The day after Pratima's wedding, I went on a guided bus tour of Agra. We went to Agra fort (seen below), the Taj Mahal, and made a stop in Mathura on the way back.
First up is Agra fort:
The fort was pretty amazing - nearly 450 years old, it is predominantly constructed from red sandstone. Much of the interior that we were allowed to see is green space now, which made for a nice contrast with the scene outside of the fort. The parts that we weren't allowed to see are apparently still being used by the Indian military.
Seeing the fort reminded me of the movie "Jodhaa Ackbar". Even though though the guide spoke hinglish, when he talked about the Rajputs and Moghuls, I at least had some minor clue what he was talking about (Aishwaria and Hrithik, right?).
After the fort, we were bused to a gift shop that was in cohoots with the tour (our guide rang up my purchases). Being white, a foreigner, and male, I was singled out to go to the "special" part of the shop, where they tried to sell me the real expensive stuff, that they don't waste their time trying to sell to their fellow countrymen. Needless to say, once again I proved to be a disappointment - no big ticket items were purchased.
After the shopping experience, we were buses to town for lunch, and then it was off to the Taj:
I actually wasn't expecting too much from the Taj Mahal, but I must admit that I was impressed. There is another fort that surrounds the Taj - not as big as Agra fort, but still impressive. It was a beautiful day, and there were a lot of people there. But yet, walking around the grounds surrounding the Taj, I wasn't bothered by the crowds.
To approach the Taj, you have to be barefoot. Alternatively, because I paid the grossly inflated foreigner price, I was given some booties that I could slip over my shoes. Which really came in handy, because the mid-afternoon sun made the marble quite hot.
Inside, there actually wasn't that much to see. And of course it was crowded, but it is a much tighter space, which made that more of an issue. But still, there were some impressive marble carvings to be seen on the inside. And the central dome is pretty amazing.
We were given 75 minutes to see the Taj, which included travel time from the parking lot to the gate, and time spent buying the ticket and going through security. When all was said and done, I had less than an hour. I would have liked a bit more time, but I was able to cover almost everything in that time.
Of course, I took a ton of pictures with my non-iPhone camera, so expect more after I get a chance to do some sorting and uploading.
Andy