Hem Ray, our driver, said that the company would provide a tour guide if we wanted one. He never gave us his name. Except for taking a few good pictures of us and stating the obvious, his constant press for speed was a greater negative than any positive he may have had to offer. His English was not that good and he kept repeating the same facts over and over again. "The last emperor, Aurangzeeb, he was bad. He only cared about his Moslem faith, was intolerant of others and mean to his father, the great Shah Jahan, who constructed the Taj Mahal. He'd been the younger of Shah Jahan's sons, killed his brother and then imprisoned his father. And, he was always hurrying us. That's what drove me nuts, so much so, that we didn't hire him the next day.
Parking for the Taj was restricted to a few hundred metres from the entrance to protect the Taj from car fumes. The walk down was pretty much crowd free which surprised me because it was already 9:00. The barricades for tickets were set for Disney length lines. It was just a matter of time of walking through the gate to see, and is say it again, one of the most amazing sites of my life. The Taj looms out of the distance as if In a dream, a beautiful tribute to a man's wife and perhaps to all men's wives. It looked as if its constructed of lace, it's appearance is so delicate from a distance, amazing considering its size and marble construction material. Not surprisingly, we took about a million pictures from all different angles, many without other people in them.
The sheer size and mass of the structure became apparent with proximity. Scriptures are written vertically in stone with the lettering getting larger with height giving the illusion that it's all the same size. Flowery designs are made with precious and semi-precious stones embedded in the marble cover the structure. Perhaps it was our guide constantly pressing us to move one but I did not find its inner beauty as compelling as the cathedrals of Europe. I believe it also has to do with the inability of the artist to express his individuality in his art.
Reluctantly, we left the beauty of the place and returned to the car. The heat was becoming oppressive so we had the driver drop us off at Costa Coffee and its air conditioned interior.
The Agra Fort was our destination for the afternoon. Our friend, Jean, from the walking tour hadn't liked seeing the fort second because he wanted the Taj Mahal to be his last memory of the day. The Agra Fort is a massive complex only 20% of which is open to the public "which is a good thing," our guide says, "because otherwise it would take us a whole day to view. Basically, you've got a bunch of red pavilions stripped of their ornamentation and without any attempt by the Indian authorities to recreate the rooms as they might have appeared back in the day. Like the Red Fort, the pavilions are all constructed of red and rugs would have been used to provide privacy and separation between the rooms.
We dropped off the guide and then told our driver that we wanted to see the Taj again. He said that would be very expensive. He suggested that he drive to a park across the river from the Taj where we would get a fantastic view. He was right. We'd been told a few times that Shah Jahan had planned a black Taj across the river. The Lonely Planet said there was no truth to this and investigating this on our own, I would be tempted to agree. There is some brick work laid as well as a cement foundation however, this was for a fountain and not a building. I did use Drugh's suggested phrase Ram, Ram to this man and he seemed genuinely placed responding in kind.
Hem Ray was right. After seeing this the Taj again from the distance of the river's breadth, we didn't feel it necessary to pay to go in again. We did however, revisit the restaurant with the fantastic view of the Taj and by meal's end had had quite enough of this fantastical building.
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