A weekend in Agra

Off on our 1st weekend getaway to Agra. Our train left New Delhi Station at about 17h30 on Friday and we arrived in Agra at about 20h00. Booking train tickets online took a few hours over a few days because the booking system is pretty complex but now we have a very good understanding of India Rail (Footnote...these are the kinds of things that I am doing when I do not do a blog for a day Ros!). The booking process probably should have prepared me for the station experience but here, words fail me. Pictures also don’t give a true reflection as they just can’t capture the heat, the crowding and the smells. Hectic! Our hotel in Agra was really nice. You can see some pics on this link: http://www.itcwelcomgroup.in/Hotels/itcmughal.aspx

For Doug’s birthday, I booked us both a massage in the Couples Therapy room (pictured in the link) and it was really awesome. I doubt I will ever find a spa that will match up to this. I was brought out of the reverie of my massage to the sweet sounds of Doug’s snoring! The therapist and I had a good chuckle.

Agra itself relies mostly on tourism and it is a poorer area than Delhi. Once out of the main town it is mostly rural. We spent our 1st day visiting Fatehpur Sikri which is a ruin of a walled city built by Mughal Emperor Akbar in 1571. The North of India changed hands several times between Local Hindu inhabitants, Muslim Sultans and Mughal Emporors. They were a restless bunch! Today the areas that the invaders came from are still volatile (Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan). Mughals came from Turkestan/ Persia and were of the same origins as Ghengis Khan. Fatehpur Sikri was eventually deserted when their water source dried up. It is also a World Heritage Site. Emperor Akbar was a very popular ruler because he was religiously tolerant. He ruled from the age of 13. He had 3 wives; a Muslim, a Portuguese catholic and a hindu....so quite a brave guy! We enjoyed hearing about his antics so much that we went out and bought a DVD about his life! The trip out to Fatehpur Sikri is about 40km through mostly rural areas. Traffic was interesting. (Seperate transport blog to follow)

We saw several wedding parties. Hindu lower castes use these chariots that take the bride & groom to their festivities and are very decorative and colourful.

Sunday morning we were up bright & early for trip to the Taj Mahal. It is best viewed at Dawn and Dusk because the marble catches the light at these times making it change colour – a bit like mother of pearl. We were there at about 6h30am. It was only about 5 minutes from the hotel. The Taj Mahal is one of the Wonders of the World and it is really, really beautiful. This tomb was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (descendant of Akbar) in memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Mumtaz died in child labour giving birth to their 14th child!
The Taj Mahal was constructed using materials from all over India and Asia and over 1,000 elephants were used to transport building materials. The translucent white marble was brought from Rajasthan, the jasper from Punjab, jade and crystal from China. The turquoise was from Tibet and the Lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, while the sapphire came from Sri Lanka and the carnelian from Arabia. In all, twenty eight types of precious and semi-precious stones were inlaid into the white marble using a labour force of twenty thousand workers.

Later in the day we went to the Red Fort. This is a fort and various palaces built by Akbar in red sandstone before his move to Fatehpur Sikri. Subsequent rulers built on to the original building. Shah Jahan’s palace was built on in his favourite white marble. He later built the Taj Mahal and it can be viewed from his bedroom window at the Red Fort. Shah Jahan built a replica of the Red Fort in Delhi during his reign. Every evening at the one in Delhi, they have a light show and re-enact, in costume, scenes from that era). Just waiting for Tristan to get here before doing this.
Ate in a local establishment just before we boarded the train back...nervously waited for the onslaught of the dreaded Delhi Belly but ...so far, so good!

Qutb Minar

So...last blog covered a bit about the Hindu population...today off to see Qutb Minar and explore some of the Muslim culture in India. Qutb Minar is a minaret (A tall slender tower attached to a mosque which has one or more projecting balconies from which a muezzin summons the people to prayer.) and it is named after Qutb-ud-din Aibak who was the 1st Sultan of Delhi – ie he was the 1st Muslim ruler of Delhi. He started building it in 1193 just after defeating the last Hindu kingdom in Delhi. The minaret is 73m high and is really impressive. It was not finished in his lifetime. He started building the adjacent mosque at the same time. It was built on the foundations of a Hindu temple and on the gate there is an inscription that tells you it was built from the material of 27 demolished idolatrous temples. Columns from these temples can be seen inside the mosque. Only parts of the Mosque are still in place but it is now a World Heritage sight and quite a lot of restoration work is in progress. It was quite a hot day and because I was going to a mosque, I needed to wear long pants (legs and head need to be covered). Needless to say, beween my attire and the headphones I was wearing for tourist info, I was also part of the attraction and several locals wanted a pic with me
Later, dinner at our apartment cooked by Raj & David – they looked after us during our stay there. Could not even lift a hand to make a cup of coffee. Raj is the smiley one and he is from Nepal. David could not speak a word of English!