Of course, you can’t come to India without seeing the Taj Mahal. This was my 2nd trip to the Taj so I had been worried that it wouldn’t be as amazing the 2nd time around. But it still is a pretty awe-inspiring place – think about 20,000 workers and 20 years of work to create this amazing building. The Taj was a zoo full of tourists, both local and international, but it was great just to take a moment to sit and enjoy it, even though there are about a million other people swarming the place!
While we were in Agra, we also saw the Agra or Red Fort which was pretty amazing as well. The great Mughals lived at the Fort and the country was governed from here. It contained the largest state treasury and mint.
On another evening Pranab and I escaped and went to see the Nahargarh Fort in Jaipur. We didn’t actually see much of the Fort since it was dark out but the point of going was to take in the amazing views of the night lights across Jaipur, very cool. Interesting to get the perspective from up above of the massiveness of Jaipur and the urban sprawl that has taken place outside the city center.
Finally, on the last day we visited Amber Fort to cap off the trip. It was incredibly hot (and it was like 9 AM, must have been crazy hot in the mid-afternoon) but enjoyable to see one last bit of amazing architecture before heading out of the country.
And the final stop on the tour of India? Elephant rides! Last time I was in India, I avoided the elephants because I felt bad for them – it’s so hot and who wants to lug my big butt around in that heat! ;) But then I found out that animal activists have really cleaned up the operation and the elephants are treated much more humanly. So, this time around I decided to participate in the tourist trap and lumbered around on top of an elephant – it was pretty fun!
No comments:
Post a Comment