We got up
at 5 am and left the hotel, with our “breakfast to go” care package, by 6.
Traffic was quiet at that time so we made relatively good time to get out of
the city. The Taj Mahal is located in Agra, about 250 km away, but even though
the distance doesn’t seem that big, it’s still a 4½ h drive to get there. The
drive was interesting, going through the country side, seeing their fields
where they grow … something, where they have brick production (by hand), and
where they walk to the local market to sell their fruits and veggies. Again, we
encountered all sort of traffic on the road, not necessarily in the sense of
quantity, but more in the sense of quality. We saw again all the same mode of
transportations mentioned in yesterday’s entry, plus we saw pigs walking along
the road, as well as monkeys and goats. The
villages and cities that we drove through were all very dirty by our standards.
It also looked very poor!
We finally
got to Agra at around 10:30, where we met up with our guide (arranged through
our driver). We went to the Taj Mahal and were very impressed by what we saw.
It is amazing. A mausoleum built by 20,000 men, over a span of 22 years, working 24/7, in
the early 1600’s. It is magnificient! We walked around the gardens, went into
the mausoleum as such, took many pictures, then headed back to Jaipur. It was
probably the one thing we wanted to see in India, and it was worth it!
We got back
to the hotel by about 7pm, had dinner and called it a day. So far, this trip is
a lot of fun and very interesting, but not too restful. I guess we’ll sleep
when we go back to Muscat!
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| All their trucks are decorated like this - kinda cool! |
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| Most people going straight, except for that little thing trying to cut across |
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| One of the 4 entry gates to the Taj Mahal |
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| The sign says it all! |
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| The Taj Mahal |
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| This is not a photographic backdrop; we are there! |
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| Lady Diana sat on this same bench, years ago. |
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| You cannot walk with shoes inside the mauseleum - so you must wear bootties over your shoes |
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| Entrance to the mauseleum |
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| Street vendors, back in the city of Agra |
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| A carpet salesman explaining how they are made (the carpets, not the salesman!) |
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