Jaipur and the Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal in all its glory!

There were very few "white" visitors to the Taj - Mostly Indian families enjoying the site.

City Palace at Jaipur

City Palace

Street scene in Jaipur

Girl by Lake Palace in Jaipur

Lake Palace in Jaipur

Amber village as seen from Amber Fort

Inside Amber Fort with the rest of the volunteers

Inside Amber Fort

Elephant ride up to Amber Fort - I walked

Amber Fort

OK, I know one can't go to India without going to and commenting on the Taj Mahal. The first weekend I was here, we took a long weekend and drove to Jaipur and Agra. The drive itself is worth a blog! It was nine hours of utter chaos and maneuvers that would put any race car driver to shame. Just imagine driving on a US freeway, dodging cows, people running across the freeway, people pulling carts, dogs, autorickshaws, manual rickshaws, motorbikes, bicycles, and then all of a sudden a speed bump! All the while, the two lane freeway is actually a five lane freeway, with cars, trucks and buses vying for position. And..........doing this in the dark, with no streetlights and dust that was as thick as fog. At some point, it all became too funny to be scary.

Enough about the driving, on to Jaipur and Agra. Jaipur, the gateway to Rajasthan, is a congested city, but it still has some charm. There are a lot of sites to see and the bazaars are a shopaholics paradise. We spent the day touring Amber Fort, City Palace, Jantar Mantar, and checking out the shopping paradise.

The next day we drove to Agra, which is home to the Taj Mahal. I wish I could say that I was awestruck by the Taj, but the conditions that day made it less so for me. Even though the pictures might not show it, it rained most of the time we were there, so it was hard to get an appreciation for the color of the marble and the intricate designs. It was a holiday weekend, so the crowds were overwhelming. I've never seen so much pushing and shoving; it was so bad that I thought there was going to be a stampede. What I really didn't like were the photo ops. You couldn't go anywhere without photographers bugging you about getting your picture taken, and of course, it was somewhat hard to take pictures because there was always a group getting their pictures taken. I took off from our group and just roamed and found places on the side that were less congested, and where families were lazing around in the grass.

Having written all that, I do have an appreciation for the Taj and for the history. It must have been magnificent when it was unveiled, and I'm fascinated about the construction of it (20,000 people from India and Central Asia worked on it for 8 years).