Agra

Today we booked a car to go to Agra, about 250kms south of Delhi and home to the Taj Mahal, one of the 7 New Wonders of the World. Leaving at 5:30am the trip took about 4hrs each way due to the many small villages you have to pass through, despite there being a reasonable 2 lane highway. The journey was interesting to say the least. Along the way the driver contended with bicycles, tuk tuks, trucks, buses, cars, buffalo, and of course people. I think the first thing to wear out on Indian cars are the brakes and then the horn as it was used consistently every 5 seconds and the brakes every 10 seconds or so for the entire trip.

Agra is in the state of Uttar Pradesh, which is India's poorest state. There is an immense amount of poverty here and its hard to describe the squallor that some people endure daily. The area that we passed through has a median age of 15 years which means an extremely high population rate as it would have very few income earning adults.

At a couple of points the driver got out to pay taxes or buy a drink and the car was besieged by pan-handlers selling books about Delhi, small elephant trinkets etc as well as one guy who wanted cash to make his poor monkey do tricks. The tuk-tuk above, believe it or not had 18 people in it. They are basically arranged as 4 bench seats so you can take as many people that will fit on. In this one there's a couple of extra kids in the front which make up the numbers. The cost to have a tuk-tuk take you somewhere is about 5 rupees (10 cents) per kilometre. I'm sure many ex-tuk tuk drivers now drive taxis is Sydney.

The bike to the left has 4 people on it and although I couldn't get a picture, one bike had 5 on it. Very few of these cyclists even wear sunglasses. They do however keep their mouths closed as dead bugs on your teeth is not a good look. It was actually an anomaly to see a motorbike with only one rider on it. As to helmets, if there was a helmet, it was usually on the husband/boyfriend driving - the female on the back rarely (if ever) had one. I was hoping to see if some enterprising bike owner extended the seat so he could fit more people on it...who knows?

The Taj Mahal was built in about 1653 entirely from marble. It was essentially a tomb (mausoleum) for the Mughal (Persian - Iran) Emporor Shah Jahan's dead (3rd) wife. When the emporer died, his casket was place next to his wife's in the tomb. The temple contains elements of Persian, Islamic and Indian architectural styles. It took 21 years to build and at one stage there was 20,000 workers engaged. There are two pink coloured buildings on each side of the Taj. One is an Islamic Mosque (shown here) and there is a mirror image on the other side - with no other function than architectural balance.

The picture of the pink building below was taken from the Taj Mahal back towards the Great Gate. There are 3 entrances (East, west and south gates)to the courtyard that lead to the Great Gate and then to the Taj Mahal. The temperature in Agra today was about 40 degrees and was even higher inside as well as being mixed with a whole lot of body odour. Ewwwwww!.