agra

While in Agra we went to the Taj Mahal, pizza hut, stayed at a fancy hotel and went to a fancy store full of decorated marble and stone.
Before getting there we stopped at a sort of red palace/fort, I forget what it was called maybe Agra fort, but it had large courtyards, and beautiful architecture. There were not that many tourists there, but a group of Indian boys gathered at a pool near by that seemed to have a dive of about 30-40 feet into dirty water (with no visible exit). After about 10 minutes of trying to get money for us on a dare to jump in several of the boys did. They seemed to have a good time. We didn’t realize how deep the water was, but after we left they continued to swim and dive.

Many of the hotels we stayed in India seemed incredibly expensive. They were all 4 stars at least, and were far better than most of us expected. I was sort of frustrated with them, but when kids started getting sick (and I did) I realized how nice it was to sooth the traveler’s frustrations to have the extra luxury. I also checked the price at one of the hotels and found out that a single cost about $65 so considering the hotels in Morris cost the same, it didn’t seem unreasonable (from the leadership point of view) to have us living in such comfort.
The hotel in Agra had a small shopping mall in it, 2 restaurants on the 2nd floor and a view down in to the lobby that made me feel a little light headed.. (we were on like the 8th floor). The mall had 3-4 clothes shops, a music store, and some statue stores. The prices were much higher than what we had seen elsewhere.
Many of us Pizza hut for dinner.
The interior of the pizza hut seemed western enough. They were out of most of the western style toppings. (pepperoni, sausage) they also did not have breadsticks, or chicken wings or potato wedges all of which were on the menu. A few kids got the Indian chicken, most of us got cheese. They did sell mountain dew (a rarity outside of the US).

The day we went to the Taj Mahal was a Muslim holy day and due to the enormous crowd and threats of terrorism, security was high. We were dropped off at a park a few blocks from one of the main entrances. A sidewalk through the park lead us to the security checkpoint at the gate. Along the way we were hassled by boys trying to sell us postcards, pictures and statues. At the gate you had to throw away anything that wasn’t essential… meaning no garbage, no candy, no food. When we entered it became clear that people were in a rush to get to the Mosque next to the Mausoleum. The crowd was all men and boys, we were told that they split the times so as to make it more orderly. The neighborhoods nearby are predominantly Muslim areas and the Taj Mahal itself though a symbol of India is identified as Muslims structures…. Still Pakistan, and Pakistani rebels in India have been threatening to blow it up for quite a while.
Anyway… the first court yard leads in to the second, which is where you get the traditional view with the pools and gardens.
To the left is a giant red Mosque, and to the right is another red Mosque looking structure that was under construction.
Thousands were headed toward the Mosque to pray, I took videos of the crowd leaving…
You have to take off your shoes before going up-similar to at a mosque. The Taj Mahal Mausoleum is smaller on the inside than you would think. The crowd is sort of pushed through, you do a ring around the main tomb structure and then walk out. The outside is very beautiful, with calligraphy and colored stone art chiseled in. Behind the Taj Mahal is a river and river basin, we saw a camel caravan being lead along the river.

After the hype wore off, we were taken to a store that specialized in high price pieces of art with similar designs and craftsmanship as the Taj Mahal. They sat us down, offered us drinks and gave us a demonstration of the product –basically chiseled marble in-laced with other stones. Really beautiful stuff but well beyond most of our budgets.

The salesmanship style was similar to the carpet shows in India, Turkey and Morocco.

We spent a lot of time looking at the different products, but the store was really expensive. I’m sure our guide got a cut for of anything we purchased for bringing us there. The salesman style makes westerners feel really uncomfortable because we feel bad when someone shows us such hospitality… we think we should really pay them back by buying their products, and they know this… so the more tea or pop or cookies or whatever they offer. The more they make you feel at home, the more they show you how good their product is…. Ooh Americans buy it up.