Deciding we have had enough of New Delhi, Craig and I booked a tour that would take us to Agra and leave us there instead of returning to New Delhi. So, onward toward Agra which has the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort to explore. We kept thinking that the poverty in India would get better, but as we drove on we soon realized it would not. It is so overwhelming, the state of this country, but we are stuck here for some time and best make the most use of it. Besides, seeing so much of it all the time, I have grown slightly used to it. It is heartbreaking for sure, the starving animals in the road, the starving children that run up and bang on the car window for handouts, just starvation everywhere – people living in tents along the highways, and I don’t mean just one, I mean they literally line the highways for miles!
We did indeed make it to Agra after some time and began our tour which was fantastic. The Taj Mahal is by far the grandest structure I have had the pleasure to explore. It is funny to think that the Taj is so large on the outside, yet so tiny on the inside, only to house two graves. All the marble is inlaid with semi-precious stones – it is not painted on. It was loads of fun to explore with the only other member of the tour being Fabio, from Brazil. We all enjoyed it immensely and more so for the fact that it seemed like WE were the ones on display! All that the Indians wanted to take pictures of were the white people! Fabio was more than thrilled to do this and eventually we all started getting pictures taken with the Indians. As well, in return we started asking them to take pictures with us!
The Red Fort is something to speak about as well. On the outside we could not imagine how wonderful it was on the inside! So much history, so many stories we heard. Our guide was fantastic and the grounds were so large you could get lost in them. We had the most perfect view of the Taj Mahal and the Yamuna River from the top of the towers. I believe the pictures speak for the beauty of the place much better than I could write here.
