Ok, so I know that this is a picture intense post, but the pictures are worth a thousand words. The Taj Mahal is a beautiful structure and the surrounding buildings are gorgeous as well. We spent a few hours walking the grounds and admiring the buildings, including the main structure. Which is basically a tomb for Mumtaz Mahal, Emperor Shah Jahan's third wife, who died giving birth to their fourteenth child. He is entombed there as well, although the actual tombs have been closed to the public for a few years now as the sheer number of visitors each year became impossible to handle down in the lower parts of the building. So now there are replicas in the main part of the building, but no photography is allowed inside the Taj, nor are shoes.
We took the fastest train in India, The Shatabdi Express, to Agra and it was so worth it. The cars are air conditioned, very roomy seats and lots of legroom, breakfast and dinner are served and it took half the time a car would have. The kids really enjoyed watching the scenery as we flew by and the train didn't bother Tarini like car rides do, so definitely the only way we could have gone that far. The only down side to taking the train is the length of time you have to be gone. The train only goes to Agra once in the morning and back to Delhi in the evening. The morning train leaves Delhi at 6 am and the return train doesn't leave for Delhi until 8:30 at night. So you can imagine how long of a day that is for a 3 and 5 year old. It was worth it...once! :) It was a very long 19 hours for all of us and we were never so happy to hear the train announcer say "Delhi, next station". However, the day was not over for us when we arrived at the train station in Delhi. We found an auto rickshaw driver to take us to our hotel and verified that they knew where our hotel was. It was confirmed that we were very near, maybe ten minutes. As we took off we were going the right direction but then things got a little hairy. Our driver suddenly was unsure and we proceeded to go around and around Connaught Circle and surrounding streets for an hour and a half. Eric convinced him to stop and get directions...TWICE! Finally another driver took pity on us and our young driver and started us off in the right direction. We were mere minutes from our hotel the entire time, but the way the streets are laid out here it is very easy to miss your target if you aren't right on. So it turned into a 20+ hour day and we fell into our beds at our hotel, dirty and still fully clothed. We have never slept so soundly, but unfortunately we only had four hours to sleep by that time as we had to catch a very early morning flight to Bangalore. So enjoy the pictures from our day and see that it was worth it in the end.
view from the train
Can you see the bags above our heads? They fall off at times...worried about that the entire way.
Happy boy, enjoying his breakfast on the train.
Gateway to the Taj Mahal
inside the gateway
Our guide insisted on trying to get the kids to take one of those silly pictures where it looks like you are holding a large building. As you can see, it is a little off, but such a cute picture of Tarini.
Checking out the incredible stones that are inlaid into the white marble.
Some of the stones in the marble include jasper, jade, crystal, turquoise, lapis lazuli, sapphire and carnelian. In all, twenty eight types of precious and semi-precious stones are inlaid into the white marble.
Taj Mahal mosque
After visiting the Taj, we decided to get out of the heat and sun and we were able to watch some artisans at work. The men were inlaying semi-precious stones into white marble just as is in the Taj Mahal. It is still done the same way it has been done for centuries with the same two tools and ancient recipe for adhesive and it requires great skill. We were allowed to have a go at it and failed miserably, barely scratching the surface of the marble.
carving the marble to make way for the stones
laying the stones into the adhesive in the carvings
shaping the stones to fit the carvings
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