The Cities of Agra and Jaipur  

After finally arriving in Agra very tired from our ‘life threatening’ road journey (at least it felt that way) we found a hotel and dinner. Our driver took us to 3 Star Hotels. Wrong!! We gave them a ¼ Star rating and continued our search. The next few were full and out of desperation we settled on a ½ Star Hotel. At least it had a TV and hot water.

Agra’s claim to fame is the Taj Mahal but there is another other important site to be seen. The Agra Fort and Palace has an important relationship to the Taj Mahal. It was constructed of massive red-sandstone, located on the bank of the Yamuna River, and started by Emperor Akbar in 1565. Further additions were made by his grandson Shah Jahan, who added buildings using his favorite material, white marble. The fort was built primarily as a military structure, but Shah Jahan upgraded it to a palace and later it became his guilded prison for eight years after Emperor Akbar’s son Aurangzeb seized power in 1658 and put his father under house arrest in the fort.

We had a Tour Guide for the day and he was very helpful in explaining the history, the significance of different parts of the fort and how it was tied into the Taj Mahal. We were shown the area of Emperor Akbar’s father’s house arrest and didn’t appear the ‘old man’ had it too bad. He was imprisoned in a beautiful white marble palace and had a view of his famous Taj Mahal and the Yamuna River!!

Since the Agra Fort offered a great view of the Yamuna River and the Taj Mahal we stayed there until late in the afternoon to see the “Taj” as the sun set. It was an incredible site.

The next morning we were off to Jaipur that included another 4 hours of the same kind of traffic and chaos on the roads. About half way to Jaipur we stopped at another historic Indian Fort. The Fatehpur Sikri Fort is a fortified ghost city about 40 km west of Agra and was once the Mughal Empire’s short lived capital between 1571 and 1585. Although brilliant and unusual from an architectural point of view, Akbar’s city was erected in an area that suffered from water shortages and it was abandoned after a short time. The well preserved palace buildings and the still used mosque are the main points of interest. We arrived in Jaipur late in the afternoon and found a very nice hotel (a true 3 Star hotel). The next day would be a busy one with hot dry weather . Our driver picked us up with a tour guide and we were off to see the major sites. They included driving through the Pink City (the Old City), the Jantar Mantar and the Amber Fort. The Jantar Mantar was built by Jai Sing in 1728 is an observatory that was used to measure time and many other astrological measurements. The Amber Fort is more of a Palace that was built of red sandstone and white marble. Parts of this huge Fort dates back to 1200 AD. The many courtyards and buildings were beautiful to see and the view of the town below was magnificent.

After a full week of traveling by car seeing 3 of the major cities in India, including the famous Taj Mahal, we really felt we had seen how the people in the country side live. The sheer number of people in this country made it easy to understand the poverty, the travel, environmental and economic problems. Life in rural India has changed little in many places. We found India, with its remarkable traditional history, so interesting.

By the time we started back to Delhi (about a 4 hour drive) we had become accustomed to the driving and the roads, so a nap was in order. Back at the airport, after checking in, we were hungry but found the only food choices in the whole terminal were two small food carts, a Subway and a hot dog stand. I don’t think I need to say more about what the Delhi airport looked. Time to go to Austria.

Where’s Pat and Mike??