Agra Fort & Night Time Taj

Late afternoon we headed over to the Agra Fort, very similar in design to the Red Fort in Delhi, but on a much bigger scale, and still in use. Only 20% of the Fort is open to the public, the rest is used by the military. One part of the palace inside is built in the same red brick, which was built by the Emperor Shah Jehan, but attached to it is a white marble palace, built by his daughter. The red buildings were also the men’s quarters whereas the lush greenery around the white palace was for women only, with a separate wing for the Emperor’s concubines!

I had an interesting experience with two squirrels, they call them squirrels here but they look more like chipmunks to us!
In the evening Raj took us to a lovely restaurant that he recommended where we had, guess what……yes, a lovely curry!!! AND, a glass of expensive wine!

We were taken to a workshop where artisan craftsmen still carve the stone panels which are used the repair the Palaces and Fort. They inlay finely cut jewels and coloured stones to create flowers and patterns. They also weave wools and silks to make carpets and scarves, on sale everywhere, if only we had a home to carpet!!!

On our second day in Agra, we navigated the local town’s High Street to find a pharmacy, I had forgotten something very important – nail clippers! We walked about 3kms through piles of dirt and bricks, dogs and puppies, cows and ox, every form of motorised and non-motorised vehicles you could imagine and lots of women and children who found it hilarious to say “hi” and “BBC, lovely jubbly”!!!!! Our trip out took us over an hour, we did get a little lost, but found a brilliant pair of nail clippers for the huge sum of 30p!!!!

We also visited the Taj Mahal again, but this time from the other side of the River and at sunset, to watch the colours of the marble change as the sun went down, well, that was the plan…..

The sun took an hour to set and the river mist and city smog took an hour to rise just in time to block any rays from the sun! The smog was created by two funeral pyres, right on the edge of the river! Ironically, the governmental departments in Agra have moved much of the city’s industrial activity out of the city limits to protect the Taj Mahal from pollution but cannot stop funeral pyres being lit right next to it as the mosque is still used daily!