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hey again,
soooo just spent two nights and 2.5 days in Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. out bus left from Jaipur at 6am.. not happy considering i was up sick at 2am and didnt sleep, sucks, but i mished it to the bus stop anyway and endured the 6 hour drive in one piece, thank god.
Agra is a hectic place, its a big crowded city and its dirty obviously but after looking at a few hotel we chose Sai palace, in the middle of the tourist sector and walking distance to the Taj. i think what got us was the circle bed and the view from the toilet to the taj. i kid u not there was a window in the wall from the bathroom to the bedroom giving a clear view thru another window to the taj. what a novelty but we couldnt resist! we only booked 2 nights because theres not that much to do in agra other than the obvious and its not the type of place you like to linger. so we slept most of the first day, i obviously wasnt feeling to flash, we found a internet cafe etc and had dinner on a rooftop resturant, 2 vegie burgers and chips, whilst staring at the taj. not bad not bad. we had an early night coz we were planning on going to the taj for sunrise. Shockingly we actually made the effort to wake at 5am, we attempted showers uder the tap as the shower was a mere freezing dribble that wouldnt get us very far and we walked down the cold, quite, dark alleys towards the taj. after a while lining up and a 750ruppe entry fee!! we made it thru, the gate we entered was beautiful huge and intricatly designed, but nothing compared to the majestic building opposite it, we took so many pictures it bordered on the ridiculous because words cant descirbe the sight when the sun rose over it. amazing. it was almost surreal, even as we look thru our photos it looks like some picturesque backdrop. and its huge. although it seems so much smaller when your inside looking at the tomb that represents the love a man had for his wife. she must have been pretttttty awesome. we had to wear funky red shoe covers whilst walking on it but it didnt look like it had weared at all in its 300years plus of existence so beautiful.
we were there for a few hours then we went back to our hotel for a nap, we had arranged fior a rickshaw driver to pick us up at 11am to do the other sights. we went to agra fort, which is a giant red stone fort with moat and all, inside it has some beauiful white marble buildings etc. from there we went to the baby taj, which is another beautiful white marle with gem inlays tomb, if i remember correctly it actually holds the grandfather of the guy in the taj. then we went to another tomb of a poet that was covered in blue stones although most of it has deteriated. we also went to place across the river behind the taj to get a nice view. then we went to mogal? i think its mogal.. town type place, the rickshaw drivers always do this they show you different 'factories' where u can buy 'cheap' direct from the manufacturer, but they get commision, it was only ealry and we were bored so we agreed. first was a marble smith, they showed us how they carved each tiny pattern by hand from gem stones and places them in marble, crazy detailed and similar to how the taj was built, no wonder it took so long!! then he showed us his workshop, everything was amazing but SO expensive i ended up getting some marble elephant thing coz he was so annoying! but i only payed half of what he said orginally!
then we went to a carpet maker, this was cool, we got to see everything from the wool (from australia and nz) to the patter designs to cleaning, cutting and the end product. but obviously we werent gna buy carpets lol.
then we went to a jewler, which was pretty much just a shop, same price as everywhere and i bought an om sign pendant, so nice but again i only paid 50% of the orginal price coz they always hike it up so much to begin with! that night we ate at another rooftop resturant, but indian food, and watching the resident monkey street gang get up to there mischief! The next morning our taxi picked us up at 10.30am (was supposed be 10 but we accidently slept in haha) and drove us the 2 hour journey to Vrindavin where i am now :)
xxxxxxx
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