Another early morning
The alarm rang at 5o’clock. Shower, packing and at 6 we were ready to leave for the Taj Mahal. Agra was filled with the last bit of smoke from the Holi fires, streets were colored. At some places, they still played music. Very loudly. Because of the holiday, there was almost no traffic. It’s reared, in India. At the counter of the Taj stood a cue, anyway. Took about 15 minutes to get a ticket. Next challenge was to bridge the distance between the counter and the Gate. We choose a ricksha. At the Gate (for us) the next surprise was waiting: again a cue. For security check. And other 15 minutes. When we finally got in, the sun was already above the horizon, but we still had early morning light. What amazing! What beautiful! Didn’t even bother all the people which tried to make the same picture of the Taj. My camera was broken, again, anyway. Tried the forum about trouble solving, but didn’t found any useful yet. Glad I had my phone with me, thus I could take some pics. Without camera stress, I could take in the beauty and greatness of the place. For the first time “I’ve been there.” made really sense to me. Not to tell to other, but just to try to realize it for myself. To much magic, for one morning! Seems, real love might exist. Had soms trouble with the contratdiction, that the Mahal was build to honer his beloved wife. Now, people come to almost warship the building. Probably, it should be celebrating love? Some strange.
At some point we went back to the hotel for breakfast and to pick up our luggage. Had a little chat with the owner of the homestay, about how he started and developed his business, the homestay as well as the bakery. This type of conversation makes it much more interesting than staying in a hotel. We had some typical Indian cake because of the holiday, from his bakery of course.
Off we go, to Jaipur!
On the road we stopped for Fatehpur Sikri, a former capital… for only 15 years, before rulers realized that there was not enough water supply in the area. We walked the way up to facilities, took a look around and went back to the parking by bus. Back on the road, the driver showed us several interesting things to see, told us about India’s history, his children and some cultural items. Nothing you can reed in a travel-guide. At Gangaur we had a short break. Found for the first time a ‘singing bowl’ (is that the right term?) but didn’t buy it. Was not that nice….
Some time later, the driver (Hawa) asked as if we would like to see the stepwell. Had red about it and thought it would be a pity not to see it. But because I left my notes about points of special interests back home on my laptop (very smart!) I almost forgot about it and were very pleased, that he asked. Was just 5km from the road… almost nothing with the distances over here. The stepwell was even more imposing than I expected.
Not much later, we arrived in Jaipur. At first sight, the city is some more organized than others, but we only saw a small part and… it’s still Holi. For dinner we choose the Indian buffet at the hotel, just a lazy choice. Was not bad, but not comparable with the home-cooked dishes we had earlier