Day 5 continued
We arrived at the entrance area to the Taj Mahal around 10:30, just as the fog was starting to lift, thank goodness. It seemed there was quite a walk form the drop off point to the actual entrance, and we had a choice of 'Battery Van' (golf cart!) or camel drawn cart. We paid a little extra (S50) for the camel cart experience and hopped in the cart with Ravi while the driver whipped and encouraged the camel. At the ticket counter, we retrieved our 'souvenir' - a taj bag with a water and foot coverings, which we would be needing later. We entered through a long windings queue area, fortunately there was no real queue to speak of, although there were tons of people around. I (Nix) had to enter through the foreign woman's queue, to be felt up again by the police. Only cameras and phones allowed in the Taj...
Inside the area we saw the large gate towards the Taj, and Ravi pulled us aside to explain the story of the Taj. We had not yet seen the majestic monument, and i could feel the excitement in the air and butterflies in my stomach. He explained that Shah Jahan's favourite wife was given the name Mumtaz Mahal, meaning the most precious crown in the palace. She was a beautiful woman... She was the only wife he had children with, and she bore him 17, although many died at birth. After all these births, she knew she would not live long. She made her husband promise four things:
1. That he would look after her parents after her death
2. He would never marry another woman
3. That he would build a magical monument to her, and their great love, and
4. That he would be buried near her, so that their souls could meet
So Shah Jahan built the most amazing monument in the whole world, a whole new and unique form of architecture. The building took 12 years, 20,000 labourers and was competed in 1643.
Ravi also then warned us about the 'photography mafia', apparently these photographers around the Taj are formed into a mafia, and the guides are obliged to strongly recommend that tourists use them. Ravi said that no matter how strongly he or the photographer insisted, we should rather say no, unless we wanted to pay Rs150 per photo. Some went along with it, and very politely told the guy that we already had a good camera and knew how to use it. It wasn't too much hassle...
Finally the time came to go through the North gate and see what we had been waiting for. As we emerged, the Taj appeared, glowing white in what was left of the fog, perfectly symmetrical and more beautiful than any picture could ever show. I must admit, I have never felt emotional about a building before, but something about this monument to love just melted my heart.
Ravi then proceeded to act as our photographer, directing us in a multidue of poses all around the Taj. He did a pretty good job and we were really grateful to have photos of the the two of us together. We posed together on the famous 'Diana bench' (where Princess Diana had her picture taken when she visited), and Ravi made to to shout at anyone who got in the way of the shot. It was crowded, but not unpleasantly so, although I wished I could have been alone with the Taj and my camera...
We then ran into Bin and Feng, our Chinese friends from the train, and were pleased for them that they made it, even though they had missed their train to Jaipur. Ravi took our photo with them, jokingly telling them it would cost them 100USD... We swapped email addresses and went our separate ways, hoping we would still meet up again on a future leg of the journey.
Ravi explained to us about the wooden foundations of the Taj - apparently the Turkish architect took no chances, and made sure the monument was earthquake proof by building a foundation of wood, ebony. He also needed the wood to be wet for at least 100 years, so he built it in the river Yamuna. Today the river has dried up a lot more, and now flows around the Taj. The minarets are also designed to lean slightly away from the main mausoleum, so that if they ever fall, they will to damage the building. Finally, he put copper in the dome of the mausoleum in case it got struck by lightening.
We had a brief look at the twin mosques on the East and West side of the Taj. Only be could really be used, as it faced Mecca. The other had to be built to balance out the land, and also to keep things symmetrical.
It was time to don our stylish shoe covers and enter the tomb... We climbed a few stairs, and reached the entrance where Ravi pointed out the amazing inlay work done on the marble. They used tiny fragments of semi precious stones to inlay into the white marble, creating incredibly intricate and beautiful floral motifs. Varying colors were used from the various stones, with the most famous being Indian Carnelian, which is said to glow orange when a light is shined directly on it.
We entered the tomb where no photography was allowed. It too was decorated with amazing inlay work, showing flowers in lovely patterns. Mumtaz's cenataph is directly in the middle of the tomb. Shah Jahan's is beside hers, towards the left, as it was added later. Shah tried to build his own tomb, in black marble across the river, but was unfortunately prevented from completing his next project when he was imprisoned by his son. After his death, his daughters convinced the new emperor (his son) to allow them to bury their father next to their mother. I'm sure this is what Mumtaz would have wanted...
After a few more pics and a closer look at the mosque, it was time to go. We felt we could easily have spent a whole day there, just sitting and looking up at the beauty of the monument... But unfortunately time did not allow, and we still had to squeeze in some forced shopping before driving all the way to Jaipur...
We were driven to a marble inlay workshop, where we were shown how the semi precious stones were cut by hand, and then glued into a pattern in the marble, before finally being sanded down and smoothed out. The result was astonishing, and they showed us some incredible pieces, mostly huge heavy table tops that shone when a light was switched on below them. The prices were very high, and not really an option for us, although we did try to bargain hard and eventually walked out with two of the smallest pieces.
We said our goodbyes to Ravi, and set off towards Rajasthan, for the next chapter of our adventure. We grabbed a quick lunch of veg and paneer pakora en route, and had another stop for chai. I really enjoyed the Rajasthani countryside - green fields of wheat and mustard seed, with rural women dressed beautifully in bright coloured saris working in the fields or walking on the roads carrying sticks or pots on their heads. They were captivating and I tried my best to get a few photographs out of the windows, tricky at the speed we were going. We also saw many trucks, brightly decorated and painted, with words like 'horn please' and 'stop' written on them, all in the same style. We saw camel carts carrying all manner of goods, buffaloes, brick factories and even monkeys hitching a ride.
Before long we got to Jaipur, probably about a five hour drive in total. Initially, we drove through the old city, and I enjoyed the old Mughal style buildings, which were apparently being restored. This part of the city had a different feel to the rest of India we had seen thus far. Then we entered the new city, parts of which were just as run down and filthy as the other cities, and then other parts which were by far more modern and nicer than any other city we had seen, even Delhi...
We checked into the Ratan Niwas hotel, which was kind of what I had expected - it is a heritage hotel typical of the region, where they take old mansions from bygone years and convert them into hotels. The room was spacious and clean, with pretty painted decorations on the walls and ceilings, and a small sitting area on the floor. The only complaint was that the bed was clearly designed for very short people, even I had to curl my legs!
Mr Narender was waiting for us, and took us on a long drive to 'Chokhi Dhani' a Rajasthani cultural village and tourist spot. It is somewhat outside of the the city, and took us at least 45 minutes to get there in the traffic. Once there, we walked around and discovered it to be like a cultural fairground, with rides, games, camels, bullock carts, elephants, musicians and dancers, magicians, boat rides... They had everything, in a really fun atmosphere, the whole place beautifully decorated to resemble the various aspects of Rajasthani village life. The weather was warmer than Agra, and pleasant to be wearing just a light jacket.
We found the eating area, and were directed to remove our shoes and wash our hands, before being shown to two seats on the ground in a long row of people. There were many tourists there, but I'd say 90% of them were Indian or of indian origin. We had a large plate and 5 bowls in front of us, all of which appeared to be made out of leaves, with a clay cups and a spoon. The waiters, traditionally dressed, then served us a multitude of different dishes, breads, rice, pickles, etc, followed by sweet mixtures, one I think was Iike rice pudding and the other nut based. Everything was spicy and delicious, although we avoided the water and salad. We spent the rest of the evening ambling around, taking photos, playing games, buying trinkets and generally enjoying ourselves, before meeting Mr Narender at 9:30 to head back for bed. Tomorrow we do a full day tour of Jaipur, can't wait. It's the first time we actually spend two nights in a place, what a luxury!
No comments:
Post a Comment