Agra

We walked to the train station, and ended up getting there a little over an hour early, which was okay because we would rather be early than late. We then went through the security at the train station and then made our way to the platform. We sat there and waited, and then when the train came it was on time and clearly marked as to which car we were in and which seat we were supposed to sit in. Everything went very smoothly!

When we got to our stop, we got off and walked out of the train station. Here we found a pre-pay taxi booth, which allowed us to pay the standard rate and not get ripped off! As the taxi driver was taking us to our hotel, we were making small talk (aka him trying to convince us to hire him to take us around for the time while we are there), and during our conversation we found out the Taj Mahal is closed on Fridays. We had planned to go see it the next day (which was a Friday), but since that wasn’t an option, we had to quick get checked in to our hotel and then head to see the Taj Mahal that afternoon. (Saturday we are training back, so we couldn’t see it that day either)

As quick as we could, we got checked in to the hotel, and then walked down the street towards the Taj Mahal. Here a man approached us and asked if we wanted a personal tour. Now typically I wouldn’t go for something like this, but he said he could get us in right away without having to stand in the long line at the entrance, and since we were in a rush to see it all before it closed, we decided to hire him.

Now the guide wanted to charge 2000 INR for the tour, which would have been fine because $30 isn’t too bad for a personal tour, but we only had 982 INR left. We explained this to him, and somehow he went for it, allowing us to get the tour for less than half the price! (Mom I promise I wasn’t left stranded in India with no money after this tour, we just had to go take more out of the ATM after the tour)

The tour began with the guide telling us about the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. This emperor commissioned for the Taj Mahal to be built for the tomb of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal.

The emperor had four wives before Mahal, and each of them could not bear him any children. For that reason, he kept remarrying. Then when he married his 5^th wife (Mahal), she had 14 children (7 of which died during birth). Mahal died during childbirth of the 14^th child, and at that time, she made the emperor promise to never marry again and to build a building to remember her. Because of this promise between Mahal and her husband, the Taj Mahal was then built.

Here are some pictures of it from a few different views.

Around the Taj Mahal, there is a wall with four gates. There are also four gates, one in each direction (north, south, east, west). Each of these gates are to remember one of the first four wives.

Here are some pictures of the gates.

Then after exploring every part of the Taj Mahal, and getting the best pictures of it thanks to our guide (really, hiring him was the best choice because he took a million pictures of Brad and I together, which we never get since one of us is always taking the picture), we went to a few shops right outside of the gates. Here there were many souvenir shops, and we were taken in the one where the same family line that did the stone artwork for the Taj Mahal, now makes stone artwork for souvenirs. The man told us all about where all of the stones come from, and showed us how the light disperses through the different stones. We loved all of the work, and told him we would be back once we went to the ATM to get more money.

Here's what that stone artwork looks like in the Taj Mahal.

Then true to our word, we set out to get cash and went back and bought some really cool coasters. We thought it would be nice to have something we would always use and that’s how we decided on coasters.

We went back and had some dinner at the garden restaurant at our hotel and then headed to bed.

_______________________________________________________________________

On the second day in Agra, we woke up with no plan of what to do. After breakfast, we got ready and then headed out to explore the city. To our surprise, when we walked out of the doors of our hotel, there weren’t a thousand tuk-tuk drivers asking us if we needed a ride. The shops all around the hotel were also closed, so the streets were pretty quiet.

The first thing we stumbled upon during our adventure was a nice park. It was rather large, and as we strolled through it, we found that there were many monkeys all around. Below is a picture of one of the dozen monkeys we saw.

We stopped and had some lunch after finishing exploring the park, and then kept just walking through the town. The town away from the Taj Mahal was still busy, and here we found a huge cow within the mix of all the scooters and cars. Now, since we are in India, we have grown used to seeing cows all around (even in the streets), but I have never seen a cow this big. Check it out for yourself.

It is crazy how everyone’s daily lives are a mix of the hustle and bustle of the city while still having all of the agriculture around. I like just observing their lives, and to do this, we found the cutest rooftop restaurant for dinner. Up here we could watch the sunset over the Taj Mahal, while still being able to look down on what was going on around us.

It was a great day taking a break from the touristy things and exploring more of the Indian culture.

_______________________________________________________________________

On our final day in Agra, we went to another rooftop restaurant to have breakfast before we headed to the train station.

Here's a picture of our lovely breakfast view.

To get to the train station, we were trying to find a taxi, so we would be able to put our big backpacks into the trunk. We thought getting in a tuk-tuk with all of our stuff would not work, but since we couldn’t seem to get a taxi, we finally settled on getting in an electric tuk-tuk. Now these have a little more room, but they also don’t drive very fast. We were kind of in a hurry, and we were getting worried that we wouldn’t make it in time because we were moving at a snails pace. Really, I might have been able to walk faster.

Our worries of being late then turned into panic when the tuk-tuk got a flat tire. The driver said, oh don’t worry I just have to call for someone to bring me a new tire, then change it, and we can be on our way. We told him this would not work, so he flagged down a different tuk-tuk for us to get in to finish out our ride to the train station. The tuk-tuk that stopped to let us in already had two passengers, but somehow four of us, luggage, and a driver all crammed in. Seriously, it was tighter than a clown car in there!

We then got to the train station and went through security and headed to our platform. We waited for our train, which was delayed about an hour, and then finally got on and were on our way back to Delhi. We weren’t exactly sure which stop to get off at, as they were not announcing them or anything, but thankfully a nice Indian man asked us where we were going. He told us he would let us know when it was our stop, and thanks to him, everything went smoothly.

From the train station, we got in a cab and headed to the hotel by the airport that we were staying at for the night. Here, we got all checked in and then headed out to find something to eat. We decided on a café close by, and while we were in there we started to get the weirdest vibe.

When we came in, there were three ladies (who looked particularly manly) sitting at a table. Then another group of ladies who looked the same way came in. During our time here, we saw many different ladies come in and out of the café. They all knew each other and were just hanging out, so we’re thinking we might have been at one of the hang out places for lady-boys in that area. Anyways, it made for an interesting people watching experience.

_______________________________________________________________________

Today we ended up sitting in the airport for about 12 hours because we had to check out of our hotel by noon and then our flight wasn’t until 11:00 pm. We had all of our baggage and didn’t know what to do with it, so we decided on simply going to the airport early and just sitting there reading our books all day.

After waiting around for what seemed like an eternity, we got to check-in, go through security, and then get on our way to….

Keep reading these to see what’s next!