Day 15: Day Trip to Agra (home of the Taj Mahal)

(Sunday, Feb 13)

The Taj Mahal
Sim, Price, and I started our day at 6:30am, the drive to Agra was about 4 hours. Not far from the Taj Mahal we met our tour guide Biki. You are not allowed to drive cars near the Taj because of pollution, instead you need take an electric bus, camel carriage, or rick shaw. We played it safe with the electric bus…couldn’t imagine riding behind a camel would smell too good.

Biki was not as excellent a tour guide as Jai. In fact, Biki was a bit annoying but he did know his way around Agra and got us to head of any lines. He cracked Sim and I up because it was very clear he had a mental script that began at certain points during the walk up to the Taj. For example, once he reached 300 feet away he said “from here you can admire….the Taj was built by….if you notice…” and if you interrupted him, he would repeat the last sentence he said and pick up from there! I think Sim got a kick out of interrupting him. The main reason we weren’t too pleased with him at times was that he never shut up! The Taj Mahal is beautiful…I just wanted to stare at it without listening.

My brother Shawn said there were too many pictures of the Taj Mahal within my online album and it was boring…perhaps the beauty is not captured by photographs well…but it was striking.

A Day of Weddings and Peace Rallies
February 13th was a very popular day to get married! We saw at least 10 wedding processionals between Agra and Delhi…and get this, the party/reception happens first. The groom doesn’t show up until the evening (he arrives on a mare, always a mare) and when he finally shows up, the actually ceremony occurs, but usually by this time most people have eaten, danced, and left…so only the immediate family sticks around for the ceremony.