We slept in Saturday morning and had a late breakfast. Our driver for the next few days met us at noon, so we packed our new remarkably spacious bus and set off for Agra, just a few hours south.
We got to our new hotel, checked in, and took a little walk around the neighborhood.
We decided to go see Agra Fort, a massive red sandstone structure, built in the 15th century. It was the home at one time of emperor Shah Jahan, who had the Taj Mahal built across the Yaman river in honor of his wife.
It was a really beautiful place to stroll around for a few hours.
We caught our first glimpse of the Taj in the distance.
Leaving the fort, we headed to a local restaurant recommended by our travel book. We ordered a ton of food and it was all incredible, but as a bad blogger forgot to take any pictures. Oops!
We walked around a nearby bazaar, browsing goods of all sorts and buying a few gifts.
And Fees and I had to take a stroll down streetfood alley, to admire the scene, despite being stuffed.
It began to sprinkle as we headed back to our bus. We made it back to the hotel, split a bottle of wine (we decided it wouldn't hurt to travel with a box, right?) and slid into our mega-comfy beds.
We were up before dawn the next day for a sunrise tour of the Taj Mahal! Our guide met us at our hotel and took us to the gate, where there was already a big group of people gathering.
When going to the Taj, you can't actually see it from the distance because of other buildings. As you walk through the park, you come to a large building that the crowds are passing through. As I turned the corner, I was already surprised by how big and incredibly beautiful the Taj is. That feeling only intensifies as you come through and can appreciate the building and the grounds in their full intensity.
We all stood there for several moments hypnotized by the sight.
We strolled around the beautiful grounds, full of green lawns, brightly colored flowers and fountains of water.
As we approached the building, our guide told us about the history of Shah Jahan, the emperor who commissioned the creation of the Taj, and the lengthy process of its construction. As you may know, he had the Taj built in honor of his wife Mumtaz Mahal after her death in childbirth (number 14?!). Her remains were entombed in the building and Shah Jahan's tomb was placed next to hers upon his death a few decades later.
The place is absolutely incredible to admire from every angle. The entire building is made of white marble with incredible semi-precious stones in-layed in floral decorations all over both the inside and outside of the building.
We walked around quietly admiring the incredible place before sadly saying goodbye and heading back to the hotel.
We had a late breakfast and before getting on the road to Jaipur, our tour guide took us by a local authentic marble in-lay shop.
These men are grinding semi-precious stones into tiny, precise sizes to make into patterns.
This lotus flower was made of over 20 pieces.
The complete pieces can be enormous. This is a large table top.
Most pieces were very expensive, but we eventually found a few, pretty things in our price range. Not these...
On the way though, we stopped at an ancient city known as Fatehpur Sikri, built in the 16th century by Mughal emperor Akbar.
He only lived in the city for 14 years before moving the capital of his empire to Agra due to a lack of water sources in Fatehpur Sikri. Akbar had three wives, one Muslim, one Hindu and one Christian, so he ascribed to all three religions and incorporated elements of each religion into the architecture of this city.
The palace, built almost entirely in red sandstone, is really beautiful and the architecture is unusual and fascinating.
In a mauseleom at the palace, visitors tie three strings on the marble lacework windows. For the first string you make a wish for yourself, and for the next two you make wishes for other people. We tied ours on!
After a couple hours, we got back in the car and headed on for Jaipur. We checked into our hotel and had a lovely dinner at the rooftop restaurant. As usual, we over-ordered, everything was delicious and I forgot to take a picture of anything.
We sat on our balcony with a bottle of wine and some great college-era oldies playing on our phones.
We headed to bed excited to explore Jaipur the next day!
Xoxo,
Lily
