Precious and Semi-Preciouses Agra
Agra, India - April 2010
A 6am pickup, a box breakfast, and a guide who walked us straight to our seats on the train — Delhi to Agra was almost disarmingly smooth. Another guide was waiting for us on the platform when we pulled in, easy enough to spot among the crowd.
First stop was Agra Fort, with it’s red sandstone ramparts, white colonnaded pavilions, and views that gave us our first real orientation to the city.
From there, we headed to Itmad-ud-Daula - the "Baby Taj." The Baby Taj is much smaller than its famous neighbour, but no less stunning: almost literally a jewel box of white marble and inlay work.
What I actually remember just as vividly, though, is the traffic leaving the site — everyone seemingly headed the same direction at once, cows included, calmly stopping traffic like it was nothing.
We checked into our hotel for the night - the Oberoi Amarvilas — and were lucky enough to have a balcony room looking straight out at the Taj Mahal. It was our first taste of proper luxury travel in India, and honestly, a little overwhelming after a lifetime of clean, well-located two- and three-star hotels. The staff seemed determined to make sure absolutely nothing was left to chance.
The whole trip had been planned around one night: the full moon visit to the Taj. Getting in involved a proper security check, and the security guard patting me down decided to ask my age with a very deliberate once-over — which, fair enough, was kind of funny in the moment. Then we were through, and there it was: the Taj under a full moon, glowing white, genuinely magical. We couldn't wait to come back the next morning.
We got to enjoy sunrise at the Taj the next day, ahead of the crowds (kind of). Our guide talked us through the marble inlay work - all the semi-precious stones set into the walls, and said "precious and semi-preciouses" so many times in one sentence that it's basically stuck in my head permanently, fifteen-plus years later.
After breakfast, we had a 40km drive out to Fatehpur Sikri; Emperor Akbar's abandoned red sandstone capital, up on a hill. It was somewhere around 40°C, and none of us wanted to walk it. There was a shuttle bus heading up to the site, and it was nearly full. Our guide negotiated a couple of spots, which didn't go down well with the other passengers on board. In the end, they all got off, and we had the ride up, and much of the site, practically to ourselves.
We walked back down to the car afterward rather than wait for the bus again, the heat going downhill felt like the better bet. Then after a bit of a drive, and a stop for lunch, we had a wait at the train station - waiting in the blazing sun, and 115-degree heat for our delayed train. What followed was a two-hour ride on a much less glamorous train than the one from Delhi, bench seats, small fans, and not much relief from the oppressive heat.
By the time we reached Sawai Madhopur, none of us were feeling our best.
