Jennie and Eric's Adventures: Day 2: Agra and the Taj Mahal!

After the treacherous and dangerous drive from Delhi to Agra (6+ hours but only 200 KM~125 Miles), we had a nice evening in Agra with some great Indian food and woke up early to head to the Taj Mahal!

Signs outside the Taj

Getting ready to walk in

First sighting

Door to the entrance

From the archway

Absolutely breathtaking!!!! Seriously, these photos do not even do this justice! It is such an overwhelming structure in person, just amazing! To think it only took 27 years to construct almost 400 years ago is unimaginable.

Arabic writing

Love the reflection...wish there weren't so many people in the way

Different angle

View from the Taj

All carved by hand from one piece of marble

Ditto! Just amazing!

View from the other side of the Taj Mahal

Such an incredible structure

We could have stayed at the site of the Taj Mahal forever. It really was one of the most beautiful structures we have ever seen. After spending most of the morning there, it was off to the Agra fort..but first, to a local factory where they made different pieces by hand

Watching the workers labor

This is an extremely precise art and many of these skills are passed down from generation to generation. They carve out the design (free hand) and then shape the pieces (from the first photo above) and put them in the mold.

These flowers have a minimum of 27 pieces!!!

Carved out, free-hand

Some of the final product!!! This was a 45" (diameter) table and cost about $6000 USD

They offered us a drink and Eric got to try his first "Thumbs Up"...the Indian version of Pepsi and Coke. All the men who work with Eric told him he must try it, so, here goes! It's actually pretty good! Very sweet, though!

We bought a traditional Indian symbol of prosperity called a Ganesha that was carved, by hand, from one piece of marble (so they say). They told us they would carve out whatever we wrote on the bottom as a memory...Pickett Family-India 2010.

This man was a wheeler and dealer...we can't believe all that he "sold" us on!

Off to the Agra Fort! This was a fort built by the king at the time, that was only occupied for approximately 15 years. It had everything!

View of the Taj Mahal from Agra Fort

This is the hole they used to put either hot or cold water in the walls to heat or cool the rooms

View of the road below Agra Fort

View from Agra Fort

Such ornamantation

On to the monkeys...there were so many monkeys on the site of the fort

And they've become quite domesticated....fishing through the garbage for something to drink...

On second thought....maybe not!

More views

More monkeys..this time with "Thumbs Up"

This is a video of monkeys trying to get a try of "Thumbs Up"

Leaving Agra Fort, views of the streets

Another small factory-Indian embroidered tapesteries

Classic ERP

A prayer mat that I really liked

And on to the streets of Agra and we are greeted by Cows

No joke!

Sites of Agra

We decided we wanted to view the Taj Mahal from another side.

We were going to ride this camel down to where we could view the Taj Mahal but the man wanted so much money for it...unfortunately, this is how it is in a lot of places many foreigners travel to...they see that many are able/willing to spend money so they just hound you until you pay them.

We didn't quite give in...he lowered his price by 70% :)

Pretty cool shot. Do I look uneasy? I am! :) I nearly fell off on the way down. If you've ever ridden a camel you know you need to hold on tight on the way up and down because of the angle when the camels get on their knees. This one was a bit different because it wasn't on sand (like the camels I've ridden in Qatar :))...Eric and I both thought I was headed for a trip to the hospital,....luckily, all was good :)