Surprises (Second of three) ...I'm not spam. I'm not being removed. And so I'm back!

Our first surprise in Agra was waiting for us at the station....our hotel sent a driver to pick us up. Drivers hanging around stations sometimes take tourists to hotels the drivers are associated with, not the hotel the traveler requests. Why? The driver is paid by the hotel. Our hotel was looking out for its business and we benefited. So did the driver as Malik became "our" driver for the length of our stay.
On the way to the hotel Malik delivered our second surprise. The Taj Mahal is closed on Fridays. The next day was Friday.

No matter. Friday morning bright and early(5:30) Malik took us to Mehtab Bagh, a "park" across the river where a view of the Taj from its backside is possible. The morning and the view were wonderful. However, as so often happens in India, the wonderful is mixed with the really? that's what they're doing? For on the drive to the riverside we saw, and at the riverside itself, as we had seen from the train and I had seen from other trains and on early morning bike rides in Sivakasi, people, mainly men and children, emptying their bowels. Along train tracks, roads, rivers or in pastures it is very possible you will see squatting people or bare butts. The evidence was real along the river that morning. It's a practice that has me puzzled... and thinking about our own practices.
So our attention was not fully on the Taj even though it was magnificent.










After our morning look at the back of the Taj, we went to see Baby Taj. It's official name is Itimad-ud-daulah. It also is a tomb. It was built by Nur Jahan for the burial of her parents. She built a similar one in Lahore, now in Pakistan, for her husband Jehangir. Her life is written about in a novel titled The Twelfth Wife, a book both Jolie and I had enjoyed. It was her husband's third son, Shah Jahan, who later built the Taj Mahal on the death of his second wife. Baby Taj is the earlier, smaller predesign to the Taj.

It was in a beautiful and peaceful park like setting. Peaceful, that is, until the monkeys in the hedge took over. They, angrily and with snarls, chased each other across our path. That ended all sightseeing. The guard went for a large stick. He pounded the ground and anything that would make a loud noise. The monkeys made a grudging retreat. We made a beeline for Malik in the autorick.
After breakfast we went to Agra's Fort. Its palace was beautiful and the people we met fun.... but you'll have to see Jolie's pictures on Facebook to know. I've just seen her pictures. They're wonderful. That's Jolie Goodson.
That evening we ate dinner in the hotel's rooftop restaurant. There was a bit of a breeze. Kids flew small tailless kites from other rooftops. They rode bikes on the streets below. A cow and a few people wondered through those streets. A young woman came onto her roof for the evening air. Monkeys romped across roofs and climbed the nearby tree. We noticed it all, but mostly we gazed at the Taj.



Saturday we were on the grounds of the Taj Mahal by 6 a.m. The Taj is spectacular. It's large and a tomb for only two: Mumtaz Mahal (Shah Jahan's second wife who died giving birth to their 14th child) and Shah Jahan himself. The Taj looks white but quite a bit is inlaid with black, tan, gold, red and bluish gray stones. In the sun it sparkles. Carved areas look lacy. The Taj grounds include a mosque, a guesthouse and gates - all of redstone. They are amazing structures too. The grounds were well-taken care of and the ponds, unlike other places, were full of water. It is a beautiful compound.
Unfortunately at about 9 we realized Jolie was definitely not well. She took a few minutes to gather her strength, we grabbed this photo and then caught a rickshaw to the hotel. After some debate we decided it was the days of heat that did her in. I had had time to adjust to India's heat before she arrived. It was just too bad we had let up on our water intake the day before. We immediately began consuming large amounts of mineral water, lime sodas and lassis, a sweet or salty yogurt drink. And we added a bag of salty potato chips to our diet.

By 9:30 that evening we had taken a taxi from Agra to Tundla where we caught a night sleeper train to Varanasi. I was surprised by the number of people in our sleeper car. There were more children - but more adults too...more than there were seats. Because we boarded the train at one of its stops and not at its originating station, we found our berths occupied. The young man on the left side of the picture was a great help in getting our berths freed up. There was no room on the floor for our luggage so it joined us on our berths. With it in place, we crawled in and were soon asleep. I awoke twice during the night and realized at least one man was sleeping in the aisle. This was not what I had experienced before.

Most of us were awake by 6. Some people pulled out toothbrushes and toothpaste, but some men used sticks from the neem tree. We all had chai. A woman selling cucumbers scored. Several men chewed tobacco and at a window a woman secretly smoked cigarettes which explained her cough and the smell of smoke during the night. Children climbed up and down the berths or played in the aisle as parents watched over them. As Jolie said....the world over, we love our children.

Next: Varanasi