Sunday 27th January 2008

Sunday 27th January 2008
Up early this morning for a tour of the Taj Mahal. Quick history lesson: Agra was the capital of the Mogul Dynasty which encompassed most of the modern India. In the early 1600’s its emperor was Shah Jehan who loved art and architecture and built most of the elaborate buildings in the area, most notably, the Taj Mahal, recently voted #1 of the 7 manmade wonders of the world. Mumtaj Mahal, favourite of the Emperor’s 3 wives died in 1630 (39 years old) during her 14th birth and Shah Jehan started building the Taj Mahal, her tomb, in 1631 out of white marble using 20,000 craftsmen from Persia. The building took 17 years, walls and gardens a further 5 - 22 in total. The descendants of the 20,000 Persian workers still live in Agra using the same techniques and tools as their forefathers. Shah Jehan’s youngest son Orangeev killed his 3 older brothers in order to be made emperor and then arrested his own father in 1658 for spending too much of the royal treasury. He was held under house arrest at the Palace (“Red Fort”) until he died 8 years later. He was allowed to visit the Taj Mahal on Fridays. Next stop, a Persian carpet shop. Watched the artisans make the carpets. Too beautiful to pass up the chance to grab one, so we did, along with a couple of table runners. Third stop, Red Fort. Another magnificent building, but unfortunately this one has been let go and poorly maintained. Kaz was quite upset and feels called to rebuke the Indian Govt and restore Red Fort. Our guide, RJ, has amazing hair growth on his ears (that’s right, on, not in! Koala ears!) 4th stop, a marble artisan shop. These guys are so clever. They carve out elaborate patterns with chisels and scrapers and then inlay semi-precious stones into the marble. Their work is stunning and compared to home, quite cheap, but still expensive nonetheless. 5th stop, lunch. Sick of curry 3 meals a day. In 4 weeks we haven’t seen any “western” restaurants, so when we spotted the one Pizza Hut in India, the choice was simple. We shouted Govind to his first ever Pizza and headed off for Ranthambore, a trip the travel agent assured me was about 2 hours. Govind knew better and cringed as he told us it would be closer to 6! Go like the Vind, Govind! Longest road trip yet and by the end I was well and truly over Govind’s radical braking technique which threw you through the front windscreen as we approached every one of the 3½ thousand speed humps and potholes on the way. Maddi carsick. Arrived at our 4 star hotel to find it much closer to a 3 star – no hot water, our ‘private pool’ was empty, freezing cold, etc. Hopefully we’ll see tigers tomorrow on our jungle safari! Pete