Catching up--last day in India 7-5-10

Well our last day in India started very early because our hired van was waiting for us at 5am to take us to Agra to see the Taj Mahal!  The drive to Agra took about 3 hours and although we both slept for part of it, there was plenty to see when we were awake.  It was interesting to drive outside of Delhi through the "suburbs."  There was a lot of construction including extensions of the metro and quite a few newer buildings.  Michelle and I both noticed quite a few schools and academies along the drive, many technology related.  About 40k from Agra we got stuck in a traffic jam that was the result of a big driver strike protesting increased fuel costs; drivers of trucks and buses basically just stopped their big vehicles in the road and got out and protested.  Once he found out what the problem was our driver managed to turn around and took the van over a 12-18 inch "curb" thoroughly scraping the bottom of the van and worked his way up what was basically a frontage road until we got past the strike.

Once we made it to Agra we stopped and picked up our "complimentary" guide before heading to the Taj. You have to walk about half a mile to the Taj because there's a "no car zone" around it to try to keep it protected.  We were warned about all the people hawking Taj trinkets but it wasn't as bad as we expected.  The Taj Mahal is definitely impressive and more so when you think about the fact that it was all built by hand.  Although we were all a little dubious about our guide, it was actually nice to learn more about it and was worth the extra hassles.  I think the most impressive part of the Taj to me was all the inlaid stonework in the marble.  After the Taj we went to a marble school to see the process that has been passed down through the generations.  They are still using the same tools and you really couldn't believe how small they grind these stones down and then glue them into the marble that they have scratched out by hand; they showed us one flower like they have at the Taj and it was maybe 1.5" in diameter and was made of like 30 individual pieces of stone/gems!  The Taj has extensive inlay work inside and out but inside they used more and more precious stones/gems including one called firestone that glows when light shines through it.

After the marble school we stopped for lunch at "Quality Restaurant" which actually was quite good.  Michelle had a sweet lime soda and I had lassi, a yogurt drink.  We went with the waiter's food recommendation which was 10 fruit/vege korma...it was interesting and kind of reminded me of a hawaiian trail mix with papaya, pineapple, cashews but with some curry.

Agra fort was the next stop and it was very similar to the Red fort in Delhi but better preserved/restored and fancier courtesy of Shah Jehan (taj guy) who made it into a palace and covered much of it with white marble and added royal living quarters.  From the palace part of the fort there were some nice views of the Taj across the yemen river.  The Shah was actually held prisoner in his palace at the Agra fort by his son for the last 8 years of his life.  It sounds like his son felt like he had to put a stop to his father who was planning to build a black Taj across the river from the current one and his son didn't want his dad to spend all their fortune on it, especially since the black onyx he was going to make it out of was even more expensive than the white marble!  The last thing on the agenda was Akbar's Mausoleum which was interesting because of the blue and gold designs on the ceiling and because there were "deer" grazing on the grounds.

The drive home ended up taking us about 5 hours because the traffic outside of and in Delhi was a complete disaster because of the strike.  Our driver was aggressively weaving in and out of traffic, honking his horn constantly making for a pretty harrowing last couple hours of the drive1  Oh, did I mention it was dark and raining and there are constantly pedestrians, cyclists and motorcycles  on the roads?!  I had to start chewing gum because my jaw was hurting from being clenched the whole time!  We were very happy to make it back to the Wood Castle and get some food!  Other travellers said it was actually a good day to be out of Delhi because the strike made getting around the city virtually impossible.

Knock one of the seven wonders off our "bucket list"  =)

-mari