Agra: Day 2

January 8, 2010

For our second day in agra we wanted to hit as much as we could in the time that we had remaining, so we started nice and early and headed out to the first location. It was really funny because the whole time Norbert had been functioning as our tour guide. Everywhere we went there were locals who, a la Slumdog Millionaire, offered to give us tours and who probably had NO idea what they were talking about. They were super persistent everywhere that we went, but this day was the absolute worst.

It started with a group of touts (that's what they're called) at the first palace we visited who tried to get us to pay one of them to guide us around. By now we were familiar with the drill and explained that Norbert was our guide. However, these guys tried to pull a fast one on us: they informed us that no less than the Supreme Court of India had made it illegal for any foreigner to lead tours. This was (obviously) a heaping pile of drivel, but you have to admire the way they really tried haha.

It was amazing that (at least for the first part of the trip and excepting the Taj Mahal) every place that we visited was just more and more impressive. We visited site after site and were continually just blown away by what was built there.

This is the center of a room that is supposedly where the Mughal Emperor would sit and place representatives from four different religions in the corners. The five of them would have religious debates. A pretty cool legend even if that's not what they really used the room for (there's not really proof either way).

One of my favorite things of the trip: this may not look like much, but it's actually a life-size Parcheesi board! (for those of you that don't know, Parcheesi is a board game that's basically the grown-up version of Sorry! or Trouble!) The Mughal emporer and whoever he played against would use their servants as pieces and make them walk around the board to represent the pieces. SO ridiculous haha

I had just discovered the "macro" setting on this camera, so I made sure to get some up close and personal shots of the intricate carvings-keep in mind that this is all carved into rock. Pretty darn impressive.

I just can't even wrap my brain around how much time carving this would take!

Patterns everywhere.

As you can tell from the pictures, I can say with confidence that this was definitely the foggiest day of the trip. You could barely see across courtyards to the other side of the complex.

Some pretty cool fortifications-I like how the tower kinda melts into the fog.

The carvings on either side of the gates used to be elephants (I think...either that or some sort of griffen things...)

We visited the big mosque in Agra and were surprised to find a Suffi shrine inside the mosque. Pretty trippy (but cool).

The touts here were vicious. When we walked into the mosque they very quickly and efficiently managed to cut us off from one another and work on us one by one. They had a good cover story too: when I told mine that I didn't need a tour guide and wasn't going to pay him anything he said that he was a volunteer and had worked at the mosque for the past ten years or something like that. I felt like a terrible person for assuming he had an angle but basically kept alternating between ignoring him, telling him to leave me alone, and simply saying "jao" (which means "go" in Hindi). He finally wandered off in search of easier prey and I got away. Not everyone was so lucky.

Various members of our group were pestered for money and basically dragged to the gift shop (which they referred to as a "family carvings store"). I guess it wouldn't have been so upsetting if 1) we hadn't been dealing with it for the whole day and 2) it hadn't been in a mosque. I mean, that's like someone trying to sell you car insurance in a church. Totally irreverent and just annoying. But whatever-we made it out of there eventually and weren't too much worse for wear (just frustrated).

I loved the pool that was in the middle of the courtyard. Definitely added to the whole atmosphere.

The Red Fort in Agra. This isn't even the main gate. Cool factoid: most of the ancient Mughal fortifications are still army bases used by the Indian military. So the main gate is off-limits and the majority of this fort is closed off to the general public. But they still let you see some of it :)

Can't really explain why I liked this photo...just did!

One of the huge wooden doors. Kinda unremarkable until...

You get a good look at all the carving on it!

The platform in the middle of the picture here is where the Mughal emperor would appear every morning to crowds of thousands of people who all got together and waited for him to show up. If he did, everything was ok. If he didn't, then something was seriously wrong. Kinda like a perpetual groundhog's day...lol

Couldn't stop taking pictures of hallways and arches and (especially) hallways with arches.

During all the travel time during the day I read my second book in two days: The Great Partition by Yasmin Khan.

That night we went to the train station and got ready for a twelve or so hour train-ride to Lucknow. They were sleeper cars, so it's not like we were stuck in chairs the whole time or anything. The train was nice and late: it was expected at either 10 or 11 pm, but we didn't get on our way until about 3 am! That's not so bad though-we heard people talking about a train that was delayed 72 hours... (I don't even know how that's possible... =P)

And so we were on our way to Lucknow...which most of the people would identify as the "lowlight" of the trip. Me? I didn't think it was so bad. But there were definitely some fun circumstances that we had to deal with during our days in Lucknow. So tomorrow: getting to Lucknow! The MOST annoying guy on a cell phone ever. Settling into our accommodations at Lucknow University...and not being too excited about it... And, as always, delicious food!