India pt. 2 - Agra, Akbar, and Underpants

In part 1 of our series on India, we introduced you to the "wonders" of Delhi: good food, bad pollution, and a hotel room that will haunt my dreams for years to come. In this post, we'll recount our adventures on the road and our 1 night stay in Agra. As you may or may not know, Agra is home to a million and a half Indians, a couple of really cool forts, and the Taj Mahal. It was the last of these that brought us to the city.
Just after our last breakfast in Delhi (boiled eggs and dry white toast anyone?), our driver showed up (right on time) to begin our driving tour of the "Golden Triangle." His name was "Sumer," and I am sorry to report that I took only one picture of him (above). He was an excellent driver, and made us feel quite safe for most of our trip (this is no small feat when driving in India). He did, however, have one idiosyncrasy that both amused and nauseated us: he liked to use our car as a laundromat. When he first picked us up, our friend Mel very kindly offered to sit by herself in the third row seat (in the back of the car). As we began to buckle ourselves in, we heard Mel start to chuckle. I turned around to see what she was laughing about and she brought my attention to a bit of Sumer's wet laundry which he'd laid out to dry on the seat next to Mel: his underwear. Being the good sport that she is, Mel never once complained about having to share her seat with our driver's unmentionables. Instead, she found herself a piece of newspaper, rolled it up, and proceeded to move the offending garment to a more suitable spot.


This became our daily routine. Every morning for the rest of the trip, Sumer would arrive punctually at our hotels to pick us up, and every morning we would find new evidence of his cleanliness. On one particular morning, I sat in the front passenger seat, just next to Sumer. About 15 minutes into our drive, I suddenly noticed that my jeans and jacket had been soaked through with moisture. At first, I thought that I had been sweating (this was India, after all). In my confusion, I wondered aloud, "Is my seat wet?" Although I hadn't intended to direct the question to him, Sumer replied, "yes sir." "Why?" I asked. "Washing, sir," was his matter-of-fact reply. "I see," was all I could manage to say in response.
Notwithstanding the soggy undies, we found our trips through the Indian countryside to be very enjoyable. Once we got out of the city, we found ourselves driving through endless fields of yellow. Sumer had explained to us earlier that he came from a farming background. I asked him about the yellow fields and his reply was simply "Mustard."

One of our favorite things about India was the brightly colored clothing we saw everywhere.

Agra was about a 5 hour drive from Delhi, which put our arrival at about the middle of the afternoon. On our way into town, we stopped at the tomb of "Akbar" - one of the most powerful Muslim rulers of 16th Century India (bear with me on matters of history - this stuff is actually interesting to me). I was excited to see the burial place of a king that I had recently taught my AP History students about, but I was soon distracted by the wildlife that roamed the grounds (we saw parrots, chipmunks, monkeys, and even a few wild deer):

Parrots at Akbar's tomb

Indian Chipmunk

After only about a half hour at Akbar's tomb, we drove on to the destination that had really brought us to Agra: The Taj Mahal. Having seen pictures of it all my life, I had been expecting the building to be a bit anti-climactic. It wasn't.
It was spectacular.

We had arrived about an hour and a half before sunset, and the warm afternoon light gave the building a rich glow. We hired a guide (for about $4 US), who showed us around the complex. He pointed out the beautiful semi-precious inlaid stones in the building's facade and directed us to the best locations for picture taking. He even took us to the bench that Prince Charles and Princess Di had sat on to take their pictures. Here's Emily's best impression of Lady Di:

And my best attempt to look "princely":
And, of course, the photo that Emily doesn't want me to post:
Agra had been described to us beforehand as a "wretched" place, worthy of no more than a night. On this advice, we stayed only one night (in the cleanest, friendliest bed-and-breakfast of our trip). On our second morning, we visited the Agra Fort...

The apartment in which Shah Jahan (builder of the Taj Mahal) was kept prisoner in his later years.

Emily the tour guide

Inlay work - Agra Fort

...as well as Fatehpur Sikri (Akbar's capital city, abandoned shortly after his death), where we watched a brave young man jump into an algae-covered pool, only to have him hassle us for money afterwards (Rus paid him $2, which seemed to satisfy him)...

Perhaps because we followed the advice we'd been given (staying only 1 night), we left Agra feeling good about the city. The people had been very friendly, and the historical sites were unforgettable.

In our next post, we'll be writing about Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan.

If you'd like to comment (and we love to read them!), here's a few possible talking points:
1)How much money would it take you to jump into that green, slimy pool?
2)Who looks more regal in our "Royalty Picture": Emily or Brad?
3)Now that we've shared our favorite building in the whole world, what's yours?