We get to Agra, find a rickshaw and we're carted off to the Taj Mahal. Even though we didn't have a tour guide, because we were (obviously) foreign, we were allowed to go into a different line and get in faster. (Woo hoo!) That was nice albeit a little unfair, but I didn't feel too badly since our foreign ticket to the Taj literally cost 25 times more than theirs. (As in our ticket was about $10 while theirs was around $0.50) Especially for two people who had been living on Indian prices for a few months, this was SUCH a sticker shock. We thought Jaipur was a rip off... Agra tops it by FAR.
So we go into the complex and man. It is SO worth it. If you go to New Delhi and have some spare time make time to go to see the Taj Mahal. We had seen some amazing things at that point (like the Golden Temple for instance) but it really paled in comparison to the Taj. There was just this feeling on the structure. It was so peaceful and always fun to look at. We spent 2 1/2 hours at the complex. There really isn't much there. It's just the tomb and then a few auxiliary tombs/buildings.
One of the first views of the Taj
An auxiliary building
Woohoo! We were there! Although no one can really take a good picture... We had a few Indians, a British couple and some Asian tourists help to take pictures of us and not ONE of them was able to get us in the picture with the whole Taj as well...
Gorgeous!
Yay for getting there early and avoiding a lot of the crowd!
So while the Taj is gorgeous from afar, some of the real beauty can be found in the little details.
The Taj is white marble, while all of the decorations are also stone that has been inlaid into the building. This part has some quotations from the Qur'an and Arabic calligraphy.
A closeup of the inlaid stones, so pretty!
Some of the flower decorations around the structure
This is kinda hard to see, but it is a picture looking up at this archway. It was SO incredibly intricate. Not only was it in the shape of an arch but there were also stars carved within the crenelated pattern of the marble. Drew and I sat here and just stared up for a good 20 minutes trying to figure it out. It's amazing what you focus on when you're exhausted huh? And it's amazing. :)
View of the Taj Complex looking from the platform in front of the Taj. I thought it was a cool pic.
After seeing the Taj Mahal, we decided to go see Agra Fort. It was after all on the list of things to see when in Agra. So we get there and it's fun. But at this point Drew and I have seen a few forts and palaces and it really wasn't as new and fun as I thought it would be. It was still worth the trip, but not as appreciated. I also was to my crashing point so exhaustion played a key role in visiting the place.
Agra Fort!
We go up through the entryway into the entrance (it's a little convoluted) and we reach a really cool and intricate archway. I thought it was pretty neat and showed some really classic Mughal influences on the architecture.
Peaked arch? Check. Geometric designs? Check. Natural color scheme? Check. Star of David? Check? (It was also an Islamic symbol since David is a prophet and also it is seen as a seal of Solomon, also a revered prophet in Islam)
After walking around for a bit and exploring the different areas I needed to sit. So we went to a courtyard and chilled while we watched the crowds of people and admired the architecture.
Awesome courtyard.
I could tell that I was getting to my crashing point, but a. we're in Agra! and b. our train didn't leave until like 6 pm... and it was like 1 pm... So we kept going a little at a time. Taking pictures comes in handy since that's a great excuse to sit down.
Luckily I wasn't the only person who was sitting around different parts of the complex.
Love this picture.
Yeah, I got to the point where I just couldn't go anymore. But we had only seen like half of the structure! So Drew and I went off to a little alcove and he sat down while I layed on his lap. Man, I was out in like a minute. I am the LIGHTEST sleeper and yet I just crashed. I was apparently out for like a good 30-45 minutes. I was just so dang tired from traveling all over India on less than adequate amounts of sleep. When I finally woke up, I felt better but I could tell that I was done for the rest of the day. So Drew was very kind and understood and we decided to speed through the rest of the fort and then head back to the train station.
We get to the train station (to the chagrin of our auto driver- he wanted to show us around a shopping area) and I crash again. We went into the visitor's lounge and I just slept for another hour. However, at this point I had slept enough to be awake, but not enough to fully recover. So I couldn't fall asleep but I was dead tired. So Drew and I had fun exploring the train station. I realize that until this point I hadn't really taken many pictures of train stations, despite having been in like 8 of them.
The Station sign and a train
It's not too much to look at. We kept exploring and eventually ran into one of Agra's more permanent residents:
You can't really tell but he's quite large and I wasn't too keen on getting closer to a monkey while tired.
Our train finally came and we got on and I passed out again. We just went straight back to the Hotel. I can't even remember if we did anything for dinner that night. We probably did something small from room service. Either way, I was done. It had been such a rough experience for the past few days, wonderful, but exhausting. I was finally in a nice comfy bed in a nice hotel. :)
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