Incredible India Part Three: THE TAJ

We paid the entrance fee for the Taj Mahal and got a large ticket, which I think was also usable at a few other tourist attractions in Agra. We had to go through the separate gender security lines again and then we had done it! We were finally seeing the Taj! But, actually, you’re not allowed to bring electronics in, so two of the girls had to take the iPods that they brought and walk them to a locker. So, the other three of us rested and waited for a bit for them to get back from the lockers. We took some pictures and tried to find shade. They were finally back and we were ready to see the great tomb. It’s all in a walled complex, which in the first set of walls you pass from the outside. Then, there’s another huge gate that you have to walk through. While we were waiting for the other girls we could kind of see the top of the Taj and I started to get really excited! Finally, they came back and we all walked together over to the gate. Our first glimpses of the Taj Mahal in all its glory were through the archway in the huge gate. Then, we emerged out into the sunlight and I couldn’t believe that I was actually seeing it. The Taj Mahal is so beautiful. I just couldn’t believe I was actually seeing it. I almost started to cry. Sure, pictures of it are exactly like it is in person, but I think that’s part of the reason it’s so beautiful when you see it in person. I just didn’t expect to be so beautiful. And every part of it, no matter what angle you look at it from, is beautiful. It was literally breath-taking. I was in Agra, India, seeing the Taj Mahal with my own eyes. I couldn’t believe it.

There were lots of people there doing the exact same thing: taking pictures from every conceivable spot. Once you enter at the gate there’s a large courtyard with sidewalks that line either side of the reflecting pool. The pool is also lined with tall, skinny bushes and in the pool are little fountains that squirt up little streams of water. There’s a large platform in the middle of the courtyard and we all stood up on the platform trying to set up pictures like everyone else that make you look like you’re picking up the Taj from the topmost spindle in the middle of the huge dome. We walked toward the Taj, snapping away and eventually made it to where you line up to go inside. The line’s not very long, you’re just halted near the entrance to either take off your shoes or put little shoe covers over top of them. All us girls opted for the covers and looked pretty goofy. Haha. After walking up some stairs you are able to enter and see the tombs inside the Taj, one for Shah Jahan, who built the Taj, and one for his wife, who he built it for. The detail is amazing. Nothing is painted on the Taj – there are all these flower borders in different places and they’re actually inlaid gemstones in the marble. It was awesome. The two tombs are enclosed in a huge screen that is carved marble made into scrolling vines and flowers, which was beautiful. And this was all built in the 15th century. Amazing.

We walked through the building around to the back side where a lot of people were just sitting and talking and hanging around. I wish we could have just spent hours there (the lockers actually had a two-hour time limit). The four minarets on either side of the tomb are awesome as well. Everything is perfectly symmetrical. We walked around for a little while longer and came back out of the area that needed the shoe covers. Some Indian guys asked to get a picture with us and I coyly said that I would take the pictures for everyone, rather than be in them. It was kinda weird. It was also kind of funny, though, because right before we took the picture, there were some guys who ran over to be in the picture, about 20 guys total in the frame with the five other girls in our group. It was funny.

Then we strolled back to one of the sides of the courtyard to rest for a few minutes in the shade. It was a really beautiful day. And, almost 100 pictures later, our visit to the Taj Mahal was over after we walked back out of the gate and down to where the girls had put their stuff in the locker.
Right inside the security point the post office sells stamps and official post cards, so I bought some stamps there as did the other girls. Then we walked back out to the road (after Blair was followed by a little kid selling snow globes again: “50 rupees? Good deal, 50 rupees. Be careful, camel. Three for 50 rupees? Make a good gift.” All the same breath. Haha.) and got a rickshaw so that we could go see the Agra Fort.

The fort looked really cool and their was a man outside trying to convince me that he would make a good tour guide, but we were kind of short on time and hungry, so we took a few pictures from the outside and walked across the road to a little roadside restaurant. It was funny, there were about three restaurants lined up together and once we got within a few feet men working at each of them came out and tried to yell and gesture toward their restaurant…we were for the one with the menu in English. We enjoyed our food (and, surprisingly, I’m pretty sure no one got sick later). Then, we took another rickshaw to the train station. We had plenty of time before the train, so we stopped in an air conditioned restaurant for some cool air. Then on our way to the train platform, I stopped at an IST STD PCO phonebooth, which are these pay phones, but pay phones in the sense that they are regular phones that people make you pay for, but they’re all over India, marked by black letters with a black background. Anyway, I called Vivek and sure enough he was on his way! He met us at the train platform and told me that he was looking for us at the Agra Fort, since he got done with his work early. So, I was talking to Vivek and we were waiting on the platform. How it works is they announce all the trains over the loudspeaker – at the Delhi station we were at it made the noise just like Windows makes when there’s an error (over and over and over and over again). And, thanks to Trixy’s sharp ears, we noticed that our train was on a different platform entirely! We had to run to the other side of the station, up a ramp, across and down a ramp on the other side, just to be sure we caught the train before it left! All of our seats weren’t together, but Vivek assured me that he could figure it out, so we all sat together. It was the same type of train, still grungy, haha. But once we were actually on the train we were relieved. The ride wasn’t too remarkable – everyone was tired, especially since we had gotten up at 4:30 a.m. I climbed up and slept on the top bunk for a little bit, being careful to position my arm so my face was not in danger of coming too close to the bunk. There was this really cute family in the next compartment that I noticed – the man was a sikh because of the tuban on his head and his wife and son, who was about 8 or 8, were with him. They shared some fruit and talked with the son and slept a little on two of the bunks. It was cute.

Vivek pulled some sweets out of his bag after I woke up and climbed back down into the bottom seat. They were called puta, I think. Imagine some chunks of pineapple that are saturated with sugar and somehow taste like coffee a little bit. Vivek couldn’t really explain what it was made out of, except that it wasn’t pineapple. Haha. Around that time, a family got on the train at one the station stops and a little girl with pigtails sat down in the seat across from us. Blair said that she was all smiley and excited before she started talking her, and we found out it was because she was excited to see some native English-speaking girls. Her name was Dinky and she was 10 years old and phenomenally cute with her little red and white striped outfit and pigtails. She could have passed for a 10-year-old in the United States because her English was so good, and practically accent-free. When she talked she was excited and she tried to answer all of our questions, and some times Vivek helped a little bit, even though his English wasn’t as good as hers. She told us the words in Hindi for yes, no and thank you and explained some of the titles used in Hindi. Usually, tacking –ji onto the end of a word, means the equivalent of sir or ma’am. So, “ha” is the word for yes, and if you say “haji” then you are saying “yes, sir” or “yes, ma’am.” Dinky told us that she went to a private boarding school that actually admonished you if you spoke any Hindi rather than English, which is how she knew English so well. I think she said she was even more excited to talk to us because she said she usually talks to men who are native speakers, and was really excited to see that we were all young women. Blair explained that she knew a little girl who she babysits that is the same age as Dinky and gave her address to Dinky so that they could  be pen pals. It was so great! We got some pictures. I wish Dinky had been on the train the entire time!

So, the train finally stopped and we got off, except that Vivek realized that we had gotten off at the wrong train station! We actually got off at the New Delhi station and were supposed to get off at the stop before that, but because we were talking to Dinky, we were distracted (even Vivek, who even told me he thought she was really cute and hopes that his son grows up and can speak English as well as she could). Vivek said it wasn’t a worry and that we could get a taxi to take us back to her guesthouse, he was just a little nervous because he said there’s actually a fine if they find out that you get off at the wrong stop. He generously helped us find a taxi, even though it was already about 9:30 and his motorcycle was at the other train station.

There were so many people at that train station. I wasn’t really too surprised, but seeing everything at night was really different. There were tons of rickshaws out buzzing past the stores with signs stacked on top of one another. But, we made it back to the guesthouse after having a quick dinner. None of the people I had met the night before were awake and we were all really tired anyway, so I went to bed.