Agra Take Two!

The second day in Agra we binged on all the local tourist attractions, being zoomed around in the relative safety of an autorickshaw with a sober driver.

Of course, the first stop was the breath taking Taj Mahal. We got a sneak peek from our hotel’s rooftop balcony (probably the hotel’s only redeeming quality). We passed the rigorous security scan and were stripped of all dangerous goods including our guidebook! Of course they held it in safekeeping until we returned. Emperor Shah Jahan built the Taj as a memorial for his wife after she died while birthing her 14^th child. Apparently the Emperor was devastated after death and turned grey overnight (hmmm could it have something to do with the fact that he would be raising 14 kids on his own?). The structure is a massive display of intricate marble work inlaid with jade and other precious stones.

After sufficient gawking we swung by the train station to book our ticket for the next day’s journey. We queued up at one of the windows and turned a blind eye as one person cut in front of us. When it happened a second time, Adam confronted the offender. It is astonishing how two people can have such a heated argument yet not comprehend a word the other is saying! Towards the end, the humour of the situation got to Adam and he just chuckled a little which completely confounded this fellow. He whipped open a folder and pulled out some papers with a picture of himself in uniform stapled to them, Adam shrugged, whipped out his wallet and pulled out the first card he came across- his library card! The man studied the card intensely; initially he seemed pretty convinced that it was some important piece of I.D, but obviously not impressed enough to back down. Nevertheless, the crowd behind us seemed distracted enough by the antics to not push in front of us. So far Indians seem very curious and appear to love a little drama served up with their Brahma.

Train tickets in hand we set off for more sights. We also checked out the massive Agra Fort, another tomb known as the baby Taj because of it’s many similar design elements, and soaked in one last view of the Taj’s backside from across the river.

There were some military personnel preventing us from getting too close to the river’s edge because of a dignitary visiting the Taj Mahal…. who other then our very own Prime Minister, Stephen Harper!

We returned to our hotel rooftop for dinner, enjoying our temporary reprieve from the dusty, noisy chaos in the streets below. It was fascinating watching the action without actually being tangled up in it. I have decided that the reason that Indians have perfected the art of finding inner peace through meditation is simply because there is no outer peace to be had here (at least none that we have found yet).

Dinner entertainment was the ever-present monkey side show as the cheeky little primates jumped from trees to rooftops stirring up whatever trouble they dared. We even saw one pinch a pair of trousers from a washing line and haul it three rooftops away before rifling through the pockets and casting them aside.

Each day seems to be getting a little better… sometimes I think the best way of dealing with the difficulties here is to find the humour in them and most of the time that isn’t too hard to do.