Taj Mahal

Alex, Steve, Hyun and I left our hotel in Delhi at 7:30am to make the long drive to Agra (the city where the Taj Mahal is). It was supposed to take 4-5 hours. It took us about 6. There were two car accidents along the way and no optional side roads to take. So, we sat in halt-n-go traffic for over an hour. It was painful! It's not like when you get stuck in traffic on the highway in the US. There is constant honking (high-pitched horns and horns that will stay in your head for days), swerving in-between and around other cars, crowded rickshaws (there are 24 in the picture below...besides the 5 in the back, there were 7 on each of the 2 rows of seats inside and the other 5 in the front seat with the driver or hanging off the other side!), motorcycles, bicycles and huge over-loaded trailers (the second picture below - we saw some camels pulling these also).

Here is a taste of what the roadside looks like between Delhi and Agra (not too exciting...just some small towns and dilapidated country side):

We finally arrive in Agra around 1pm and check into our hotel - The Taj View. It is a nice hotel that has a view of the Taj Mahal from the rooms. We are starving by this time and take the suggestion of a nearby restaurant. It was not good. I think the only reason we went there was because the tour guides get some sort of bribe to send foreigners there. The ratio of foreigners to Indians was about 5 to 1 (mostly white people, except the Koreans I was with ). And there was entertainment provided by a father/son duo - a puppet show and singing and dancing. Just something to get a few rupees out of the foreigners!

It's now about 2pm - the hottest part of the day. Not only was it the hottest part of the day, but it was the HOTTEST day on record for April 29th. 46 degrees Celsius - that's about 115 degrees Fareinheit!!! I'm thankful I did not know this information at the time - we found out the next day. So we get out of our air-conditioned car and have to get into a rickshaw that will drive us closer to the entrance of the Taj Mahal. They do not allow cars within a certain distance (about 1 km) because they want to protect the white marble from the pollution. The rickshaw takes us about 1/2 km and then we have to get out and walk the remainder of the way.

Here it is! The Taj Mahal. It is so big that it looks like it's close. But, from where I'm standing to the entrance is about 1/4 mile.
Our tour guide for the day, Kenneth (an interesting name for a native Indian), told us the story of how the Taj came to be. Honestly, I was fading in and out of consiousness because of the heat, but I mananged to hold on to a few key facts:

• The Taj was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal (yes, it's actually a mausoleum). He loved her very much and she died while having their 14th child (I can't imagine!). Just before she died, she asked Shah Jahan to promise her 3 things - 1) don't marry again 2) take care of the children and 3) build something for her memory that all the world will come to see. So....he built the Taj Mahal
• The construction took 16 years. 1632 - 1648
• Mumtaz Mahal died in a different city and was buried there immediately after her death, so her body had to be moved to Agra and buried again twice (once in the garden outside the Taj Mahal, and then inside once it was completed). This is a big deal for the muslim religion because there is a belief that when someone dies, they should be buried within 10 days.
• The Taj Mahal complex consists of 3 red sandstone buildings on each side - a gateway building in the front that you walk thru to get to the Taj, and two identical buildings on either side of the Taj (one is a mosque and the other is not because it does not face towards the west). Here is a picture of one of the hallways inside the non-mosque building:

I cheated and took this video clip walking in. I forgot to take a video before I entered the "no video camera" area.

I am sitting on the "Princess Diana's Bench" in the picture below -- they call it that because she was photgraphed here when she visitied.

Seeing the Taj Mahal up close is even more impressive than looking at it from a distance. One of the reasons it took so long to build the structure is because of the intricate detail. Calligraphy consisting of passages from the Koran (the muslim bible), inlaid semi-precious stones, relief motifs (carvings), and abstract geometric design....just to name a few of the detailed decorations on the walls of the Taj Mahal. Absolutely amazing!

The huge size of the Taj can be demonstrated by this picture below. This is a stone replica showing the actual size of the point on top of the Taj Mahal -- it's big!

Here is me "grabbing" that tip:

On the way out of the Taj Mahal, while walking down the street to get back to the car, we passed one of the many cows that stroll down the streets in India. Only in INDIA!!!!!