Trip to India: Day Nine Part One

I am going to divide this journal into two parts because today was another big day. We started the day by waking up at six and catching a bus to the Taj Mahal. We would be seeing it at sunrise, and the excitement on the bus was evident. All of the students were dressed up in fantastic clothes of all different colors because they had been looking forward to this for a while. The drive to the Taj was not too long, but we had to walk pretty far to get to where we get in. On the walk there, a few kids and adults came up trying to see us stuff. This happens a lot in the more touristy areas of India, and the best thing to do is to completely ignore them. As our tour guide, Solanki, told us, the word “no” is not in their vocabulary. I forgot to talk about Solanki in the previous blog. He is one of the tour guides and he joined our trip on day eight. He is a very nice man, and is VERY knowledgeable. Anyways, we got through the gates and had to walk even more to see the Taj itself. There is an archway in front of the Taj that hides it from sight until you walk through it, so we did that and were greeted with the most spectacular sight you could imagine. The sun was still rising, and the Taj had a slight pink tint to it (the same that it had the evening before). The massive (it is actually quite large) building towered over everything and you just could not take you eyes off of it. That’s one thing I’ve noticed. When you look away from the Taj Mahal, you just have to look back for some strange reason. Its white marble is so radiant and so stunning. Once we were in the actual Taj complex, we had a professional photographer take pictures of us. The students absolutely loved it. I am pretty sure that each one of them got multiple pictures taken by the photographer. I took tons of pictures of the Taj from all kinds of different distances, lightings, and angles. The building is just so photogenic (sorry, I’m gushing a bit about it, but it’s just fantastic). We walked for a while and eventually made our way up to the main platform that the tomb itself is on. If you didn’t know already, the Taj Mahal is a Muslim tomb. It was built by Shah Jahan (the fifth Mughal Emperor) for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, when she died. When I walked up close to the building I could see the extreme detail on it. There were tons and tons of flowers and geometric designs that were absolutely stunning. The workers used pietra dura work to create these flowers and shapes, the same work that was used at the Mini-Taj. Another thing I noticed all over the Taj was this writing that looked like Arabic. My mom told me that it was actually Persian, and that the writing was verses of the Koran, the holy book of Islam. We walked inside of the Taj Mahal (where pictures are prohibited) to see the tomb itself. It was fantastic because there were not too many people there. I was able to see the tomb up close, which meant that I could see even more detail than was on the outside of the Taj. We walked around a bit more and then started our walk back. The students were extremely happy because of all the great pictures they got. It was tough to leave the Taj, because it is just so difficult to look away from. You have to force yourself to walk until it’s out of sight. After the Taj, we went back to the hotel to freshen up and get some breakfast (it was still morning). After that, we went to our next monument of the day, the Red Fort. The Red Fort is a structure that was built by Akbar and was the center of government for the Mughal Empire. It’s a HUGE building. It isn’t very tall, but it is quite wide. Solanki showed us around the fort and pointed out all of the interesting parts around it. Shah Jahan, the man who had the Taj Mahal built for his wife, was imprisoned here by his own son (it’s a long story). He was able to see the Taj from the fort, though. The last time I came to the fort, there were tons and tons of monkeys everywhere, but this time, there were none. I guess that they had been gotten rid of or something. On the way out of the fort there were lots of people trying to tell us stuff once again. I just ignored them, because (as I said before) that is the best thing to do. Once we got back on the bus we headed for our next destination, a place where they make all kinds of things out of marble using pietra dura. The amount of work that these people put into making little marble elephants or chessboards is amazing. Some things take years to make. After seeing people actually carving individual flower petals and a short video, we went into the store where they sell all of these things. I bought a marble camel and a marble dog. Both of them had all kinds of designs all over them. Will bought coasters and an elephant, and my mom almost bought the entire store. The students had a good time, too. After the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort, AND the pietra dura place, we finally went to lunch. We went to a place called Hint of Spice, which was one of the best lunches I have had on the entire trip. They had all kinds of chicken and LOTS of naan, which was heavenly for Will and me. I ate an unhealthy amount of naan. Indian butter naan is quite addictive, in that you never feel like you’ve had enough. After lunch, we still had lots of things in front of us. It was only about 2:00 in the afternoon. The amount of things we did that morning was shocking, but the main highlight of the day (other than the Taj Mahal, of course) was still ahead.
The Red Fort: