The Taj Mahal

Who knew that half the excitement of going to the Taj Mahal would just be getting there! We decided we were going to do the whole trip in one day, leaving at 5am from New Delhi, arriving at 9am that morning and spending the day in Agra seeing the Taj Mahal and Fatehpur Sikri.

One of our Indian friends who had also not been to the Taj volunteered to drive us in his car because he wanted to see it too. He is actually a really nice guy and I am glad I have had the chance to get to know him a little bit. Anyways, we get into his car at 5am and I am still half asleep. One thing I do not like that much is really loud music (or really loud bass). I am not sure if its just because I am classically trained as a musician or if I just dont enjoy really loud noises or what the reason is, but that's how it is.

Anyways, so three of us cram into his back seat at 5am and the music is blasting. He has a bass in the back of the car which is equivalent to half the size of the trunk. It is so powerful that I could literally feel it in my chest. Also, there was virtually no traffic on the road, so we were hitting bumps like crazy. Several times the force of the impact caused me to jump in my seat. I can't say it was the most pleasant 5am car ride I had ever taken (not that doing anything at 5am is pleasant).

We drive across town and get to a gas station. In India, instead of getting the gas yourself, you have people who pump the gas for you. Its very similar to how it used to be in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. One pulls up to the gas station, tells the attendant what kind of gas and how much, and they fill it up. You never have to leave the car. On this particular morning, however, the gas attendant was not paying as close attention as he should have. We did not realize until the tank was full that the attendendant had actually put diesel fuel in the car instead of premium gasoline. The wrong gas in a car will certainly ruin the engine! Furthermore, a car that runs on gasoline cant even run on diesal. Our friend was pissed, thinking that his car had just been ruined.

We got out of the car and he started yelling at the attendent. The manager came over and apologized. The only thing that could be done at this point was to empty the gas tank completely of all the gasoline and then refuel with the correct fuel. This certainly put a damper on our Taj Mahal plans. We exited the car and they pushed it off of the side. The same attendant that had made the mistake jacked the car up and got a metal bucket to put the gasoline in. I wasn't sure how safe this was, but there wasn't much else that could be done. The entire process of waiting and having the gas emptied took about an hour (I wished at that moment that I could have just slept for an hour instead). Standing outside was uncomfortably warm and we began sweating.

While we were stopped at the gas station, we got to see survival of the fittest first hand. A small baby chipmunk dropped from the tree near where the car was parked and began scurrying towards the fence. The chipmunk was damp as if it had just been born or bathed. Somehow it must have fallen out of the tree. The little chipmunk scampered towards the fence to take cover. Out of nowhere a large black bird sees the vulnerable chipmunk, flies down, and grabbed it in its beak. It flew to the top of the fence nearby and began eating the baby chipmunk. Ashley gasped as the scene unfolded. Darwin would be proud. I wished I had been video taping the scene.

Discussing that little bit of excitement kept us occupied while we waited for the car to be fixed. Our friend got a signed contract from the gas station agreeing to indemnify him for any damages that occurred relating to his car as a result of the incident. They gave him a slight discount on the gas, giving him premium for the price of regular to compensate for some of the remaining gas in his car that he lost. Personally, I think he should have gotten the gas for free considering it was their negligence that caused the issue AND they caused us to wait over an hour. What if he had been going to work? Or to a meeting? Or the airport or any other number of places where an hour would not have been enough time. I suppose the gas station did not care that much or they just figured they could get away with not giving it to him for free.

We got back in the car and continued down the road. Soon we had started going through toll roads and within 45 minutes were in the countryside outside of Delhi. The landscape was semi-green, but also a bit barren. I also did not realize that by traveling to Agra, we would be going on a safari. On the trip there we saw we saw elephants, wild monkeys, sheep, camels, cows, and oxen. The elephant and the camel were both being ridden by owners, so they were domesticated.

Also on the way there, a drunk driver hit our friend's car on the back right side (luckily there was a lot of traffic, so it was not a hard hit). Clearly, someone or something did not want us to get to Agra to see the Taj that day. Unfortunately, the concept of car insurance in India is pretty undeveloped. If you get hit, you have to bear responsibility unless the other person has car insurance (which they often do not). You can have your insurance pay, but it causes your rates to go up even though it was not your fault. You can also sue the driver directly, but the courts are backlogged here. It might take 5-10 years before one can get a settlement. Even then, you can't get blood from a turnip, so if the defendant is insolvent, you're SOL anyway. That was a long way of saying our friend had to pay for the damage to his car out of pocket, which sucked for him.

Eventually, we drove into Agra and through the town to the Taj Mahal. Due to pollution, the Taj will not allow cars to drive to the front of it anymore. So instead, we had to find other transportation to get to the entrance from the parking lot. For the entertainment of tourists, you can get a camel pulling a wagon. We decided that this option seemed cool enough and took it. Just as we were about to push off, an Indian man jumped on our thing and offered to be our tour guide. He showed us his card with the official rates and offered to give us a tour for the Indian price rather than the foreign price (b/c we did have two Indians with us). Since it was only like 400 or 500 rupees for the tour, we decided to take the option.

He rode with us into the grounds of the Taj but did not say too much. When we got to the gate area, he lead us right to the foreign tourist ticket area. We gave him money to purchase our tickets and had them in about 5 minutes. We then had to go through the security to get to the Taj. Because we had a tour guide, we qualified to go through the VIP section and not wait in the very long and hot line to get inside. Having him probably saved us a good 30-45 minutes of waiting plus confusion. As far as I am concerned, having him for this reason alone made him worth the money.

We went inside and he started talking to us. We got some great pictures from a professional photographer (which I eventually broke down and bought). The Taj itself was amazing. Before entering the main garden area, there was a gate. The gate itself was quite a spectacle. The domes on the top were added for each year that it took to complete the Taj. It took 22 years in all, so there are 22 small domes.

We walked inside to see the Taj in all its grandeur. Wow! That's all I can say! I can understand why this is one of the most popular places to see in all of India (if not the world). The entire complex is completely symmetrical with a long pool of water running down the center. I guess because its summer the pool was drained and it was just empty concrete. It still looked pretty cool.

The photogropher guy kept following us to get more pictures in hopes that we would buy them on our way out. When the others were taking photos (by this time I had decided I wasn't going to buy but a couple because I had my own camera with which to take pictures), the tour guide and I spoke briefly. I learned that he was a student studying in Agra and he gives tours to make extra money. He told me that his favorite people to give tours to are Americans. I smiled and asked why. He said it was because they always give him $100 tips because they think he does such a good job.

I don't know if he was bullshitting me or not (sometimes people say stuff like this to you in India to play mind games with you to give them more money). Even if he was, he probably should have kept it at 10 or 15 dollars in order for it to have been believeable to me. So I didn't believe him and he certainly was not getting an extra one hundred dollars out of me!

Anyways, we went inside the Taj itself. You had to remove your shoes like any proper mosque. Inside was dark but still amazing. You could look all the way up to the top of the dome. Unfortunately there were no pictures allowed. Shah Jahan's grave is right next to his wife's. Because his grave is bigger, it is the only part of the entire Taj that is not symmetrical. Another neat thing is that the inside is decorated with beautiful semi-precious stones. Our tour guide took the flashlight to one of them to show us that it glows when light shines on it. This is precisely what happens when there is a full moon (they open up the Taj on nights with a full moon and its supposed to be amazing).

We walked outside the back part and saw the river. We also saw across the river a large foundation. Our tour guide said it was for the Black Taj Mahal that was never built (for Shah Jahan himself), but the guidebook says the Black Taj Mahal is a myth. I am not sure who to believe. He also showed us that the columns on the outside are an optical illusion to make it look like there are more sides than there actually are.

Although we got there around 9pm, by the time we were finished, it was closer to 11 or 11:30pm. By this time it was scorching hot outside. By scorching, I mean at least 100 degrees. We were sweating, tired, and exhausted. The tour guide took us out of the Taj and to the inevitable shop where they try to get our money and he gets a kickback. They were selling plates and marble things, which actually seemed quite nice if not a little overpriced. I did appreciate the fact that we could sit down and it was air conditioned. Our friend Jerry, likes to talk, a lot. Usually, it would have irritated me, as I would have wanted to move on and see more things since we had such a short time there. In this particular situation, however, I was glad he wanted to chat for a while with them because it allowed me to enjoy the cool AC.

After we watched Jerry haggle for an hour, we walked headed back to the main area. On the way, we were heckled by numerous small children selling random trinkets. We didn't really want what they were selling and it became annoying very quickly. The other problem is that here they simply will not take no for an answer. When you have someone like Jerry with you, as nice of a guy as he is, it compounds the situation and you go nowhere fast. After we battled off the children (and ended up buying a couple of t-shirts), we made it to our car. I think the tour guide was disappointed that we did not buy any of the things at his shop, but what can you do?

We then decided to stop off at lunch. I was happy to go somewhere quick, but Jerry wanted to go to a specific restaurant (at the Sheraton hotel). He wanted to go there because someone from his office had recommended it, and he wanted to be able to talk to them about it later. It made sense...its a great networking strategy. I could definitely learn a thing or two from Jerry about networking.

Lunch was fabulous. We ordered kebabs (chicken and lamb), dal (lentil beans), naan, and beer. It was all quite expensive, being one of the nicest restaurants in Agra. Jerry offered to pay and I was shocked! It was really nice of him and he didn't have to do that. The hotel said the dal was the best in India. I would say it was pretty good. The waiter was kind of a pompous guy though. He wouldn't bring Ashley utensils until she first tried eating with her hands. After living in India for 2-3 weeks, I am sure we've all tried eating with our hands enough that we know whether we want the experience or not.

After lunch (which lasted like 2 hours), we were running out of time in the day. We had to choose between seeing the Agra fort and Fatehpur Sikri. Everyone at worked told me how awesome FP was, so I pushed for that one and we were off.

We drove for about 30 minutes in the car before finally reaching the turn. We were flagged over to the side of the road by a man who offered to be our tour guide and only charge us Indian prices (there were 2 Indians in the car). So for about 500 rupees we had the option of going on a tour, which was a more than reasonable price. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.

He lead us to the front and let us park in front of the entrance to the old city. We saved a lot of time doing this, but I was a bit disappointed because we did not get to walk around the area a bit. It was nice not having to find a car to take us to the front or having to walk there though.

We went inside the old city, which was the capital of the Mughal Empire for 14 years before it ran out of water. It was pretty awesome, I'll give it that. Our tour guide lead us around, showing us little things. Children continually swarmed us and the tour guide tried to keep them away. There were actually two of them - one who only spoke Hindi and a second who spoke English. We were assured that these guys were working together and that we would not be double charged.

He finally lead us around to this back area. In Fatehpur Sikri, there is a religious shrine in a white building. Before entering, he told us we were required to make an offering of cloth and to buy a string to make a wish. Conveniently, he lead us to a Muslim Imam who just happened to be selling exactly what we needed. The price of the cloths also just happened to be 500 rupees per cloth ($10). It was completely outrageous! When Jerry questioned it, the tour guide incredulously argued with Jerry about how its a custom and its disrespectful. The cloths could easily have been produced for less than 40 rupees.

I didn't end up paying, but some of the others did. I also did not like that this tour guide was constantly impatient, rushing us when we had not spent as much time at a particular place as we wanted to.

He then lead us around to the back of the shrine where there were little marble things being sold (just like at the Taj Mahal). The guys were putting things in my hand and showing it to me, but I wasn't really interested. It looked cool but I figured there were better places to buy them. What was really striking was that the tour guide got involved, as if he was the shopkeeper. He was trying to convince us to buy things and being pushy about it. It's one thing to lead me to a shop where the guide gets a commission and he sits there quietly, but its quite another for the guide to actually participate himself. It seemed he was more interested in that than giving us the tour.

After way too long with the person selling the marble statutes, we forced the tour guide to leave (it would have been shorter if Jerry had not been haggling with them). Even after we left, instead of continuing the tour, the guide walked behind the rest of us, talking to Jerry and haggling with him some more. I went inside and saw the mosque there and examined the architecture as we finished our tour.

Outside I took pictures of the area (Fatehpur Sikri is on a hill rising above the rest of the landscape). When I was away from the others, the guide came to me and asked for a tip. I told him it was my understanding that our friend had paid him and tipped him. He claimed to have not received a tip. I felt bad and gave him 200 rupees (or about 5 dollars). As soon as I got into the car, I found out that our friend had indeed tipped the guide 500 rupees already. This meant that he got almost a 150% tip for not giving us very good service.

The whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth. The money is not that important, but its the principle (I find myself saying this a lot in India). I think I would have enjoyed Fatehpur Sikri much more if we had had a better experience with the tour guide. That being said, it was a great place and I was glad I had the chance to see it and the Taj.

The drive home took an hour longer than the drive there because of the ridiculous amount of traffic. As soon as we got home, I went straight to bed.