! We woke up pretty early, and each took a lovely, hot shower in the luxurious bathroom. Priyanka even straightened her hair! After packing up our stuff we headed downstairs for the hotel’s buffet breakfast (which was included in our stay!). On the way downstairs I remarked to Priyanka that I would love to have some French toast for breakfast, but that I doubted that there would be French toast in the buffet. Lo and behold there was French toast! And lots of other goodies, including yogurt, fruit (fresh pomegranate and papaya!), and a made to order omlette bar! It was really yummy and satisfying.
After breakfast we met up with Lal and Amit for an early tour of the Taj Mahal. Visiting the Taj Mahal is one of the things I’d most been looking forward to about India, so I was super excited. The Taj Mahal was built in the mid 1600’s by Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It is said to be a testament to his love for her, and “a teardrop on the face of eternity”. The Taj Mahal took 22 years to build, and the gate that leads to its entrance has 22 domes on it to represent this time.
The Taj Mahal is a truly amazing structure. Neither words, nor photos can really describe it. Being there was really surreal – I just kept thinking to myself I can’t believe that I’m standing in front of the Taj Mahal in India! This is unbelievable! It was a pretty misty morning, and the mist combined with the smoke from the fires that people in Agra burn at night (to keep warm) made it hard to get a really good photo, but we took a bunch anyways. Amit knows all of the good photo spots around the Taj Mahal, so he showed us the best places for photos, and was nice enough to take some photos of us posing in front of it. We even got photos on the famous “Diana Bench” where Princess Diana once sat.
When we got closer to the building we could see exactly how ornate and intricately decorated it is. It is exactly symmetrical, even down to the fact that there is a Mosque on one side of the Taj, and an identical guest house on the other. The whole thing is made of white marble, and there are carvings and inlaid stone work everywhere. You have to take off your shoes (or wear shoe covers) to enter the Taj Mahal, so everything is really clean. Inside the actual building you can see the area where Mumtaz Mahal (and Shah Jahan – who actually wanted to be buried in a matching black Mahal across the river which was never completed) are buried. You can’t go down to where the actual graves are, but there are stone casket type things in the center of the building (and I’m assuming they’re buried deep beneath those). The inside is totally ornately decorated with inlaid stone work. Its pretty amazing – some of the stones are very translucent, so if you shine a light at them they light up like crazy. It is very beautiful!
Amit showed us all around the building, and told us of the tradition where when newly married couples come to the Taj Mahal, the husband is supposed to carry the wife around the building seven times, which is supposed to bring good things to their marriage. I guess this brought us to the topic of marriage, because he started joking with me that I should marry him, and that he’d carry me around the Taj 7 times. Priyanka mentioned that my father had given her strict instructions not to let me get married off to anyone while in India, and Amit found this hilarious. He proceeded to offer me a dowry including several elephants, cows and goats to help win my father over. It was pretty funny J
We spent a little bit longer wandering around the grounds and just breathing in the beauty of the Taj Mahal. Soon it was time to get going though, and head out to Jaipur. This meant it was time to say goodbye to Amit, which was sad, because he really was an excellent tour guide.
On our way to Jaipur, we stopped at Fatehpur Sikri, a former capital, built by Akbar in the 1500s. The “city” was only used for a few years before Akbar left to deal with military issues in a different part of the country. At Fatehpur Sikri we got a different guide, who definitely didn’t meet up to the high standards set by Amit, but was informative all the same. Our tour was pretty quick, because it was going to be a long trip to Jaipur. The coolest thing about Fatehpur Sikri was that Akbar had built three different palaces for each of his three wives (one Muslim, one Christian and one Hindu). Each of the different palaces is totally different and reflects each wife’s religion. The Hindu wife was Akbar’s favourite, because she bore a son, and her palace is probably 10 times as big as the other two. After finishing up Fatehpur Sikri in record time (our guide was a speedy fellow! I could hardly keep up with him), we took a quick look at the Buland Darwaza, the highest gate in Asia, before heading back to the car.
After a quick lunch stop, we arrived in Jaipur at about 6pm. Our hotel here is comfortable enough, although nothing special compared to last night’s wonderful hotel. We were pleased to find out that there is a rooftop restaurant here with a cultural show of dancing, singing and puppetry. This is where we decided to have dinner. The food itself wasn’t that exciting but the show was really neat. The dancers were dressed so vividly and were very talented. The one dancer danced first with a pot of fire balanced on her head, and then with 5 clay pots on her head. It was amazing. My favourite part though, was the fire breather/eater. I couldn’t believe that he could blow such a huge stream of fire into the air without burning himself! It was amazing! The only thing that ended up being slightly awkard was at the end of the show when the performers all stood in the middle of the stage waiting for people to come and tip them. We hadn’t been planning on tipping, but they stood in front of our table staring at us until we finally pulled out some money. It was weird.
It seems that our hotel is a mecca for newlyweds – there were several honeymooners sitting at the tables around us. The couple sitting at the table behind us had checked in just after us, earlier in the evening, and were so sweet together. They asked me to take a photo of them, which of course I was happy to do. They were so cute – the girl seemed a little bit shy and timid, and they both seemed so happy and in love J
Now we are back in our room and settling down for the evening. It has been a very busy couple of days (and some very early mornings) so we’re hoping to get a get an early night in today so that we’re nice and fresh for tomorrow!
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