Agra, Part ‘do’ (2)

After our great tour of the Agra Fort the day before, we woke up bright and early (6:30 a.m.) to beat the crowds to one of the world’s most recognizable monuments: The Taj Mahal.

Again, India likes grandeur.  Everything is massive.  Including the Taj complex.  So many people only pay attention to just the Taj Mahal and disregard the rest of the complex, which is equally as beautiful.  You first enter a large, walled courtyard with just a glimpse of the monument showing .

As soon as you turn down the central lane, you get this view:

Had we gotten there any earlier, this had the potential to be a pretty cool picture (thanks for ruining it, Patrick =).  And finally, you reach the inner courtyard and proceed to take thousands of pictures of the same thing in a variety of ways, enjoy:

Interesting tidbit: the four towers lean slightly outward to adjust for the imperfections of the human eye to make everything appear completely symmetrical.

Jumping pictures are always appropriate.  And close-ups of all the details; I love, love, love Islamic calligraphy – so beautiful!  And the religion is as fascinating as it is misunderstood by the West – if you ever get a chance to take a course in Islam (esp. at CSB/SJU with Armajani), I highly recommend it!

Some people in our group didn’t even wander into the other buildings surrounding the Taj.  They missed out on some incredible Indo-Islamic design in the right-side mosque:

When you are on the actual white granite part of the Taj Mahal, you leave your shoes at the staircase; when it has rained, it is extremely slipper!

A big congratulations goes out to Gar and Kolleen Kellom, who welcomed into the world two twin grandchildren while we were at the Taj.  Gar – “someday I’ll bring them to the Taj and tell them, ‘while you were being born, I was sitting right here”:

After the few hours (to little in my opinion..), we took off for our final destination in the tour of the Golden Triangle and drop off point for Patrick, Ryan and myself, the desert city of Jaipur.  It was a long drive, made longer by traffic jams on the highway, backed up for hours…

Agra, Part ‘Ek’ (1)

The biggest challenge to writing a blog post about Agra and the Taj Mahal is deciding which pictures are the pièces de résistance, the Porterhouse cut of my collection, the best possible few to represent the thousand others.  It is an intimidating task when so many people (grandma, mom, possibly a sister or two) are counting on living vicariously through those images, as if they were there with me.

Agra was a quick 23 hour stop.  We came, we saw, we ‘awed’.  We started our journey in the late afternoon from Delhi, with a involuntary tea brake along the way (our driver asked us if we wanted to stop, we declined, but this is India folks: you never turn down an opportunitiy for tea. Never.).  Before going to our hotel, we stopped at the famous Agra Fort.  If it wasn’t for the elephants at the Amber Fort (next post), I’d say this was my favorite fort…

… it was a massive complex.  Since I have to run, here is a sneak peak at Agra: Part ‘do’ (2)… =)

We don’t dilly-dally in Delhi

Drinking water out of a faucet.  Eating an uncooked vegetable.  Toilet paper.  High speed internet.  Clean air.  Western toilets a *clean bathroom.  Heck, a clean anything.

* Western toilets were available in some locations, but most were missing the seat – temporarily, indefinite ‘squatters’ that you prayed you kept your balance over – same with the actual squatters – just downright gross.

These are just a few of thousands of things I realized I am so grateful for upon arriving back in Minnesota, things I did not really appreciate until, say, I went into a bathroom not fearing for my life.  So with Labor day weekend on the horizon, I would like to thank all American workers for your social and economic achievements, for things that are so often taken for granted on a daily basis.

One such thing is antibacterial hand sanitizers.  I wish that whoever made my food a few weeks ago in India had a bottle, then I wouldn’t have to be taking 9 antibacterial meds a day.   Our trekking guide in Nepal explained it best when he held up his left hand and counted his fingers off with “p-a-p-e-r.”  If you care, I’m feeling much better.

Along with feeling better, how about I start posting my adventures from India, eh?

Along time ago (July 2010), in a far away land (India), there was a group of cultured Johnnies and Bennies (www.csbsju.edu) who were winding up the last leg of their journey through South Asia.  They said their goodbyes to all the wonderful people they had befriended in Kathmandu, Nepal, and landed in a completely new city:

Delhi

In the initial planning stages of our trip, we were going to spend more time as a group in India than just 4 days.  Since we received the grant to do research in Nepal, our time was cut very short in India, which left us with an evening and a day in Delhi, one day in Agra, one day in Jaipur.

We saw only a fraction of Delhi, but it didn’t disappoint.  First up, the Qutb Minar.  Built in 1193, it is the world’s tallest brick minaret.  After climbing so many types of towers in Europe, I was severely disappointed when I was told I couldn’t climb this one.

The lack of entrance to the top was made up for in the beautiful details of the complex’s Indo-Islamic architecture.

The Qutb complex is also home to a scientific wonder, the Iron Pillar.  Dating back to 300 C.E., this pillar has withstood erosion and weathering for 1600 years.

The Islamic complex was built upon an ancient place of worship for a number of Indian dieties; sadly, the temples were destroyed and the building materials were used to build the Qutb Minar.

We then visited the Jama Masjid, the most prominent mosque in Old Delhi.  We were all dressed inappropriately for the visit and had to don colorful sheets.

The Jama mosque had relatively simple decor compared to the only other mosque I’ve been to, the Mosque of Muhammad Ali in Cairo.  It was only a quick visit, and then we were off to the great Red Fort.  It’s hard to describe anything about this fort, mainly because I have a two minute listening span when it comes to tour guides; I’d much rather go explore the places, take pictures at my own pace and read the signs if I happen to come across something interesting.  Here I am taking a picture of the start of our group tour (right-hand side), I believe they stood there for 10 minutes as I went people watching in the area before heading through the gates. =)

Good thing I learned all about Indian art and architecture in an Eastern Art History course back in my art major days and reread my notes before traveling to these places.  The Red Fort, along with the Jama Mosque, were built by the same Mughal Emperor who created the Taj Mahal, Shah Jahan, in the 16th century.  Luckily, we did most of our touring in the early morning and there were hardly any crowds.

I should specify that I was referring to crowds of women.  Megan, Jess, Liz and I went straight through since all across India there are separate security queues for men and women.  The guys had to wait in line (see: above).

There are many different areas to the fort, each with it’s own style and purpose.  Again, I was too interested in getting up close and personal with the intricate details of the buildings than baking in the Indian summer sun with the tour guide.  The building above had beautiful granite work with inlaid stonework.  Amazing craftsmanship, which we saw repeated in our next destination:  Agra and the Taj Mahal.