Feb 19
The 5 and 1/2 hr drive to Agra was crazy! My driver, whose driving I am confident of, will be with me for 12 days. We weaved in and out of overcrowded buses, motor rickshaws made for 4 passengers with up to 10 people (they use them like we use taxis), bicycles, bicycle rickshaws carrying huge amt of weight in cargo (sometimes carrying a whole family), motorcycles, pedestrians, cars, trucks, and even bull and ox driven carts. There was dirt and dust everywhere.
The 5 and 1/2 hr drive to Agra was crazy! My driver, whose driving I am confident of, will be with me for 12 days. We weaved in and out of overcrowded buses, motor rickshaws made for 4 passengers with up to 10 people (they use them like we use taxis), bicycles, bicycle rickshaws carrying huge amt of weight in cargo (sometimes carrying a whole family), motorcycles, pedestrians, cars, trucks, and even bull and ox driven carts. There was dirt and dust everywhere.
Along the way I saw a brick factory, oil refinery, and huge fields planted with mustard, wheat, and sugar cane. Vegetables including eggplant, califlower, cabbage, tomatoes, potatoes, peas, corn, and the best tasting rose colored carrots are also grown. Grapes, apples, bananas, and papaya are offered at every stand. . At the restaurants, mushrooms, brockley, and asperagus is also available. Animal dung is made into flat, round cakes, dried in the sun, and stored in large piles under grass huts for use in the rainy season for cooking fuel and fertilizer (dung cakes).
At the hotel I am greeted by my guide and take a horse drawn carriage through the congested narrow lanes of the old city. Again there is the constant noise (the horn blowing never stops) and movement of goods, people and animals. We walk through even narrower lanes of shops, where most shop owners wait and recieve customers sitting on the floor. This is a wholesale market and there is a flurry of buying and delivering of goods. On most of the streets I am concerned about getting bumped into by one of the many chaotic moving modes of transportation. Most stalls offer a specific and limited variety of goods, with certain streets offering the same kind of product, ie kitchen supplies, spices, bangles, medicinal herbs, etc.
We visit "Baby Taj" built by Shah Jahan's wife where her father, mother, and daughter are buried. It is built of white marble intricately inlaid with precious stones. At Mehtab Bagh I saw great sunset views of the Taj Mahal from across the river.
I am taken to a store/factory where beautiful hand made products of marble with inlaid stones using the same designs as seen at the Taj Mahal are for sale. From $20,000 spectacular marble table tops, to $70 small plates (I buy one).
Feb 20
I will never forget the experience of sunrise at the Taj Mahal. Whow! It is truly like being in a fairy tale. Built out of solid white marble with intricately inlaid presious stones the Taj is one of the wonders of the world. The changes in the sunlight from the rising sun changes the hues of the white marble. The peaceful gardens filled with birds, the misty fog, the reflections on the ponds, and the rising sun creates a spectacular visual experience.
I return to my hotel to exercise and have a huge breakfast. We leave for Bharatpur, stopping en route to visit Ratehpur Sikri, a 16th century muslim fortress of red sandstone palaces and mosques which were abandoned after only fourteen years when the local wells went dry (picture 1 on next blog).
At the hotel I am greeted by my guide and take a horse drawn carriage through the congested narrow lanes of the old city. Again there is the constant noise (the horn blowing never stops) and movement of goods, people and animals. We walk through even narrower lanes of shops, where most shop owners wait and recieve customers sitting on the floor. This is a wholesale market and there is a flurry of buying and delivering of goods. On most of the streets I am concerned about getting bumped into by one of the many chaotic moving modes of transportation. Most stalls offer a specific and limited variety of goods, with certain streets offering the same kind of product, ie kitchen supplies, spices, bangles, medicinal herbs, etc.
We visit "Baby Taj" built by Shah Jahan's wife where her father, mother, and daughter are buried. It is built of white marble intricately inlaid with precious stones. At Mehtab Bagh I saw great sunset views of the Taj Mahal from across the river.
I am taken to a store/factory where beautiful hand made products of marble with inlaid stones using the same designs as seen at the Taj Mahal are for sale. From $20,000 spectacular marble table tops, to $70 small plates (I buy one).
Feb 20
I will never forget the experience of sunrise at the Taj Mahal. Whow! It is truly like being in a fairy tale. Built out of solid white marble with intricately inlaid presious stones the Taj is one of the wonders of the world. The changes in the sunlight from the rising sun changes the hues of the white marble. The peaceful gardens filled with birds, the misty fog, the reflections on the ponds, and the rising sun creates a spectacular visual experience.
I return to my hotel to exercise and have a huge breakfast. We leave for Bharatpur, stopping en route to visit Ratehpur Sikri, a 16th century muslim fortress of red sandstone palaces and mosques which were abandoned after only fourteen years when the local wells went dry (picture 1 on next blog).
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