Incredible India: a voyage with Robyn and Sara

Day 9: Agra- Delhi

We didn’t get up early for what was described in our itinerary as “a spectacular sunrise tour of the Taj Mahal” because you couldn’t see a thing out of our window. So instead we had a leisurely breakfast and left the hotel at 9am. This is the foyer of the hotel.

The hotel is very close to the Taj so we got a golf cart to drive us the 500 metres to the entrance. By this time, the fog had lifted enough…

Emperor Shah Jahan built this exquisite white marble mausoleum for his favourite queen Mumtaz Mahal. The monument was commissioned in 1631 and took 20,000 artisans, 22 years to complete.

He is considered to be one of the greatest Mughals and his reign has been called the Golden Age of Mughals. Shah Jahan erected many splendid monuments, the most famous of which is the Taj. He also erected the Pearl Mosque at Agra, the palace and great mosque at Delhi, and was the founder of Shahjahanabad, now known as “Old Delhi”.

You were given blue coverings for your feet when you entered the mausoleum.

As I told you yesterday, there was no love lost between Shah Jahan and his successor son. I felt sorry for Shah Jahan because his son imprisoned him. But there’s always two sides to the story……..Despite his building achievements, Shah Jahan was a nasty piece of work. The Taj Mahal was estimated to have cost around 32 million rupees when it was completed in 1653 (equivalent to about $827 million in 2015 dollars.) To fund the building, he used Treasury funds. This was at a time when there was war which had left the area in a total famine. The entire Mughal Granary was emptied to feed the construction workers on the Taj Mahal. The diversion of essential food items worsened the famine, causing the death of millions of civilians. So not such a nice guy after all….

After the visit to the Taj, we drove to Delhi which was a distance of about 200 kms. It took us 2 hours to get to Delhi and then another 2 hours to drive the 18 kms to our hotel. The traffic is chaotic; lanes are just suggestions; they overtake wherever they want and push in wherever they want, and there is continual beeping of horns! On the back of most of the trucks are the words “Blow horn” or “Blow your horn please.” Here’s a selection of the vehicles on the motorway.

The Oberoi hotel at Gurgaon is very different from all the others we have stayed in to date. It is located in a high tech area and is modern in style. It doesn’t have the same charm as the other hotels. And there’s even Trump Tower within the hotel complex.

Our last dinner…..has been a really interesting trip

Robyn used all her charm to get us a very late checkout (6 pm) tomorrow.

Some observations that come to mind when I think of my Indian experience:

• Traffic chaos, horns beeping continually
• rubbish everywhere
• mainly male assistants in shops, even wedding dress shops
• Fruit is a very small part of their culinary experience
• amazing saris, used for daily living (not just special occasions)
• little children peddling their wares
• cows often in the middle of urban areas

That’s it for now. Thanks for joining me