The Taj Mahal

Well, I guess there isn't a lot to say about the Taj Mahal. It's a huge beautiful building that took a lot of laborers (20,000) a lot of years (22) to build and then they all got slaughtered. A lot of work for a Muslim boss who doesn't even give his workers wine at the end of the day...

I think in the end, the opulence of the Taj kind of disgusted me. I really, just didn't get very good vibes from the place at all.

I think the amount of literature about the Taj far outdoes what I could possibly do for it, so let me tell you a little about my day in Agra instead.

Rather than trying to book a room in Agra for the night we'd decided that we'd go at ass o'clock early to Agra and come back on a late express train to Delhi. As you might expect, there are a lot of daily trains back and forth from Delhi to Agra because, frankly, a lot of people want to see the Taj Mahal. So after a somewhat crowded morning train ride we arrive in Agra about 11 AM. Right as we're getting out of the train station, we get completely pounced on by all the drivers trying to take us everywhere. Finally we decided to hire a guy for the day to drive us to the Taj and to Agra Fort and to wherever else we wanted. Agra Fort seemed unappealing to both of us and so we forewent that. However, we, like all other tourist who come to India, went to see the Taj Mahal. It is a first class rip off for foreigners. Indians have to pay Rs 20 and foreiners Rs 750. They aren't even subtle about it. I was a little pissed off about that. There are lots of rules a regulations in place, mainly if I do say so myself, for Indian tourists (not all of them, but the minority) who would trash the place. Nonetheless the policing of tourists is MUCH more strictly enforced for foreigners. I was standing in line with an Austrian guy who with his girlfriend had been traveling around India staying in Ashrams and such and he said "they just look at us as wallets with legs. They don't care about anything else. It's just a form of racism and they are open about it." I was a bit shocked to hear a person who had come to India for some sort of spiritual quest speak so openly against India. But I was also impressed. He just out and said it, and told me a few stories about being in ashrams where he got overcharged blatantly. So, I ascertained he wasn't sold on his India experience. Anyway, it turns out the Taj is pretty and grandiose, and all that other crap that the tour books say it is, but I was generally unenthused. I couldn't get out of my mind a building with so much inlay with writings from the Qu'ran all over it was built by such a terror of a man. He killed all the workers after they built a mausoleum for his wife just so no one could replicate it. F-that!

The real highlight of the day was going to an art school (before the sales pitch) and seeing how the marble inlay was done. At this art school it is still done by hand and with much patience and diligence. Turns out, at the end of the day, they just wanted to sell us stuff at overblown prices too. In the end, we bought a carved Ganesha for our hosts in Delhi (my friend's family) but the price marked was Rs 2500. We said we'd pay Rs 550 for it. Of course they took the deal when we walked out. Lame. Anyway, here are some Taj Mahal pictures.