After changing planes in Nepal we took our shortest flight of the trip (1.5 hrs) arriving in Agra, India. Most tourists who visit Agra are forced to travel by bus for 5 hours from New Delhi. We were able to land at the VIP airport in the city.
Northern India is famous for its bad air. In particular a high concentration of PM 2.5 particles caused by the burning of fields. To me this kind of air is toxic although we have experienced it ourselves during the Camp Fire and during the Soberanes Fire. The tour group was handing out surgical masks (ineffective) but also had a couple of proper N95 masks. For me this was (literally) a life saver.
The Taj is supposed to be easily visible from our room (why our porter insisted on taking the picture). This shows how bad the air was on our arrival. We were strongly advised NOT to do the early morning trip to the Taj. Fortunately the skies did improve later in the day as shown in the sections below.
For those desiring even more pictures of the Taj consult the uncurated pages
This was one of the more remarkable hotels on the visit. Thus I am going to devote some additional space to it beyond the summary on the hotel page.
The Taj Mahal is one of the most remarkable buildings in the world. It was commissioned in 1632 by a grieving Shah Jahan in tribute to his wife Mumtaz Mahal. The complex is both an active mosque and also a tomb with the sarcophagus of both in the center.
Our guide on this day was quite good. He pointed out some of the design features that make this such a remarkable building such as the attention to symmetry and the details of how the building was designed to support the weight of all that marble next to a river. The central dome is raised so the full dome is visible from the south.
The Taj park is rather large with the complex only occupying a small section along the river. We took a shuttle from the hotel to the entrance area. Inside the entrance one goes through the South Gate and then into the grounds surrounding the Taj. On your left is an active Mosque (Shah Jahan was a Mughal Emperor). To the right is another building the British used as a hotel. Since it does not face the correct direction it is not a mosque. The Taj lies on a raised platform between them.
One of the remarkable things about the Taj is that its artwork is sharp even after sitting in the weather for hundreds of year. The secret is that the artwork is inlay instead of paint.
The last place we visited was Agra Fort. I will let the reader of this follow the wikipedia article for more information. Legend says that at add one point the creator of the Taj Mahal, Shah Jahan, was imprisoned in the Muasamman Burj at the fort and died with a view of his creation.
That night we had to stay up until our small bag was collected. Then a quick sleep for an early bags ready. We departed for the Agra airbase for a 9 AM start to our 7 hr 40min trip to Tanzania.
On to Tanzania
