Tin Amigos - Agra

After one night's sleep in my Gurgaon bubble, we were on the road again, bright and early. This time we headed south to Agra, then on to Jaipur and Ranthambore - a proper Rajasthani road trip, complete with a mini-van and my ever-patient driver, Devindar.

Our first stop of the trip was Agra, about four hours south of Delhi. Agra is a paradise of Mughal architecture. I had heard from friends that it wasn't a very pleasant city, but I found myself liking it. Surprisingly green, the streets are lined with trees, and though there's the normal chaos of any Indian city, it seems to essentially be a normal, mid-sized town. We started off at Sikandra, with Akbar's Tomb. I hadn't even heard of the tomb before, but I truly loved it, and though it may be sacrilege, I actually preferred Sikandra to the Taj. It was largely empty, save a few lovebirds hanging out in the arcades around the tomb, and the colors are the deep, rusty red that is so common in Mughali architecture, as well as creamy whites and bold blue and gold. It's just beautiful, and you can go down into the crypt to the grave site itself. When we were there, one of the attendants was chanting prayers to show off the booming acoustics of the room. It's amazing to think the monument itself is well over four hundred years old, and yet still enjoys significant numbers of visitors and a degree of deference that is often not shown to more modern heroes.

After Sikandra, we headed to the main event, the Taj Mahal. To try and minimize the impact of pollution on the Taj, no fuel vehicles are allowed within a certain radius of the gardens and buildings. What this boils down to is that you have to pay a ridiculous fee for an electric golf cart or a camel cart to take you the last 200 yards to the Taj. But, it's still peanuts in the grand scheme of things, so we quickly got over it. Having left Delhi at 6:30am, we arrived at the Taj in the heat of the day. Even still, it was chock-a-block with Indian tourists, and everyone clambering over one another to get the perfect picture. We joined in the melee and took our turn taking pictures. The Taj is lovely. It's somehow smaller than I expected, but every bit as beautiful as it is storied to be. I imagine that Shah Jahan envisioned it as a serene place, but that's not true in the peak of tourist hours. When I go back, I would either like to try to get one of the special full-moon tickets, or go at dawn or dusk, when the air is cooler and the gardens more empty. After wandering through the gardens and inside the mausoleum with our guide, we were pretty beat. The Indian sun drains you quickly, and we very soon sought the shade of one of the arcades surrounding the garden, and admired the Taj again from afar.

Post-Taj, our guide took us to a shop where he claimed the very descendants of those who built the Taj continue to work. We saw a nice demonstration of how piedra dura, the precious stone-inlaid marble in the Taj, is made and then were expected to buy samples at truly exorbidant prices. I quickly made my escape, grateful for the edification, and for escapting with my wallet. We headed out of Agra on the Agra-Jaipur road, with Jaipur as our final destination for the evening. Along the way, we stopped briefly at Fatehpur Sikri, a city that the Mughals built and then abandoned after just 13 years. The city still stands, almost in its entirety, and the mosque is an active place of worship for both tourist and locals. Although it's beautiful, especially in the late evening light, there are more vendors, touts, and hangers-on per square inch in Fatehpur Sikri than anywhere else I've been in India. And, they do not leave you alone. Needless to say, it got old really fast. I was glad that we stopped, but even more glad to get on the road again.

Another four or five hours and we were safely ensconced in the Hotel Narain Niwas Palace in Jaipur. A former maharajah's palace, now turned Heritage Hotel, the Narain Niwas occupies a whole city block in downtown Jaipur. Though it could have been cheaper, and perhaps more posh, I really loved the garden restaurant, the quaint buildings, and the very accommodating staff. We had a good night's rest, and an ample breakfast before heading out to Ranthambore, by way of Lassiwalla, best lassi shop in Jaipur.