Wednesday was a big day, we departed early in the morning to catch our train to the city of Agra, where we were to visit the Taj Mahal and the city’s Fort. As Dr. Jones was looking for our train, some men attempted to steer her in a corridor, she refused and joined us back, we found our train and we were on our way to Agra.
The Taj Mahal was an incredible visit, I was mesmerized by the white marble structure surrounded by its four towers and incrusted of precious stones.
The gardens held some beautiful white bird with an orange neck and face stumping in some puddle on the grass.
The back of the Taj Mahal was a beautiful surprise: the bed of the Yamuna river was mostly uncovered by the dry season and gardens stood on the opposite shore.
Behind the Taj Mahal, the Yamuna river and the Agra Fort afar…
We could see the red Agra Fort from a distance:
On the way out, I couldn't help but to admire the colorful sarees of Indian women contrasting with the green grass at the foot of the Taj Mahal.
We left the "Taj" and headed towards the Agra Fort for an amazing experience! The Fort, we thought, did not get enough credit and was too often shadowed by the fame of the Taj Mahal… But maybe the story of the Taj Mahal adds to its majesty: the monument is the biggest ever built for the love of a woman… The Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan built the now famous Mausoleum in memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. In the Agra Fort, where the Shah was later imprisoned by his son, we visited gorgeous palaces, with rooms allowing a view on the Taj Mahal. The story says that the Shah dig a hole in the wall of his cell to look at the Taj Mahal…
A view of the Taj Mahal from the Agra Fort:
The Taj from a room of the Fort:
Monkeys watching over the Fort of Agra:
Leaving the Agra Fort, we headed to Fatehpur Sikri, the Tomb of Salim Chisti.
There, I must have had the worst experience of my entire trip, the most overwhelming. From the time we got out of the bus, we were surrounded and followed by people who solicited us to buy from their store. Wasps were flying in great numbers all over. We stopped to get water and this only made the solicitors more demanding. Even during a bathroom stop, men were harassing us. A store owner tried me and followed us to the bus-shuttle that was taking the tourists to the site. He acted more gently than others and had me say okay to stop by his store to "just look" at it. When we arrived to the site, a number of tour guide began harassing us. We said we would not hire anyone and explained that one of the students had prepared a presentation of the site. One of the guide would not take this for an answer and during the entire visit of the first site he followed us and kept offering a lower price. We felt really unprotected up there. The tourists weren't numerous and the "guides" and locals were. The guide's behavior was so insistent that he had become threatening. He was no longer smiling and was rumbling about how we would be missing and that he could tell us so much about such and such building, that we would get lost… He would not let us look at anything anymore. I was more than uncomfortable at that point, I was scared. We found our way out from the first site and proceeded to the mosque. There, kids began to harass us to buy there postcards or items. Destin and Jade decided to stay outside and skip the visit to rest. Bryan and I decided to stay out as well. A number of kids surrounded us. Two of them especially caught my attention, Reeyan and Ifai. Reeyan asked me why I wasn't going inside and I answered that he knew why. His response was "we are too pushy" and I acquiesced. This started our conversation, the two kids asked me all sorts of questions, they wanted to know if I had children, my age, what I was doing… I asked them their age, Ifai was 7 and Reeyan "thought" he was 12. He did not know his precise age. At one point a group of men, who looked like Indian tourists to me, made all the surrounding children very nervous, they all ran away constantly looking for the men's actions, obviously fearing something. As the men went in the mosque the children came back toward us. Reeyan kept telling me that I should go inside because it was really pretty. I told him that I would stay right where I was. That's when he got one of his postcard book out and told me "I'll show you what's inside!" I immediately told him I would not buy anything from him, he insisted that he would simply show me what was inside. He open his booklet and told me about the building: its height, its builder, the entire history of the site was coming out flawlessly! I was stunned by his memory and his clarity of speech and asked him why he wasn't a guide, he responded that the government wouldn't let him. I sought for more explanation and could only get that he was too young and that the adults would not let him. I was really impressed and told him, he answered that he could also speak in Spanish, French or Russian. I told him I was French and Ifai immediately told me "vous etes jolie mademoiselle!", I tried them in French and in Spanish and they indeed could speak some of both languages… Before I left, I told the two children that I would buy a set of cards from each of them but would only do so as we would leave and in the most discreet possible manner so not to be followed by all the kids around. My efforts to hide the transaction would prove useless, the children were constantly watching us and every single move would alert them and activate their begging which was most aggressive as we were leaving the site. Our departure was quite dramatic as everyone was getting really nervous. We entered the bus-shuttle as the children were still following us and Noora was groped upon entering. Reeyan had followed me to the bus and was smiling at me as I sat. Through the open window he said "Good luck, Genevieve!" We grabbed each other's hand and I responded "Good luck to you, Reeyan!"; I could not hide my tears and I will always remember his eyes and the look on his face while he looked at me, waving goodbye. Leaving the shuttle we still had to face the vendors soliciting us, the man who had followed me to the bus was waiting on me asking me to visit his shop, I told him I had no money left and that we had a horrible experience at the sites. The man claimed he was sorry for me but he managed to insist, telling me "You promised you would look at my store!", the fact that I told him I had given all my money to the kids did not matter as he did not believe me…
Back to our bus, we met Rachna, a tour guide who had asked me on our way in if we could give her a ride back to Agra as she would have to wait on a late bus otherwise. Dr. Jone saw no objection and Rachna got in with us. After getting myself back together, I sat with Rachna and we talked. I found out she was one of the owners of the very nice restaurant we had lunch in that day. A very independent woman, she loved her job as a tour guide and left to her husband the daily management of the restaurant while she guided her customers into Agra.
With Rachna:
We reached the Agra train station in the evening. Out of the bus, kids were begging incessantly. I let a kid have my bottle of water and immediately another one grabbed the bottle out of his hands and ran away. Our guide gathered us before walking into the station to give us advice: we were to walk straight, ignore the beggars, not even look at them, and especially not respond to any solicitation as this would only attract more beggars beyond control.
We rested during our two hour train ride on the Shadabdi Express, barely touching our too-spicy dinner. Back in Delhi, we reached our air-conditioned hotel with delight one more time…
No comments:
Post a Comment