Day 125. Kyle & Leanne joint blog.

It’s always an early rise on our yearlong trek but today it is really so — 5:45 am but worth every minute of lost sleep. 

We witness the majestic, stunning, magnificent, inspirational, eye-dropping and timelessness of the Taj Mahal as the sun rose behind us.  Our eyes widen as they witnessed such a beauty! A jewel really - THE Jewel of India. Sometimes a landmark can’t possibly live up to its hype.  But this Taj Mahal does and some!  

The story behind it is equally fascinating - it was built as a mausoleum for the 5th Mughal emperor Shah Jahan’s favorite wife who died at age 38 while giving birth to their 14th child (over 19 years). The Shah, who commissioned this structure, was notably heartbroken after the death of Mumtaz so this monument was his therapy we suppose. 

Shah Jahan was getting ready to pass the emperor title and power to his first true-born son but his 3rd son was having none of it.  The 3rd son was a valiant warrior and commander of the army.  Under his reign, he significantly expanded the Mughal Empire and as a result, he had the popular support of the people in addition to a loyal army at his disposal.  Not a good combo for son #1 who essentially spent his life drinking and waiting for his father to die while accomplishing nothing, all of which did not garner much support with the people. In a move to gain power before his father could name son #1 the Emperor, son #3 imprisoned his father and had son #1 and son #2 killed.  Son #3 would have been right at home in Game of Thrones.  

This imprisonment prevented Shah Jahan from ever visiting his beloved Taj Mahal again.  He would only be able to look at it from afar - across the river at Agra Fort from his terrace.  Pinning away, he actually died on the terrace looking over the Taj. 

This beautiful Mughal architectural feat took 22 years (1631 to 1653) and 20,000+ workers to complete. Our guide says that other guides are fond of telling the story that after completion of the Taj Mahal, Shah Jahan had every workers hands chopped off so that a grander version of the Taj Mahal could never be built but that the story has no merit. 

We spend a good two hours watching the sun rise over the beautiful marble building brightening it up for us as we all stroll the long approach through the fountains.  Because we were early we had a great opportunity to get countless photos without too many random heads popping here and there.  But it’s already quite a crowd here at 6 am but we’re sure it will be many times worse later in the day.  

The hawkers were impressively on the job at 6 am too to get a start on their daily revenues. Our guide warns of us of the aggressive nature of the hawkers, but it is noticeably less aggressive than in Jaipur.  In fact, we assess that the Jaipur hawkers make the Agra hawkers look like amateur hour in the kindergarten school lot.   

The first thing that impressively struck us was the pristine condition of the monument.  The Taj Mahal is made of white marble which has been preserved amazingly well for 350+ years.  By contrast some of the other forts and palaces we saw from the same time period made of other substances such as red sandstone did not hold up nearly as well.  The second thing is the perfect symmetry.  Not just of the mausoleum itself but the entire property.  Every gate, every fountain, every minar (column) is identical and the exact same distance from the middle.

The Taj lived up to its high expectations and now the crew has hit #2 of the 7 Wonders of the Modern World (The Great Wall of China was the first). 

After a quick stop back at the hotel for breakfast we think, “what can we possibly see after the Taj Mahal? We might as well rest the rest of the day.” But not this crew!

We visit Agra Fort, Mini-Taj, and the first Mughal emperor Babar’s 500 year old Garden. But the rest of the day relates to the Taj, as Agra Fort was where the Shah was imprisoned with just a view of his creation.  The Mini-Taj was a mausoleum for the grandparents of the wife enshrined the Taj Mahal (Mumtaz) and most probably inspired the Taj’s architects.  And the Garden is directly across the Yamuna River giving us an afternoon view over the Taj Mahal. 

The Agra Fort is a UNESCO site that warrants our full attention but our guide Zaheed senses the 5:45am wake up call might take its toll as he asks “you want to see entire palace or just the highlights?” As we stand there trying to figure out if he will be offended if we opt for the highlights, he answers his own question “yes, the highlights it is.”  The palace is gigantic so just the highlights still takes two hours.  We see Shah Jahan’s palace where he was imprisoned and decide it’s still a pretty suite set-up (better than the dungeon).

The Mini-Taj is the least crowded site we’ve seen on the trip.  At one point, I think we were the only tourists in the entire park which has pretty expansive grounds.  Apparently the millions of visitors to the Taj Mahal deem the Mini-Taj unworthy of a visit.  The poor enshrined people of the Mughal dynasty (there are over 100 here) get no love competing against the big Taj. 

We retire early to the hotel at 3 pm which actually isn’t that early since we’ve been going since 5am. Kyle goes down to the hotel bakery to fill out postcards while Leanne naps.  There is a television showing cricket highlights. Kyle asks the waiter about how the game is played.  When the waiter realizes that Kyle knows nothing beyond that “it’s kind of like baseball, right?” he launches into cricket 101.  At the end of the lesson, Kyle concludes, “yes, I knew it, just like baseball.” The waiter shakes his head and laughs thinking “those silly American’s and their baseball.” 

We have another fun dinner all together at the Sunset Lounge enjoying chicken Swarma and more Indian fare.  Indian food has climbed up the ladder of food popularity during the week we’ve enjoyed in India.  There is a young man pitching that he will do a puppet show for us.  It’s kind of technically free without really being free – “you pay me what you think I deserve,” he says.  The kids get dressed up in traditional Indian outfits and orchestrate the puppet show with him.  Everyone had a good time as the guy looks expectantly at me.  “You deserve to give us a truly free show,” Kyle says.  The puppet man looks utterly baffled not realizing Kyle is joking and looks very relieved when Kyle gives him the real tip.