It was a frustrating time getting a cuppa this morning until we realised we were asking the clearing up man, not the serving man! Spoke to some English ladies about how they were enjoying their bus tour. The problem with the big buses is that it takes quite a while to get 40 elderly people on and off the bus at each photo opportunity.
It is very misty, so we are very pleased that we went to see the Taj Mahal yesterday.
Emca and Vikram pick us up and we head to the tomb of Colonel J.W. Hessing who was a dutch adventurer who joined various Indian armies as a mercenary. He died in 1803 and his wife and children built this tomb, often known as the Red Taj Mahal - but VERY much in miniature!
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| Cow - sacred! |
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| Agra is not a pretty city |
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| You may be able to make out the monkeys on the balcony. The red faces ones are fierce, the dark ones are OK |
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| Typical Road and markets - note the cellphone tower in the background. Quite cool - put a cardi on over your saree |
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| The red Taj Mahal |
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| This is a little enclave for Christian burials, and there are quite a collection of graves with crosses on them. |
On the road again - this is part of the straightline policy: 400kms of straight road was built in 2015. It truly is a triangle. (We are doing The Golden Triangle Tour)
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| On the dash, Vikram has a small ganesha - half elephant, half child. The hindu have untold number of Gods, but this is a God for those on a journey - a bit like the Christian St Christopher. |
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| Water buffalo are milked daily too. MMMmmmm all that creamy milk for the hot chocolates I just love here. |
On route we stop at the deserted city of Fatehpur Sikri. It was planned by a Mughal, Emperor Akbar.
He was very interested in religion and had envoys from all six major religions come and talk to him. Hindi, Muslim, Sikh, Christianity, Jew, and Buddist. He thought they all had enough in common to combine them - he would have probably have saved an awful lot of wars if he had managed this! He took a Hindu wife, a muslim wife and a christian wife (from Goa which was a small Portugeuse colony), so maybe this was his tactic!!
The city also included aqueducts and a lake and the rooms had a primitive form of air conditioning with cool mists of water sprayed under the verandah. This city is made from Red sand stone in the 16th century. We come across the first use of the term stomping ground as when people were tried, and found guilty of treason and murder they were put into the grounds with cross elephants and "stomped" to death.
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| Low verandah-ed blocks |
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| The Stomping Ground |
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| A pillar built with emblems from all six major religions |
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| From The courtyards - remnants of aqueducts. |
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| A games board in the courtyard floor. |
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| Beautiful carved ceilings have lasted well. |
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| Area for the wives. |
Emca leaves us after this visit, and we continue on the straight road, stopping for lunch on the way.
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