India trip (Day 2) July 2019 - The Taj Mahal & Agra Fort

Day 2 in India                                                                                                                            7-7-2019

Day 2 is like the Beatles song “A day in the Life”  – Woke Up (WAY TO EARLY like 2 AM) , fell out of Bed (Bed is really low in hotel and not used to it), dragged a comb across my head  (no time for getting all spiffy so grab the comb), Found my way downstairs (all 3 flights of them) and I did NOT drink a cup of coffee.

Anyway, Got up at 2 AM for a 2:30 AM pick up for a day long Taj Mahal and Agra Fort Tour!  Woohoo!  I was looking forward to this.  I was hoping to find a person on my “Ride the Himalayas – Motorcycle tour” to join me but got no response when I asked so I had to foot the entire bill myself.

The driver was on time and there was another guy in the car as well.  I figured the other guy was my tour guide but a little later I found out he was actually a security guard for the car, driver and me.  Who knew? 

Driving down the freeway at that hour in Delhi there were just a few people out but mostly the streets were empty and the driver was zipping along towards Agra.  I think there were lights along the road which made it easy to see the lanes and all.  I don’t think they were reflectors but could possibly have been.

We drove for hours and I couldn't sleep as I didn't want to miss anything but I was dragging and super tired even though there really was nothing to see.  At one point the driver pulled off to a rest area.  Now this was quite interesting compared to the United States rest areas as this one had like cots out around with many people laying on them sleeping, talking, playing cards, etc.  Then there was a small restaurant where you could order some hot meals and they'd cook them right up and then the small general sore which had all sorts of snacks and other small things.

After a little while we piled back into the car and kept on going. When we got to Agra we stopped at street corner and the security guy hopped out and then another guy hopped in.  This new guy was my guide.  We kept driving and finally got to a strange little pull around with a ton of people walking around.  This little turn around was on the West side where you get out and walk down a path a ways to some small buildings where you purchase your tickets to get into the Taj.  My guide walked up and got our tickets and we walked towards the entrance.  The first stop was the security checkpoint and they frisked EVERYONE, women as well in a special tented off area.  They looked through bags and stuff.  I don't know what they were looking for or wanted to find but we got through with no issues. Part of your ticket you had to hold on to for dear life as you needed it to get OUT of the grounds.

The West entrance to the grounds is where the Servant Quarters are, The East entrance is near the Royal Tombs.  I went in the West entrance.

Once inside the grounds were expertly manicured and the place was spotless.  The grass was like a putting green on a golf course.  If you've never been to the Taj once you get through the gate/entrance you walk a bit down a nice wide sidewalk to a big yard type setting "Forecourt" with a few trees and on the left in the middle of the area is the large and just as impressive Main Gateway.  My guide took me to a spot in the middle of the Gateway where you could see the entire Tomb and if you stood 1 rock piece to the left or right you would not see it in it's entirety.  Part of the building or columns would be cut off from view. 

Once inside you saw the magnificent Taj Mahal Tomb and since we were early in the morning the fountains had not been turned on yet so we could get a great photo with the reflection in it.

Half way from the Main Gateway to the tomb is a square in the middle of the gardens.  It is here that there is a bench that you can sit.  This bench is called the "Lady Di" bench as when Lady Di Princess of Wales  (Married to Prince Charles at the time) came to visit she sat on this bench, since then it has always been called the "Lady Di bench".  Everyone needed to have their photo taken there and of course I was no exception.   

The building is remarkable.  What looks like paintings on the side is really inlaid precious stone.  They carved out the white marble an inlaid different types of stone with different colors to make a variety of things from flowers to script.  Some of it is very intricate.

  

I was hoping to get some sunrise shots since we got their for the sunrise but the sun actually came from the right side of the Taj.  Since I didn't have any bearings of what was North, South, East or West or even have a clue this place was on a map I figured the sun would come from behind but it didn't. 

This shot is from near the Mosque looking east toward the sunrise. 

Looking back at the Main Gate

From the Guest house towards the Tomb.

This photo is part of the Guest House

I have a ton of other photos but this should tide you over until you can see it yourself.  The next stop was breakfast and they took me to a very nice sit down with Air Conditioning service.  The service and wait staff was exceptional and I unfortunately didn't have ANY money to tip them which I felt terrible about but the guide is like lets just get out of here and not to bother.  Well it still bothers me I could not tip but maybe it was part of my package deal, I don't know.

The next stop for the day was a place where they actually practice the old lost art of inlaying stone like at the Taj.  I believe that the family are direct descendants of the original craftsman who did the work on the Taj - at least that was what the guide told me. They showed me how it was made and carved using old school tools, very, very interesting.  Then they took me in the back for a beating.  ha, ha, ha.  They had a variety of tables made that you could purchase and I didn't have room for anything in my bags but got a nice small plate and a few other carved pieces that were quite beautiful.

After that the guide took me to a Rug making facility and this was a co-op.  They had a variety of different wool's and other yarns all hand made and hand dyed.  Folks would come in and get a kit (pattern, yarns or threads) take it home and make then bring back to sell.  Really a good concept and they had rugs in all sizes and shapes, a very informative stop.  I picked up a small rug to help out the locals and enjoy viewing when I got it home.  The first photo is of 2 guys that had been working together for like 20+ years and were so fast it was pretty incredible.

This 2nd photo show's some of the kits just past the rug on the floor and then the bins of yarns & wool.  I got to see the entire process from start to finish for these rugs and it was labor intensive.

After this stop it was time for the long drive back home to Delhi and prepare for another day.  I did go out later and look for an inexpensive watch since I left mine at home and never knew what time it was but the street vendors kept trying to tell me the watch I actually wanted was a much better quality and costs 3 times as much as the others.  LOL  I think I swung into a McDonalds for dinner and sat with a cute girl and her friend.  She wanted to date him but all he wanted to do was play the field.  So funny and so typical.

India Trip (Flight and Day 1) - July 2019

July 4, 2019

Left my house in Everett at 4:37 AM and headed to the NEW Everett terminal.  Yeah it was a dark and stormy night....  Ok overcast and cloudy 59 degrees.
5:20 AM I was checked in and through security.
6:12 AM and we took off on my first flight to San Francisco.
7:55 AM Arrived in San Francisco.

My next flight from here to Munich didn't take off until  1 PM so I had a TON of time to sit around and get bored.......  Since I hadn't had any breakfast I went to a store and found a way overpriced sandwich and poweraid drink which held me over till my flight.

1:05 PM I was finally boarding my flight to Munich on a Boeing 787 which I see being made every day at the Boeing Everett plant where I work (along with the 747, 767, 777 & the new 777x along with the derivative models like the freighters, combi's, tankers).  The flight was very nice but we did encounter a bit of turbulence throughout the flight.  It was a LONG flight.  One thing I enjoy is checking the stats as we are moving like seeing tailwinds up to 94 mph and temperatures as low as -74 degrees and we flew up to 40,000 feet above sea level!

9:15 AM I arrived in Munich early.  The terminal had islands of other concourses and I finally figured out that I had to go down a super long escalator underground to take a train to another concourse where my flight to Delhi would be.   I typically walk the stairs any chance I get and these were the stairs from HELL!  Since I was about 3 stories up already and then had to go about 3 stories down it was 6 stories of stairs to get to the train.  On the other side I took the escalator up. 

I bummed around the airport for hours checking out all the little shops and tried to find some cool little memento’s to get on my way back through in about 3 weeks but didn’t see anything that really tickled my fancy or stuff was just too darn big to stuff in my already packed to the gills bags.

We were supposed to fly out around 11:30 AM but the flight kept being delayed.  Finally, about 1 PM we all boarded and I’m talking hundreds of Indian people were on this plane, I was about or maybe the only American on it.  Ha, ha, ha.   We were held up for so long that the ticket readers took a nap and did not work which made getting on the flight that much more of a pain than it already was.  The lines were super long and folks were getting more frustrated by the minute.

I sat next to an Indian guy on the flight (surprise, surprise) who rode a bicycle from Alaska, USA to Ushuaia, Argentina and since I used to live in Alaska and have ridden bicycles for hundreds of miles in the States and I had been down to Ushuaia the year before we had an excellent conversation during the flight.

Somehow I was upgraded to Premier Eco Class which meant “REAL SILVERWARE” LOL    You can’t take a little tiny pocket knife on an airplane but they will give you a much larger one to eat with.  Hmmm… who is the idiot who made up that silly rule???  Well the food was awesome and there was plenty of it.  Kind of like a last meal type thing so I ate everything in site.

The plane was an Airbus A350-900 which left about an hour late and since Pakistan and India were having some issues in the Northern part of their countries the flight path went west around Pakistan and into the sea then back up to Delhi which was much longer.  The flight arrived in Delhi about 12:30-12:45 in the morning (July 6).  I had to make a quick bathroom break and went down some strange area where there were a bunch of military or police who pointed me in the right direction.  It was pretty cool at the bathroom and easy to figure out which was the men’s room with the super large photos on the entrance wall.

Next was getting to Customs and the side for folks that lived in India was huge and the lines went on forever.  For the foreigners (like me) there was hardly anyone in line.  I had to fill out some paperwork and customs took a bit longer than I expected but the gentleman that checked me into the country was very nice and we had a good chat.  Strange that they finger printed both hands and took photos, blood test and got copies of my visa cards.  Ok, they didn’t do the blood test of copy of the visa card but it almost felt that way. 

Baggage claim took a bit of time as well.  My bags must have been the first ones on the plane and were the last to come off.  I called Rahul and let him know I was waiting for my bags and would be out in the next 3 hours.  The luggage area was nice and big and they had carts all over the place that were free to use which was REALLY NICE since I had a Huge bag with all my motorcycle gear in it which weighed a ton.

Once out of the terminal the heat hit me like a Mike Tyson punch.   In seconds I was starting to sweat bullets before we even got to Rahul’s car.  I didn’t bother to look at where the driver sat or anything and when it was time to get I and go I went to the “passenger side” that I’m used to but it was the driver’s side.  The steering wheel is on the right and they drive on the left side of the road so it was totally different. 
Luckily traffic wasn’t too bad but finding my hotel was crazy hard.  We kept circling the blocks and just couldn’t find the dang place.  We asked some security guy and he got mad that we woke him up – ha, ha, ha.  We asked some other guys and they didn’t know.  I guess this place was so cheap and hidden that nobody knew where it was at.  I wasn’t too jazzed about the neighborhood as it looked quite run down.  We finally found this tiny alley and most of the way down was my little hotel.  The place was all locked up but someone came to the gate and opened it up for us.   I thanked Rahul profusely for waiting for me and then bringing me to my hotel, and then I got checked in.
I had to go up 3 flights of tiny square staircase to the room and the key was a little funky to open the room but it had AC and that is all I really cared about.  Of course everything was metric and I didn’t have any converter for temp readily available so I took a wild guess and turn the temp down and let it rip.  To cold, then adjust and adjust until just right.  Now to get my stuff ready for a morning pickup for a tour of Delhi.  Only 2 AM – gack!

My room and a typical bathroom where the shower, sink, toilet and all are in 1 room with no dividers. 

 

7-6-19
7 AM -  After minimal sleep the alarm went off, good thing I set my own alarm as the front desk forgot to give me a wake up call.  I get my stuff together for a day on the town.  Delhi here I come!  I didn’t bother to eat anything as I was supposed to be picked up and taken to breakfast where we’d discuss the different things to see in the city.
8 AM – The driver shows up but no guide???  The driver spoke very broken English.  I asked where the guide was as I was supposed to be a guide or was he the guide?  He called the company and they said I didn’t pay for a guide.  WTH?  I wouldn’t have signed up for the tour without a guide.  I was pretty ticked but the guy could speak some English so I broke out my “Tour guide paperwork” and rattled off one of the places to go see and he took me there.
The first was the Jama Masjid of Delhi, is one of the largest mosques in India. It was built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan between 1650 and 1656 at a cost of one million rupees.  Vast, 17th-century Mughal-style mosque 17th-century, red sandstone Mughal-style mosque with a 25,000 capacity & 40m high minarets.

He parked and I walked up the steps to the place.  You had to take your shoes off to go in so I took them off and put them next to the 50 other pairs.   As soon as I walked in an old man who couldn’t speak at all just grunted became my unofficial tour guide.

When I’m out shooting (photography) I know what I want to shoot and what angles, lights, etc.  He did take me to most of the areas I wanted to shoot so I hope it made him feel like he was a good guide.  When we got done I gave him some small tip and he was not happy about it but hey I didn’t ask for his help to begin with.  I then proceed out to get my shoes and some guy says he needs like 100 rupees for watching my shoes.  I told him to get lost.   I say you weren’t here when I got here and now you want money, forget it.  All his buddies started laughing at him.  I headed on back to the car.  My driver set up a rickshaw ride but I wasn’t really in the mood for that as I was roasting in the hot Delhi sun.

The next stop was the India Gate
India Gate - 1920s triumphal arch & war memorial Imposing Arc de Triomphe-style gate commemorating the Indian soldiers killed in the First World War.

While walking around taking some photos I see this guy running at me full steam.  He stops, tosses down a little round box type thing and opens it up and a cobra pops it’s head out.  The guy starts playing a little flute with one hand and puts his hand down towards the snake with the other.  The snake nipped at him a few times.

A large crowd had gathered and I tossed him some money and he wasn’t happy about it either, I’m like let the other pay you as well.  I’m not the only one enjoying the show.  Trying to get out of the park was another story as they had only a one way in and one way out.  The out gate was quite a ways away so I got some exercise.  Then crossing the like 5 lane road was challenging even with the cross walk lights.

The driver took me to a couple of stores which had Air Conditioning which was awesome as the temperature was 98 degrees and felt like 117 according to the weatherman.  Coming from 60 degree weather I was melting!   I wanted a Sari  (It's the most popular dress for women, both for casual or formal occasion. While in the shop I found some hand paintings that I enjoyed and a few other items that were hand made.

Next stop was The Laxminarayan Temple, also known as the Birla Mandir is a Hindu temple.  (the goddess of prosperity).

I got to wander all over the area here and got to see Monkey’s ripping apart the trash can and strewn garbage all over the place while finding things to eat.

I wasn’t sure about them so I kept my distance. The looked like they could do some serious harm if you got them mad about the food.

Next stop was the Lotus Tempe which in my opinion is one of the most beautiful architectural buildings in Delhi.  To enter the grounds you had to go through a security checkpoint and they took my little pocket knife.  It was hotter than blazes as I walked to the beautiful building.  I didn’t know at the time that I could go in otherwise I would have.  I just took photos from the outside at various points then made my way back to the checkpoint to retrieve my knife.  I went out to the wall that surrounds the temple and hung out waiting for my driver.  At many of the stops I would have random people want to stop and take a photo with me.  I had about 5 older teenage boys come up and one asked about a photo with me.  I said sure, 500 rupees each.   He looked at me like I just stole his dog.  Some of the others laughed hysterically.  I said come on over and ended up taking photos with I think all of them.  It was a fun laugh.

The Lotus Temple, located in Delhi, India, is a Bahá'í House of Worship that was dedicated in December 1986. Notable for its flowerlike shape, it has become a prominent attraction in the city. Like all Bahá'í Houses of Worship, the Lotus Temple is open to all, regardless of religion or any other qualification.

Next stop was the Qutb Minar, also spelled as Qutab Minar or Qutub Minar, is a minaret that forms part of the Qutb complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Mehrauli area of Delhi, India. Qutb Minar is a 73-meter tall tapering tower of five stories, with a 14.3 meters base diameter, reducing to 2.7 meters at the top of the peak.  5-story victory tower with balconies 73 m tapering tower built in 1193 by Qutab-ud-din Aibak after defeat of Delhi's last Hindu kingdom.

I didn’t really want to go hike around some more and this guy knew a spot where I could get a decent shot of it that was free.  I just had to watch out from being run over by the locals.

I think we hit one or two other places and then I turned him loose to go enjoy his family.  I gave him a decent tip that I read about in the guidebook or something and he was super jazzed.  I went out and walked around town a little and found a McDonalds to eat at.  I wasn’t in the mood to try something new even though McD’s did have a different menu and NO BEEF!   Ha, ha, ha