March 29, 2015 (Agra, India)

After a night of sleep on the train we woke early in Agra and were ready for the Taj Mahal! To get to the Taj we first took a bus, then a 1/2 golf kart and 1/2 eletric bus to the entry. The rest of my family, Syd, Kendall, Mom, and Dad has been to the Taj before, but this is my first time. The Taj is big! The Taj is made out of marble with coral, stones and semi precious stone inlay work. Each of the pillars around it is slanted out 2.5 degrees towards the land, so one day when the pillars fall they wont fall on the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal was built by the emperor as a burial for his dead wife to show his love for her. It was beautiful.

Also at the Taj they had sorts of birds flying around. Some that I saw were birds of prey and large Parakeets that were green!

Next we walked over to our “champane breakfast”, but of course neither mom or I had some.

Finished with our breakfast we drove back to the train and stayed there for a couple of hours. Our room on the train was different but similar in a sense to Rovos Rail the train we did in South Africa. It was similar in how it had a classy older look, but Rovos rail seemed older, classier, fancier and nicer in some things. 

Later, Mom and I ate lunch then departed again with the group to the Agra Fort. The Agra Fort was used several hundred years ago as a castle like area where the royal Moguls would stay. Inside the fort were carved lines in the floor so the animals that came into the fort had grip. One of the parts of the fort we saw was where the past King who built the Taj Mahal was imprisoned. The king was put into prison by his son who took over the throne by force. Where the past emperor was being held had a view of the Taj. Another part we walked to was a room that had natural air conditioning. That place was air conditioned from water. One last section we walked to was the harem’s quarters. The women of the harem were women who would perform, entertain, and do other things for the emperor. There used to be hundreds of women of the Harem.

Finished with our group tour of the Agra Fort we drove over to the marble inlay shop. Marble inlay work is when they inlay carvings into marble. They cut semi precious stones to fit flat on the marble. Inside the shop we were able to watch them shape the semi-precios stones. And we were also able to look through their shop.

At the train we ate dinner in one of the cars and departed from Agra.