Day 15

Our last morning in Cambodia was another beautiful one. We're here during the Water Festival, and last night there were fireworks which we totally slept through. Lonnie and Cathy actually participated in it. They were passing through the lobby at the right time to become part of a procession down to the water to launch some little boats with candles that the hotel made up. They took them down to the river and launched them and came back to the hotel. They said it took quite a few uniformed personnel to make all that happen because there was an incredible throng there. If they had been lost in the crowd it might have been difficult to get back. Jan and Sam and I went out this morning to survey the aftermath. There was a lot of litter around the gardens across from the hotel, and a beer bottle in the middle of the fountain, stuck on the nozzle. It had obviously been placed there, not thrown, so someone walked out into the fountain to place it there. We were trying to get some shots of the locals driving by. I really wanted a picture of a family of at least four on a scooter, but never got a good one.

We were told that our liquids and aerosols had to be in our carry-ons, not our checked bags. When we got to the airport, though, they had apparently changed their minds and said they couldn't be in our carry-ons. The lady from TCS was getting it straight, and letting the guy at the airport know they were the ones that had screwed up and should coordinate such decisions a lot better. I was kind of surprised to hear her talking to the airport security guys like that, but it's not the only time. The TCS people really don't take getting pushed around by the locals.

Back on board the TCS jet for the flight to India, time to go through the pictures and watch a movie. Since I had caught up on the blog entries, I had time for a little light entertainment. Our arrival in India was interesting, and should have prepared me for the rest of our stay. The airport at Agra is actually a military airport, and they don't let civilian aircraft land there very often, so they're not well set up to do immigration processing for large groups. We had to go through passport control one at a time and it took quite a while. They take their paperwork very seriously, though. When we finally got through immigration, we boarded buses for the hotel, which is very close to the Taj Mahal. We didn't get our rooms yet, just a place to drop our backpacks because we can't take them to the Taj. I got my camera and Tour Guide System and got back on the bus. We took an electric bus to the Taj Mahal itself. They don't let pollution too close because they don't want it to stain the marble. Security is ridiculous. They frisk everyone going into the site, and they're very picky what they let in. They don't even like the Tour Guide System because they think it's some kind of walkie-talkie and we're going to coordinate an attack of some kind. The women and men go through separate lines, and the women's line is twice as long as the men's for two reasons: the women carry more purses, etc. that have to be searched by hand and takes longer, and the men have two lines while the women have one. Why they would have half as many lines for the group that takes longer makes no sense to me. They have to separate the two sexes because they can't have a man frisk the women.

We waited a good twenty minutes for the women to get through the line, and then we started into the site. The first section you come to is the outer gate. It's a courtyard with three gates to the outside, and one to the Taj Mahal itself. The first look at the Taj through the gate is awe-inspiring. It was tempered somewhat by the fact that there was an incredible mob there, though. It was very difficult to get good pictures because of all the people. We did our best, though. We saw the Taj in the reflecting pool, got some information about the gardens (the English redid the gardens more to their liking while they were in charge; they were originally more flowery, but redone to be basically green). We headed up toward the Taj, and put on our booties. They actually slip over your shoes. If you don't have them, you have to walk around in your socks or bare feet. We headed up the stairs to the base of the Taj, and looked around there at the marble work and inlays. Then we headed up the stairs to the tomb. Here's where things got really close. The stairs were full and then some. People just don't like taking turns for some reason. So we pushed our way up the stairs to the level of the tomb. And our guide (Shakti) showed us more of the inlay work around the door. The line started getting longer just while we were standing there, so we jumped into line and again had to shove our way into the tomb. It was dark and hot in there, and smelled bad. Either because of the sweaty tourists or the birds that were apparently nesting inside. The inlay work here was lovely, what I could see of it. In the middle is a four sided marble screen, which was carved from one piece of marble, and took six months to carve into the lattice work and do the inlay. The tombs are inside the curtain. The wife's tomb is exactly in the center. The husband's is off to one side. It's supposed to be in balance, but the son of the man who had it built was too cheap to build a separate tomb for his father, so he just stuck him in the Taj beside his mother. We couldn't take too much of the heat, so we left and went out to the back side of the building facing the river. The river was low, and wasn't a very impressive sight. On the other side there's an observation garden. Supposedly, that's the source of the myth of the black Taj Mahal that Shah Jahan was going to build for his own tomb. No such building was ever planned. The gardens are just there as a spot to view the Taj. We looked around the outside of the upper level for a bit, and got to talk to Shakti about various things. As we were standing there, the line to get into the tomb was getting enormous. Just trying to get down the steps to the lower level was a challenge. The Taj Mahal was not built to accommodate huge crowds of people. They need to throttle the crowds somehow. The visitor makeup is about eighty percent Indians and twenty percent foreign. The reason is that the locals are only charged twenty Rupees (< fifty cents) to get in, and foreigners are charged twenty dollars. The site is considered a national treasure, and they try to make sure Indians get to see it if they can make it there. It makes for very crowded conditions, though. Add to that the fact that it was closed the next day, and everyone was trying to get in at the last minute. Apparently some men come there to get their jollies groping women as well. While in the dark crowded tomb, several women said they were getting "petted" on the rump. Pretty low, even for the third world.

We headed over toward the Mosque that's to the left of the Taj as you face it. The building on the other side is there just for balance and serves no purpose. To go into the Mosque, you have to take your shoes off. The covers aren't sufficient. I wasn't willing to do that, but Sam really wanted to. Some old guy took him into the Mosque and showed him the best places to take pictures. I was starting to worry about him, but he emerged safely and seemed happy with the pictures he got. The old man was happy too because Sam gave him almost ten dollars worth of Rupees that we got from TCS. Just as Sam was getting back, another guy came up to me to show me where to get some pictures. I tried to beg off, but he insisted and Jan encouraged me to go with him, so I got some decent shots of the Taj Mahal from the places he showed me. I would have never found them on my own. He was pretty happy, too, because I gave him five dollars for the help. After we got all our pictures, we rejoined our group and got back on the bus to the hotel.

Before dinner, we had a demonstration of native dancing. That seems to be a popular entertainment everywhere we go. This dancing was very different from that of the other countries, though. Even though there was a man and a woman, they didn't seem to interact very much. They were just sort of both dancing at the same time. Dinner was the normal tour buffet. They had a few Indian dishes, but also some generic type stuff like pasta. After dinner, we went up to our room and went to bed.