Awesome Agra!

After another great breakfast in Delhi it was off on the road to Agra with Ashok showing his usual skills at getting through any traffic at will! The sights on the road to Agra were fascinating and me and Sue barely spoke as there was so much to see. Overloaded motor bikes and taxis were the order of the day!

6 on here - you cannot see the baby on her lap!

You could actually get more than this on here using the roof- it was done!

What me - pay for delivery? No chance!

Camels abounded - used mainly by construction with donkeys.

Going into Agra the roads were shocking and busy - cue loads of tooting horns! The Howard Park Plaza in Agra was a great hotel. Not as swish as the others maybe but great food and so cheap too! Also my favourite because it was cheek by jowl with real India and two minutes walk from the backstreets of Agra. Armed only with my 50mm lens I went out to see what I could see and was bowled over with how friendly people were. Street hairdressers, sellers and kids were gracious in letting me shoot them with only one kid asking for rupees in exchange. I`d gone out without wallet / pens or anything other than camera so was not even able to offer anything and felt guilty. Kids were playing street games and teasing the water buffalo grazing on rubbish strewn side streets. So many people, so many children and so much plastic rubbish strewn around. One thing I could never understand was how the water buffalo were left to wander in and out of traffic and to graze on rubbish. They were taken to the river each day I was told to maximise milk output but the bulls belonged to no-one and were allowed to wander at will. Ashok nearly took one out on the drive!

Kids surrounded me all eager to have their shots taken and see the results.

Laid back selling.

In the back lanes.

Street food - no I did not have the bottle!

Street barbers everywhere.

Great colourful shops

Fantastic fruit stalls

Weighing nuts

Corner shop

On the streets he is king

Gorgeous family whose shopkeeper father told them to pose for me

Great colourful houses despite the poverty and squalor

Grazing in the streets

Of course next morning it was time for the tourism bit. Morning fog reversed our plan and we started at Agra Fort. So impressive not just for it`s defence structures but the exquisite carving work using marble and sandstone with such limited tools at the time. Emperor Shah Jahan was imprisoned here for the last 7/8 years of his life by his own son - who killed his three older brothers too to acquire the throne. Shah Jahan was forced to watch from a distance the fulfilment of his life`s dream - the building of the Taj Mahal in memory of his beloved wife who had requested it on her death bed. I`ve told Sue I`ll put up a bench in the park in her memory! ;-)

Red fort in the mists

Beautiful artwork

Transparent carved marble

The rulers portable 2 ton bath that went o his travels with him!

A drive to the little Taj - a smaller version of the great Taj Mahal ( which they all called Mahel) which they used to practice new techniques such as the great dome structure. Going through the main gateway and seeing this little gem was magical and a taste of what was to come with the main attraction.

Lattice work in marble

From above structure you could see the birds on the river

and the water buffalo down for bathing / drinking.

 

From there it was on to the Taj Mahal - pausing on the roads to catch shots of the buffalo and monkeys which abound here. Cheeky little things that are fed by locals but steal anything they can so keep possessions close!

 

The Taj Mahal - magical, astounding and so much bigger than we imagined. The queue for the Lady Di marble bench seat was long and made worse by the local photographers shooting every client in at least 6/7 positions a time. Guide JP took ours and we were able to move on and see the wonder that is the Taj mahal. The Mughals perfected the art of embedding semi-precious stones into marble and the Taj is the finest example of this. The jewels are sliced paper thin and embedded in the marble with such precision that the joints are invisible to the naked eye and the piece smooth to the touch. Local craftsmen still do that work now.

22 of those domes on top - one for each year it took to build

Our guide for today - JP who proudly told us he lived in one of the colonial bungalows with grounds as his father was senior in the army and was able to buy one. Known as cantonments and with over 70 such "camps" across India these are seen as valuable properties with up to 6 acres of land attached.

We loved it at the Taj! 



After another great evening meal it was an earlyish start for Jaipur which I`ll tell you about soon.