Taj Mahal & Agra- WOW! (Wonder of the World)

Our trip to Agra was the most amazing, interesting, fascinating road trip I have ever been on. From Dehli, it took us almost 6 hours to drive to Agra (probably around a 2 hour trip in the US) and here is a list of all the things on the road with us (and why it took 6 hours!) Vehicles- trucks & cars (medium & large), buses (filled to overflowing with people hanging off & on the roof) motorcycles (with up to 4-5 people on them!)  bicycles (plus bicycles pulling people [rickshaws] & carts) auto rickshaws (basically a three wheeled motorcycle with a cart on back- made to seat around 4 people comfortably, but usually filled with up to 15 +) carts pulled by horses, oxen, camels & people and tractors. I’m sure I forgot a few, too. Then there are the animals & people- THOUSANDS of people all walking on & crossing the roads all the time! And cows, horses, donkeys, goats, pigs, camels, dogs, chickens & monkeys everywhere… it is just totally CRAZY! As much as I enjoy driving- I don’t think I could or would here. But the car trip was just the beginning as Agra itself proved to be a really cool place. The first night we were in our hotel (with a view of the Taj from our room) there was a wedding- fireworks, loud music, dancing- the works. I would really love to get invited to one while we are here! The Taj Mahal was one of those places where you can’t believe you are actually there after seeing it in photos since childhood. It is of course even more amazing in person- up close you can see the marble is inlaid with semi precious stone- very intricate & beautiful. You can definitely see why it took 20,000 people 22 years to build it! When the kids could no longer stand the heat we got to visit the factory where they are still making the marble today. Some of the pieces that are inlaid are the size of a fingernail clipping- so much work. We also visited a rug making factory (men sitting at a loom hand knotting – some rugs take up to & over a year to make) a silk embroidery place, several stone stores & the kids also got some native wear. In between all that we also visited Agra Fort- where the royal family who built the Taj lived. The palace in it’s heyday must’ve been amazing! We finished up that long day on the back side of the Taj (across the river) where the king started a masoleum for himself. It never got completed because he died soon after starting…but it’s a beautiful place to watch the sun set on the Taj. The next day we made the long journey back to Delhi- and we left early to make sure we didn’t miss our flight. We arrived at the airport at 4:30 for our 7 PM flight that was delayed until 11:30! Thankfully there was a play area where the kids were able to burn off some energy with the other kids from the flight. We finally got back to Chennai around 3AM- exhausted but with some wonderful memories! OK-  realized after writing this it really was too many photos for one post.. SO, here are the photos of getting there & our day of sightseeing. I’ll put the rest in another post later.