Agra – a place you feel almost obliged to go to when visiting India; and if it wasn’t for the Taj Mahal,  one I’m sure most would miss, but there is more to see than the Taj – like another Fort!  Our time here was…well, interesting. It got off to a bit of a shaky start though…

Our afternoon train from Jaipur to Agra departed at 5pm and was scheduled to arrive at 9:30pm, but ran almost an hour late – although some people we spoke to said their trains ran over four or more hours late!  Our delay was further exacerbated by arguments between the local rickshaw drivers as to whose turn it was to transport the ‘wealthy’ (yeah, right) foreigners.

Agra has the reputation of notorious touts and scamsters and with one man blocking the way of our autorickshaw and then saying he would have to call the police due to the driver acting out of turn, we weren’t sure whether this was yet another scam. But it was late, dark and cold and I was in no mood to be delayed further so after about 10 minutes sitting crammed into the auto rickshaw with our bags balancing on our laps and listening to arguments between the local drivers and nobody telling us what was going on I had had enough. Cool, calm and collected I was not.

With David packed in the back seat under baggage and children, I leaned on the horn to get their attention (this sound is nothing unusual here though), so then I climbed out of the auto rickshaw and, moving in really close to the man blocking our way, preceded to totally lose it by saying something along the lines of, “Listen here buddy, I have had a really long day, our train was late and I have got two kids back there that I want to get to bed. If you don’t move out of the way RIGHT NOW, I will start getting REALLY angry” (I may also have peppered it with a few choice words that I won’t repeat here…). Frankly, I think I scared the hell out of the man. He backed down, not wanting to deal with some screaming banshee and thus let us go on our merry way, this time with two Indian men at the wheel.

The drive to our accommodation, Greens Heritage Homestay, was surreal: the fog and smog was like pea soup. With not much traffic on the roads I don’t mind admitting this is the first time I feel a bit nervous as we seem to be heading along quite deserted roads.  Karma and all, is my ‘losing it’ going to come back and bite me? But after a few wrong turns, two stops to further ask directions we finally arrived at 11:30pm on the Thursday night with the driver announcing our arrival by beeping his horn all the way up the driveway! I try to shush him up by telling him I am sure there are other guests who are trying to sleep, he just looks at me and smiles. OMG – India can be infuriating sometimes!

Our original plan had been to get up early and visit the Taj Mahal at sunrise (Friday), then catch the 6:00am train on Saturday morning to Delhi. Well, of course this plan was dashed when I had double checked what day the Taj was closed only to find it was Fridays!! I felt relieved too though as I really couldn’t see us getting up so early two mornings in a row after our late arrival and I was confident that we could work something out.   The next morning we shared our concerns with our host, Mr Singh, a respected member of the local Sikh community, and he was only too pleased to assist. Some arrangements were made for a car and driver to transport us to the other notable local attractions that afternoon and then return the next morning, Saturday, to take us to the Taj and onward to New Delhi instead of utilising the train tickets we had bought and again for not much more. Sorted!

We departed the guesthouse at about lunchtime and headed first to Agra Fort. Although 50% of the fort is still occupied by the military, the more historical areas of the fort is accessible to tourists beginning with an impressive moat and our first fort with a real drawbridge!  Roughly semi-circular in shape and bordered by the river on one side, the fort makes use of an arc shaped moat and thick stone walls. First records of the fort date back 1000 years and like most seats of power in India the fort has a colourful history including a prosperous period when it contained a large amount of treasure.

In its heyday, the palace within the fort employed a complicated mechanical system to lift water from the nearby river and store it in rooftop water tanks. This water was in turn were used to run fountains, water features, and an early type of airconditioning inside the palace. Underground apartments were used to store the treasure, house the King’s personal bodyguards and the Harem. The king held daily morning meetings with the cities leaders and officials in a pavilion attached to the palace. The Fort is immense at over 94 acres and  can be described as a walled city, it has huge double ramparts with massive circular bastions at intervals, battlements and an interesting mix of Hindu and Islamic architecture and also where we had our first glimpse of the Taj Mahal, only two and a half kilometres away.

One the way to our next stop, we went via by the train station to cancel the train tickets for the following morning. Although we lost some money in cancellation fees, we no doubt would have made four people on the waitlist happy! Then to the Tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulahor better known as as the ‘Baby Taj’.  Built in 1622-1628 it too is a mausoleum and inside it is white marble and pietra dura inlay – beautiful detail and colour, that you don’t see until you are up close. If any mausoleum can be described as cute – then it would be this one. Once again Immi was accosted on the way out by camera-toting tourists all wanting her picture.

Our final stop was to the riverbank directly opposite the back of the real Taj Mahal.  Mr Singh had suggested we take in this alternate view of the famous structure which is best seen during the afternoon. Early morning and afternoon sun through the smog provides some interesting lighting effects and the changing colours make for some good photography.  We watched as a group of women walked across the dry riverbank toward us, their vibrant orange and red sari’s contrasted with the white of the sand and Taj.

After the afternoon of sightseeing, we enjoyed a home cooked meal at our homestay. During our stay, we also enjoyed some very interesting chats with our host Mr Singh.  Sikh’s make up less than 2% of the population in India with most being in the north as Punjab is their historical homeland. They are easily identifiable by their turbans and although Sikhism and Hinduism share many common views like karma and rebirth they also have some very different beliefs like only believing in one God and not believing in miracles.

Mr Singh was only too pleased to describe in detail how he went about finding a groom and arranging the marriage for his 26yo daughter. The wedding album came out over cups of tea and he spent some time explaining the marriage rituals which span several days. The groom was already living and working in Melbourne, and his family had advertised his availability in the classifieds of an Indian newspaper, which is where Mr Singh came across the advertisement. The groom returned to his family home in India for interviews with potential father-in-laws and the subsequent nuptials. The happy couple have now returned to Melbourne where Mr Singhs daughter has a job working as a teacher. Mr Singh and his wife plan to visit Australia for the first time soon as they have heard many stories about our wonderful country.

Our final day in Agra and visit to the Taj Mahal began with an early morning alarm and our driver collected us just after 6:30am for the short ride to the Taj Mahal ticket office. We agreed he would return after two and a half hours in order to take us back to the homestay for breakfast and still depart mid-morning for Delhi.

The first rays of sun were trying hard to break through the smog as we purchased our tickets and joined the end of the queues to pass through security. Indian segregation reared its head as there were four lines to join; local women (who pay just 20 Rupees or .35c per ticket), foreign women (who pay 750 rupees or $14), local men and foreign men priced the same as the women. Closer to the gate, the four queues became two (just men and women) and the women’s line entered a small screened area where a female security officer could conduct pat downs.

The men’s line progressed quickly and David was soon through all the security and waiting with the other gents. The women’s queue took the best part of 45 minutes and then for the first time in our travels Immi’s Scruffy Bag, that just comes with us everywhere, caught the attention of the security officers who advised Scruffy would not be allowed to visit the Taj Mahal. Immi was beside herself as Scruffy was passed from one security officer to another and then a senior officer was called over.  Immi was distraught and dissolved into tears and upon seeing this, the officer bent down held her face in his hands and told her not to cry and said Scruffy could stay with her provided it stayed inside the bag. Phew!!

By this time, the sun was well and truly up and the crowds were rapidly growing. Having wasted so much of our time just getting through security, we made our way through the Western gate for our first glimpse of this Wonder of the World that captures everyone’s heart and is responsible for bringing millions of tourists to India annually.

The Taj was built by Shah Jehan and completed around 1653 employing thousands of artisans and craftsmen. A monument dedicated to his beloved third wife who died during the birth of their 14^th child (well, gee what a surprise! We think she deserves a monument for that effort!). It really is the most magnificent symmetrical building, with arched doorways and topped by the spectacular marble dome and is now universally known as a monument to love.  Was it a coincidence that the day we went it was my Mum and Dad’s 50^th Wedding anniversary? Happy Anniversary Mum and Dad!

We walked the paths through the gardens heading up to the monument stopping for some snaps along the way. Slipping on the mandatory shoe covers, we walked up the final steps to gaze in wonder at the intricate bas reliefs of flowers and vines, stone inlays, tessellated patterns of tiles, herringbone inlays and geometric forms.

The Taj Mahal certainly is a beautiful building. The colour of the gleaming white marble appears to change during the day as the sun makes its way across the sky and the smog adds an orange hue. Again we were approached by other tourists (usually Indians) who wanted photos of the girls, especially Immi. We are also used to just being stared at now. While we usually try to accommodate these requests the girls were getting tired of it and it was also cutting into our time, so we had to start saying a polite ‘no’.

After more than an hour of wandering around the Taj and the gardens, we made our way back out the gate and met up with our driver and headed back to the guesthouse for breakfast. The driver waited while we finished packing our bags and we were ready for our final road trip to Delhi.

We were on the road by 10.30am battling the usual heavy traffic through Agra city. Once on the highway the traffic flowed more smoothly only punctuated by the usual goat herds or tractors dragging concrete power poles along the road – what the??. Surprisingly, we had seen very few car accidents in India up until this time, however during our seven hour journey to Delhi, we passed four truck accidents.

As we entered the outskirts of Delhi, the amount of traffic became insane. After several stops to ask for directions, we eventually located our hotel at 5.30pm, taking the best part of two hours just to make it across the city.

Delhi is one huge dirty place. Everything is coated with dust, visibility would be not more than 3kms, and a lot of the population chew the betel nut and are constantly spitting red juice. Like everywhere else in India, there are no garbage bins and rubbish is simply dropped onto the street or footpath. We stayed here for two nights, just long enough to get some laundry done and venture out to the Karol Bagh street markets to look for warm clothes for the next leg of our trip. We found thermal underwear, socks and new (cheap) boots for the girls and binned their canvas sandshoes that had served them well over the last three months.

Arriving at New Delhi airport the next morning (probably upgraded for the recent Commonwealth Games), there was very tight security and we couldn’t even enter the doors of the airport without producing a flight itinerary. As we didn’t have a paper copy, the airline had provided security with a list of passengers for the day and our name is dutifully checked off by the security guard and we were allowed inside.

As I wrote in response to a comment; India is crazy, mesmerising, infuriating, colourful, friendly, wondrous, filthy and surprising.  It takes your breath away one moment and leaves you struggling for breath the next…

So leaving India brought on mixed feelings; relief that we had made it through our time relatively unscathed with only one bout of gastro among us, pride that we had managed to enjoy most of the six weeks here (as a certain member of DIPS wasn’t so keen at including India on our itinerary);  … and gratitude that we are all healthy, safe and still excited about what lies ahead…

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy