© Richard Randall

Caribbean

Sundries

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

The staff were very friendly and our room was quite large. We had taken a room with an electric water cooling fan, similar to air conditioning but nowhere near as powerful. We had to keep it full of water by opening the back of it, which was outside our room, and topping it up. Unfortunately, it was very noisy, and as it didn’t hold much water Richard had to get up a a lot during the night to top it up, as it was way too warm to sleep without it on. The room was clean and the beds comfortable, there was warm water in the bathroom. We did eat there a couple of times and the food was really good, as was the company of the gorgeous Alsatian dog called Tiger. I think the garden was the best thing about this hotel, it was a lovely calm sanctuary away from the stresses of Agra. There was plenty of outside seating surrounded by pretty bougainvillea bushes and other flowers and plants. As the hotel was so close to the Taj Mahal, we thought we would be harassed by the souvenir sellers and rickshaw drivers whenever we left the hotel but we were not bothered at all. We were left alone to walk from the hotel to the Taj Mahal, which was a very pleasant surprise.

TAJ MAHAL

The Taj Mahal was why we had come to Agra, and we wasted no time in going to see it. I was slightly concerned that it might not live up to our expectations. I needn’t have worried, it was everything we imagined it would be. The poet Rabindranath Tagore described the Taj Mahal as a ‘tear on the face of eternity’, I would say that it is one of the world’s most beautiful buildings. The day we visited the Taj Mahal we were actually pleased that it was so incredibly hot. It meant that there were hardly any other visitors walking round, we were able to really take our time and take lots of photographs of this amazing monument. The layout of the Taj Mahal does follow a distinct Islamic theme representing paradise, and yet the fact that it is a monument to love shines through. It was interesting watching how the changing light effected the marble, as the early morning passed to midday, and then into late afternoon, and then into evening. Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal as a shrine to his favourite wife, Arjumand Bann Begum, also known as Mumtaz Mahal. She died after giving birth to her fourteenth child in 1631. One can only imagine how devastated the Shah must have felt to have built this monument to her memory. Building commenced in 1632, with a workforce of 20,000 men, the mausoleum was completed in 1653. Apparently it cost 32 Million Rupees to build. The marble came from Makrana near Jodhpur in Rajasthan. The precious stones, used as decoration, were carried to Agra from all over the world, Afghanistan, China, Persia, Russia, Tibet and the Indian Ocean. We had seen many pictures and photographs of the Taj Mahal before we went to India, as have most people, but none of them compared to seeing the real thing, it is a masterpiece of architecture. It was truly overwhelming. I don’t think there are any words I can write to express the experience, that would do justice to the Taj Mahal. We spent practically all day walking round admiring it from every angle. The gardens at the Taj Mahal are very pleasant too, as is the view over the Jamuna river. At one point we sat down to rest and drink some water, we were soon joined by a large group of young children. The younger ones in the family came and stood right next to us. We knew what was coming next, they wanted to take photos and have their photo taken with us. We were happy to oblige, a couple of the young girls wanted to touch my face and my skin. I have very pale skin, I guess they found it interesting, they gently touched my face and hands, which resulted in them falling about giggling! Although we spent hours walking round the complex the time went so fast, we were both very happy, we had finally seen the Taj Mahal, and it was absolutely stunning.

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We left the Taj Mahal and walked back to our hotel for a drink. After a perfect day we slept very well that night. The next day we wanted to visit Agra Fort, so we took an auto rickshaw.

AGRA FORT

Agra Fort is only about 2km from our hotel so it didn’t take too long to get there. The fort was built between 1565 and 1573, in the form of a half moon, on top of the remains of earlier Rajput fortifications. The construction was a family affair, Akbar built the walls and gates, Shah Jahan his grandson, constructed most of the principal buildings, and Aurangzeb, the last great emperor, constructed the red sandstone ramparts, which dominate a bend in the River Yamuna. The fort was massive with huge gates, although most of them are closed to the public. Every surface of the fort is engraved or decorated in various ways, some of which looked like piped icing. There were no areas left plain, on some parts the red sandstone was decorated with white detail which really stood out against its darker background. Most of the ornate details on the stone were in amazing condition, it all looked very fresh. We spent a long time walking round Agra Fort, which like the Taj Mahal was not very busy with tourists. Once again though, whilst we were sitting in the shade admiring the view, we were approached by some children who wanted their photo taken with us. They also wanted to practice their English with us too. Everywhere we went the people were so warm and welcoming.

ITMAD-UD-DAULAH

Itmad-Ud-Daulah is sometimes referred to as the ‘Baby Taj’. It is the beautiful tomb of Mirza Ghiyath Beg, who was a member of Akbar’s court and father-in-law of Emperor Jahangir. Itmad-Ud-Daulah sits on the east bank of the Yamuna, surrounded by gardens that seem popular with monkeys. It was designed by Nur Jahan, Ghiyath Beg’s daughter, the most powerful women in Moghul history and favourite queen of Jahangir. He respected her so much so that he had coins minted in her name, and by the time her father died in 1622 she had immense control over the empire. Like the Taj Mahal, Itmad-Ud-Daulah is constructed using beautiful white marble, but it is substantially smaller and has a pavilion on its roof and not a dome. Sadly poor quality restoration has left clumps of plaster covering the exquisite detail, and the semiprecious stones that were embedded into the marble have been stolen. The grave of Ghiyath Beg is underground next to his wife’s sarcophagus. A wall in front of the entrance to the grave has been intricately carved, casting a hazy light over the symbols of paradise, paintings of flowers, cypresses, vases and wine vessels in the inner chamber.

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We were loving every minute of our time in India, and now we had seen the Taj Mahal and lots of other interesting sites in Agra we were ready to move on. We got another auto rickshaw from Agra Fort to the Taj View Hotel, Taj Ganj. We wanted a nice cool drink in five star surroundings. We agreed a price with the rickshaw driver and set off. It wasn’t too long before we realised that he had absolutely no idea where he was going! I guess most people don’t arrive at the Taj View Hotel by rickshaw, maybe he hadn’t been there before? Anyway, he had to stop and ask someone for directions, and then we were on our way again. As soon as we walked through the doors of the Taj View, we were hit full in the face by the wonderfully cold air conditioning. It was bliss and not long before we were cold all over. We found the bar, where we settled in for the next few hours. The staff were friendly and brought us lots of snacks which were very tasty. We are not usually big fans of air conditioning, but in this heat wave it was much appreciated. We were so comfortable lounging on the huge soft sofas in the bar that we didn’t want to leave. Eventually we dragged ourselves out to a waiting taxi which took us back to the Sheela Hotel. We would be up early the following morning to catch a train to Jaipur.

JAIPUR

The train journey from Agra to Jaipur was not the most pleasant train ride we have ever experienced. We were unable to secure any seats, which meant we had to stand for the whole journey. We stood at one end of a carriage by the door, along with about six men. There were rough wooden beds inside the carriages, and we were invited to lay on them, but it was even hotter in there than where we were standing. At least the door remained open for the journey, so we did get the odd bit of breeze, although it was not exactly a cool breeze. After a while we managed to perch our bottoms on some metal trunks, which gave our legs a bit of a rest. There were lots of cockroaches crawling on the floor by our feet, but they didn’t seem to bother anyone, and we weren’t hungry, so we left them to it! The train was overloaded with passengers, which did not help with the heat. We were both pleased when the train pulled into the station in Jaipur.

Oceania