Crossing India

Sunday morning, Allie still felt pretty sick, so getting ourselves organized and out the door took much more time than we had hoped. We went out a few times to let Pram (I believe…I’m terrible at remembering names…) know that we were running pretty late, and Allie wasn’t feeling real well. He of course said it was no problem. I let him know that we would be grabbing some food, and we’d be out shortly. As I came back in and checked out, I heard a loud crash coming from the dining area. Chuckled to myself, yep the Ziemann’s have arrived in India. That thought was confirmed a bit later, when I learned that Natalie had knocked one of the plastic trays off of the steamers and at crashed to the floor with quite a commotion. We enjoyed a complimentary buffet breakfast at our hotel, and then went out to jump in the car to Agra.

Girls with Rest Stop Performers on the Road to Agra

We stopped at a roadside stand for some bottled water to keep us moist for the 110degree trek. (Fortunately our Toyota Innova has some excellent air conditioning!). Today was Sunday, and it was only about 9:30 in the morning, so the roads were incredibly empty, by Indian standards. Even through the villages, there was very little traffic, and we made good time. By 1:00 we had arrived at our hotel, the ITC Mughal (formerly owned by Sheraton, when I stayed here 4 years ago.

Constant Sights on the road in India

 

 

This hotel is an absolutely stunning hotel. My last stay was $350/night when my company paid for it. Since we are in the off season with daily highs of 110-118 degrees, they had a special and I was able to get the room for the equivalent of $82. Many western hotels have very strong security. Metal detectors, guards on the driveway and at the doors. This particular hotel even has guards checking the bottoms of the cars. Other than the 11/26 Mumbai attacks, there hasn’t been much in terms of organized terror, but the added precaution certainly provides a sense of security.

Hotel Lobby

After checking in, a beautiful young woman showed us to our room, and pointed out the amenities. Upon entry to this hotel, you are treated like absolute royalty. Every staff member in the hotel that you walk past, stops what they are doing, and wishes you a good day. We decided to grab some lunch before doing anything and went to the buffet. Upon walking into the dining room, there was a large group of about 20-25 students of around 20 years old at several tables pushed together. They were clearly having a very good time, and talking very loudly, and laughing quite a bit. As they got up a short while later, there was a line of Kingfisher cans set up in a perfect line, sides touching that reached from one end, down the length of the multiple tables, to the other end, with several extras piled up that didn’t fit in the line. We got a good chuckle out of the fact that the matching shirts that they all wore said “Mexico.” You could see the pride well up in Natalie’s face. We ate primarily the Indian selection of dishes (though they also had Western and Asian sections in the buffet.

A large spread of deserts was also available. One of these was some sort of a cake ball about the size of a ping-pong ball, soaked in a sugary syrup. This was sitting in what looked like a chocolate or wafer type mini bowl. I grabbed one of these. After eating the cake ball, I tried to figure out if the bowl was edible. It was definitely very crisp. I put it to my mouth and tried to bite off one of the ridges on the bowl. It did come off, but was a bit gritty. Natalie was convinced I just ate terra cotta. I wasn’t so sure yet… so I tried another bite..well, she may be right. We debated it for quite a bit, and we called our waiters over and asked what it was. They gave us a long explanation of what was in the bowl. Finally we said, yes, but what we really want to know is, can you eat the bowl. They said, “no, no, that is just a bowl. Made of terra cotta, as that is believed to keep food fresh. They joined us in a laugh at this and explained I wasn’t the first to try and eat the bowl. They had another person here at one point that at e one of these, when the waitstaff asked how his food was, he said it was all very good, except the chocolate cup was extremely bitter.

This is Edible Right?

When lunch was completed, I received our bill, and realized that while the hotel was offering summertime rates for rooms, the normal restaurant rates were still fully in effect, as our lunch cost more than our room did.

After lunch, we started planning for our afternoon trek out to the Taj. Allie was not feeling much better, so we started discussing contingency plans. While she sat for awhile, I took Kalyssa to the roof of our hotel, which had a tower with some seating where you can see the Taj. It was about 108 degrees outside, but it is true that with a dry heat it is much tolerable. We sat for about 15 minutes talking and enjoying the view of the Taj and then went back in.

View of Taj from top of our Hotel

Allie wasn’t feeling any better, and didn’t want to be out walking in the heat. So we decided instead of the Taj, we would see the Agra fort today and she would rest in the hotel room, and do the Taj Mahal in the morning. We went outside where our driver awaited us as well as a guide he had arranged for us for both attractions. On towards the fort we went. It was very nearby the hotel, but of course any travel in Agra can take a bit of time. I needed some cash, so we tried to stop at an ATM. We found about 3 that were inoperable before finding a working one. However, after trying to withdraw cash, I determined that this one did not have connectivity to my bank, so we needed to continue to find another one. Finally, I had some cash in hand, and we made it to the fort. We were able to take a fairly leasurely stroll through the fort, and for me, I was able to learn quite a bit more than my last trip here, when we had to rush through the fort. The fort was built in the 1500 and 1600s, by emporer Akbar, and had some amazing engineering of water, to create ponds, pools, fountains and waterfalls throughout the complex. Most are not functioning (or at least not running---our guide told us that at least some of them do still function if cleaned out) currently, but you could envision how beautiful this place would have been when it was originally built, all the rugs and tapestries still hung in the doors, and the fountains were running. Really amazing. Another new room that I learned about was a glass hall, which was full of tiny mirrors. It’s currently closed to the public, as it was being damaged by visitors too often, but you could see through a window into this room, and from the small glimpse, it appeared that this would have been just a magnificent room. When lit by candlelight, it would have shown reflections of thousands of candles in every direction.



Me and Kalyssa with our Guide Ashish



One of the things that I find fascinating about the story of Emporer’s Akbar and Shah Jahan, is the diversity of culture’s that they embraced. They where Mughal, and had travelled to Agra from Afghanistan. Put aside your thoughts on harem’s and polygamy for awhile---their wives, and their architecture reflected Indian, Persian, Arabic, and even some gothic themes. Shah Jahan had a Muslim wife, a Hindu life, and a Christian wife. While I do not argue at all for polytheism, or religious assimilation (as I believe there can only be one truth, and since most religions reference a creator, they by definition can’t all be true), nonetheless this does seem remarkable for the time period such an open embrace of other cultures.

I think Natalie was genuinely impressed with the tour, and was very happy for the guide who pointed out many of the subtle intricacies of the fort. Every time we turned into a new section, she started in amazement that it continued on. “There’s more?!?” By the time we were done, our guide reminded us that we only saw 20% of the entire structure, as the remainder of it is currently used by the Indian military, and is restricted from the public. For additional details on the fort see my post from four years ago, when the rest of this was a new experience for me.

Something one must realize when arranging a guide at sites in Agra, is that they do have a slight ulterior motive. When you are done, they will offer to take you to a place that shows you how the Taj was made. We had pushed to do this in the morning, hoping Allie would feel better. Our guide recommended we do this now as it will aid our appreciation of the Taj to see how it was made. The guides generally have arrangements with these shops to bring you to them, and they will get some sort of fee for doing so. While on one hand, these shops are fascinating, as they show you how the complex process of creating inlay of precious and semiprecious gems into marble is done, their intention of course is to sell you some of their marble. In US dollars, these items range from around $30 to $15,000 depending on the size, and most importantly the intricacy of the gem inlays. After giving us the demonstration someone at the front of the store kicked off a large generator which belched thick black smoke into the air, and suddenly the long corridor lit up with light, leading us to the showroom. Everything is of course negotiable, but be warned, the merchants here can sell like the the best timeshare salesman, and while it is perfectly to walk out without buying something, you likely won’t. Also, from my two similar experiences at two different shops, its also standard, that when you finish negotiating in the first room, or decline the purchase, the door doesn’t lead to an exit, it leads to another show room.

Marble Inlay Products

After marble, I had made the mistake of saying I was interested in rugs. Our guide encouraged us to go to a shop to see how the rugs are made, “You can just look, no need to buy.” So we stopped at a rug store as well. This was on my shopping list for the trip, however, we were short on time, as we had agreed to let Allie have a message later that night and we set the appointment without her.



Kalyssa in the Rug Yarn Room



The rug store was equally as impressive, and here from the moment you walk in the show room, a team of men pull the rugs from the stacks, and flick them across the floor for you to view. Within only a few minutes a couple dozen rugs line the floor. I picked one that I did like, made it fairly clear I was in a hurry, and pushed rather hard on the price (I think….I never no what is truly a good landing price). They packed up the rug in a fairly small carrying case, and we headed quickly back to the hotel. It turned out Allie had said she would prefer to rest then get the message, so Natalie was more than happy to step in and enjoy it. After her message, we asked the front desk for some additional water (bottled water, and several bottles are complimentary in any western focused hotel in India, (as well as other southeast asia locales). As we sat in our room, the phone rang. When I answered the gentleman from the front desk said to me “If you could please remove the “do not disturb” sign from your door. OK, thank you.” I went to the door to do as he asked, and when I opened, it, outside, was one of the staff simply standing there waiting, with 6 bottles of water on a tray. Upon opening the door, he brought them in for us. We all found this quite amusing. I attempted to type out my blog, but continued to fall asleep at the keyboard, and decided to go to bed, and finish later. We had an early start, and another day in the dusty, scorching, heat in the morning.



Kalyssa Learning to Weave a Rug