Taking advantage of the wifi while I have it-sitting in the airport in Seoul, South Korea. I have a 4 hour layover, which is just an hour shy of how long you need to do a layover city tour, so I've walked every inch of this place and now have about an hour left to wait before boarding. Not too bad. Let's keep going with the adventure re-telling, though, or I'll start to forget stuff!
The day after Holi, we woke up early to catch our train to Agra. It took an hour for a rickshaw driver to show up from the time Nolan first had requested one (hey-oh, Indian standard time!). Our train was a quick 40 min ride or so, and we had the nicer A/C chair car class tickets. INFINITELY better than sleeper class. We had our own seats, air conditioning, and they even served us breakfast and free water bottles. You have to understand that this is very fancy in India.
We arrived in Agra and met a rickshaw driver who dropped us at our hotel and then drove us around for the rest of the day. He took us first to see the Baby Taj Mahal, which was built as a tomb and memorial for the in-laws of Shahjehan (the Mughal emperor and builder of the actual Taj Mahal), who were Iranian. It's very beautiful and has a lot of the delicate scrollwork and intricacies of Persian architecture. Then we saw a few smaller sites, stopped along the river for sweeping views of the Taj Mahal at a distance, and stopped for lunch at a little restaurant and garden in some random back alley that our driver knew.
After lunch we went to Agra fort. I feel like the Taj Mahal gets so much hoopla that nobody hears much about Agra fort, which is actually very impressive and beautiful. It was built by 4 Mughal emperors over 95 years and stands on top of a hill in lovely red walls and entrenched by double moats. Inside are several palaces made of red and white marble- some decorated with mirrors, others originally with gold and gems, others simply marble with Persian script. There are old gardens, breathtaking views of the city and river and the Taj Mahal itself, whose royal builder was imprisoned in the fort by his son and had to view his masterpiece through windows in the wall.
After Agra fort, we finally arrived at the famous Taj Mahal. We've seen many of the world's wonders, and this one certainly did not disappoint. All the pictures you see can't prepare you for the beauty of the place. It is so perfectly designed that it looks fake in pictures, and when the sun is setting on it, it looks like it's glowing. We walked through the actual tomb, around the other areas and temples and took pictures for a long time, just enjoying such a gorgeous place. Nolan took this picture of me enjoying the view during sunset. Nice, eh?
Our hotel was walking distance from the Taj Mahal, so we wandered home to rest briefly before finding dinner and looking for wifi. We found both at a weird little place that turned out to have the best chicken tikka masala and palak paneer we'd had yet. It was fabulous-and so spicy that I could feel it burning its way through me. Ah well. A little ras malai cured the burn quick.
Next morning, we were at the train station early for our early train, which was running a casual hour late. Indian train stations aren't the most pleasant places to wait for long times. I won't go into detail, but let me put it this way: Nolan refused to eat a banana there because it was so gross there that it felt like the filth may have seeped through the peel. Once the train arrived, we were on it (in little bunks) for 6 hours on our way to Jaipur. We went through desolate areas and remote fields, and I'm telling you: I saw people every second of the way. The population of India is just so large that people are EVERYWHERE.
Finally we made it to Jaipur and settled into our hotel briefly before hopping back into a cab to go see the water palace. It's a small palace built in the middle of a lake, and very pretty in its setting, though a relatively plain building in itself. Next we went to the monkey temple, and climbed to the top of the hill. Though there weren't monkeys in the temple itself (we are wondering now if we ended up at the wrong place), they were totally swarming the hill on the way up. They were all along the steps and street as we climbed up, wrestling, eating little nuts, scratching themselves, staring at us...a little scary to be surrounded by that many wild monkeys, but fun! They were super cute. We stopped for dinner, saw a couple shops, then went back to our neighborhood in the rickshaw and walked around for awhile and ate kulfi (like ice cream but made from actual thickened cream and in this case, pistachios). Mmm. Another fantastic day!
The day after Holi, we woke up early to catch our train to Agra. It took an hour for a rickshaw driver to show up from the time Nolan first had requested one (hey-oh, Indian standard time!). Our train was a quick 40 min ride or so, and we had the nicer A/C chair car class tickets. INFINITELY better than sleeper class. We had our own seats, air conditioning, and they even served us breakfast and free water bottles. You have to understand that this is very fancy in India.
We arrived in Agra and met a rickshaw driver who dropped us at our hotel and then drove us around for the rest of the day. He took us first to see the Baby Taj Mahal, which was built as a tomb and memorial for the in-laws of Shahjehan (the Mughal emperor and builder of the actual Taj Mahal), who were Iranian. It's very beautiful and has a lot of the delicate scrollwork and intricacies of Persian architecture. Then we saw a few smaller sites, stopped along the river for sweeping views of the Taj Mahal at a distance, and stopped for lunch at a little restaurant and garden in some random back alley that our driver knew.
After lunch we went to Agra fort. I feel like the Taj Mahal gets so much hoopla that nobody hears much about Agra fort, which is actually very impressive and beautiful. It was built by 4 Mughal emperors over 95 years and stands on top of a hill in lovely red walls and entrenched by double moats. Inside are several palaces made of red and white marble- some decorated with mirrors, others originally with gold and gems, others simply marble with Persian script. There are old gardens, breathtaking views of the city and river and the Taj Mahal itself, whose royal builder was imprisoned in the fort by his son and had to view his masterpiece through windows in the wall.
After Agra fort, we finally arrived at the famous Taj Mahal. We've seen many of the world's wonders, and this one certainly did not disappoint. All the pictures you see can't prepare you for the beauty of the place. It is so perfectly designed that it looks fake in pictures, and when the sun is setting on it, it looks like it's glowing. We walked through the actual tomb, around the other areas and temples and took pictures for a long time, just enjoying such a gorgeous place. Nolan took this picture of me enjoying the view during sunset. Nice, eh?
Our hotel was walking distance from the Taj Mahal, so we wandered home to rest briefly before finding dinner and looking for wifi. We found both at a weird little place that turned out to have the best chicken tikka masala and palak paneer we'd had yet. It was fabulous-and so spicy that I could feel it burning its way through me. Ah well. A little ras malai cured the burn quick.
Next morning, we were at the train station early for our early train, which was running a casual hour late. Indian train stations aren't the most pleasant places to wait for long times. I won't go into detail, but let me put it this way: Nolan refused to eat a banana there because it was so gross there that it felt like the filth may have seeped through the peel. Once the train arrived, we were on it (in little bunks) for 6 hours on our way to Jaipur. We went through desolate areas and remote fields, and I'm telling you: I saw people every second of the way. The population of India is just so large that people are EVERYWHERE.
Finally we made it to Jaipur and settled into our hotel briefly before hopping back into a cab to go see the water palace. It's a small palace built in the middle of a lake, and very pretty in its setting, though a relatively plain building in itself. Next we went to the monkey temple, and climbed to the top of the hill. Though there weren't monkeys in the temple itself (we are wondering now if we ended up at the wrong place), they were totally swarming the hill on the way up. They were all along the steps and street as we climbed up, wrestling, eating little nuts, scratching themselves, staring at us...a little scary to be surrounded by that many wild monkeys, but fun! They were super cute. We stopped for dinner, saw a couple shops, then went back to our neighborhood in the rickshaw and walked around for awhile and ate kulfi (like ice cream but made from actual thickened cream and in this case, pistachios). Mmm. Another fantastic day!
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