Tuesday 2nd October: The Trident Hotel, Agra to The Trident Hotel, Gurgaon Delhi
Our second viewing of the gorgeous Taj Mahal was a perfectly executed plan in terms of timing. Jenny had visited the Taj 5 times to work out the best time to go, so that we wouldn't be swamped by the marauding masses. After the dawn crowd left and before the tourist masses arrive in the middle of the morning was the choice so we left the Hotel at 8.30am precisely and arrived at the Taj a few minutes later having decamped form the big bus to an electric bus . Every attempt has been made to avoid having car fumes too close to the Taj.
As we approached I was asked by an Indian family to take their photo: at least that's what I thought! But no, they wanted to take photos of me with every member of the family. My blond hair and blue eyes are a source of fascination, and this has happened before. I politely obliged and smiled for a few photos and then asked them if I could take a photo of them, which I did. Marianne, who is the same fair colouring, also ended up featuring in a few shots with another Indian family. I'm sure when they get home they will be wondering who in the hell we were!
We wandered towards the Taj and by passed the Princess Diana seat where she had been photographed years ago. There was a crowd waiting to be photographed on the exact spot but we thought we could live without it.
As we drew closer we could see the beautiful inlay and design of the building. It also has some remarkable optical illusions one of which would preserve it in case of an earthquake: the four tall minarets at the corners have one straight external side and the other is on an angle of 7% less so if an earthquake came the pillar would fall away from the actual Taj building. It also follows you somehow as it is completely symmetrical.
The red mosque on one side was duplicated on the other and used as a guesthouse for special visitors, but it was built predominantly to ensure the symmetry.
The story behind it goes like this:
Young girl (15 years old) visits her aunt who is part of the Royal household and goes to the market.
She spots a handsome young man (14 years old) and to get his attention she pretends to sell him a lump of glass. He is horrified as he knows its glass. But she (being a brazen hussy!) lifts her veil and drops it again quickly and he falls instantly in love with her.
She dashes off : he has to find out who she is.
Long story short, they marry and she has FOURTEEN children in EIGHTEEN years!! (Clearly no reliable contraception back then!).
After the birth of the last child, a daughter, she dies but not before getting him to promise to build a memorial for her to show his love.
Et voila! He builds the Taj Mahal. It took 22 years and 22,000 workers, many of them master craftsmen. It's made of white marble and bricks covered in slabs of marble, and has lots of intricate coloured inlays. To protect the marble you have to cover your shoes and slide your way around the room.
You can't take pictures of the inside but there is a marble tomb in the middle and a smaller one to one side which is the tomb of the her husband. The real tombs however are actually underneath the ones you can see.
We definitely ticked it off a few bucket lists!
Then for something more practical we returned to the Hotel, checked to make sure our cases were on the bus and headed for Delhi, a few hours down the road. Not the most picturesque landscape but a lot of small towns, a few camels, sheaves of hay and lots of different crops kept us interested, when we weren't dozing off!
For sustenance we stopped a Truckstop/ fast food place jammed with travellers like us. The selection included Indian or pizza or Indian or popcorn or Indian or coffee and toasties or Indian ........ the coffee was good and a few of us had Tandooris chicken Tikka toasties which was a probably a bit of everything above combined. Not bad at all.
As we approached Delhi the multistorey buildings increased and the crops receded. The number of trucks increased and so did the volume of the horns. I became fascinated with the decoration of the trucks and the long black tassels that hang from the rear vision mirrors and the flags that decorate the back of the trucks.
Soon we were caught in the traffic and hustle and bustle of Delhi and eventually found our way to the oasis that is the Trident Hotel in Gurgaon on the outskirts of Delhi. I have to include some photos of this Hotel as it is truly beautifully and elegantly designed.
Jenny and I had a secret G&T in our room after ordering ice, lime and tonic water. I had to hide the gin as it was Gandhi's birthday and no alcohol could be sold in the Hotel. Thank heavens for duty free Gin!
After testing out the pool and relaxing in our opulent rooms we were bustled on to the bus for an adventure in modern Indian entertainment. We arrived at an amazing place....I'm not sure how to describe it! It was a combination of an amusement park, closed cover foodcourt and theatre complex all designed in absolutely over the top decor which included giant elephants, a painted sky over the food court, a gigantic mirrored lotus doorway and much more. It's called Culture Gully.
We were overwhelmed by bizarre statues and flashing lights as we made our way to the Lucknow Restaurant.
It was a picture in green velvet and gold braid and chandeliers. Another multi course Indian dinner was quickly consumed before we rushed to the theatre for...guess what!.......Bollywood! Yay!
The show was called Zangoora! meaning the Gypsy Prince and it was Bollywood in all its splendour. It had: people arriving on flying carpets or flying boats or a flying eagle, strobe lights, glitter, fire, mermaids swimming through the air, a very evil sorceress who kept appearing from the sky (sometimes upside down!) magic tricks including levitation, lots of impressive six-packs on very fit bare chested young men, beautiful lithe young women, a number of very evil baddies ...and, of course, loud music and lots of dancing. What's not to love???!!!
At interval I went to see if they were selling anything that looked like Jaffas or chocolates but NO! they were selling weird fat hot dogs, cold drinks with rice in them and popcorn by the bucketful. I resisted!
We all thought it was fabulous! Although audio guides were supplied to provide an English translation I didn't use mine at all as the story was not hard to follow... there's a surprise!! And they all lived happily ever after, except for the baddies of course.
Back to the gorgeous Hotel, and we all farewelled Thelma as she was leaving early the next morning to return home to Perth.
Your 'Jai-ho' correspondent
Diannel
 |
Our second viewing of the gorgeous Taj Mahal was a perfectly executed plan in terms of timing. Jenny had visited the Taj 5 times to work out the best time to go, so that we wouldn't be swamped by the marauding masses. After the dawn crowd left and before the tourist masses arrive in the middle of the morning was the choice so we left the Hotel at 8.30am precisely and arrived at the Taj a few minutes later having decamped form the big bus to an electric bus . Every attempt has been made to avoid having car fumes too close to the Taj.
As we approached I was asked by an Indian family to take their photo: at least that's what I thought! But no, they wanted to take photos of me with every member of the family. My blond hair and blue eyes are a source of fascination, and this has happened before. I politely obliged and smiled for a few photos and then asked them if I could take a photo of them, which I did. Marianne, who is the same fair colouring, also ended up featuring in a few shots with another Indian family. I'm sure when they get home they will be wondering who in the hell we were!
 |
As we drew closer we could see the beautiful inlay and design of the building. It also has some remarkable optical illusions one of which would preserve it in case of an earthquake: the four tall minarets at the corners have one straight external side and the other is on an angle of 7% less so if an earthquake came the pillar would fall away from the actual Taj building. It also follows you somehow as it is completely symmetrical.
 |
| The glamourous paper shoes provided to protect the stone floors |
The story behind it goes like this:
Young girl (15 years old) visits her aunt who is part of the Royal household and goes to the market.
She spots a handsome young man (14 years old) and to get his attention she pretends to sell him a lump of glass. He is horrified as he knows its glass. But she (being a brazen hussy!) lifts her veil and drops it again quickly and he falls instantly in love with her.
She dashes off : he has to find out who she is.
Long story short, they marry and she has FOURTEEN children in EIGHTEEN years!! (Clearly no reliable contraception back then!).
After the birth of the last child, a daughter, she dies but not before getting him to promise to build a memorial for her to show his love.
Et voila! He builds the Taj Mahal. It took 22 years and 22,000 workers, many of them master craftsmen. It's made of white marble and bricks covered in slabs of marble, and has lots of intricate coloured inlays. To protect the marble you have to cover your shoes and slide your way around the room.
You can't take pictures of the inside but there is a marble tomb in the middle and a smaller one to one side which is the tomb of the her husband. The real tombs however are actually underneath the ones you can see.
We definitely ticked it off a few bucket lists!
Then for something more practical we returned to the Hotel, checked to make sure our cases were on the bus and headed for Delhi, a few hours down the road. Not the most picturesque landscape but a lot of small towns, a few camels, sheaves of hay and lots of different crops kept us interested, when we weren't dozing off!
For sustenance we stopped a Truckstop/ fast food place jammed with travellers like us. The selection included Indian or pizza or Indian or popcorn or Indian or coffee and toasties or Indian ........ the coffee was good and a few of us had Tandooris chicken Tikka toasties which was a probably a bit of everything above combined. Not bad at all.
As we approached Delhi the multistorey buildings increased and the crops receded. The number of trucks increased and so did the volume of the horns. I became fascinated with the decoration of the trucks and the long black tassels that hang from the rear vision mirrors and the flags that decorate the back of the trucks.
 |
| This truck had multiple black tassels to ward off evil spirits and keep the driver safe |
 |
| Lots of trucks had pieces of bright colours material hanging from the back |
 |
| One of the millions of public buses that added their colour and fumes to the traffic! |
 |
 |
| The golden domed reception |
 |
Jenny and I had a secret G&T in our room after ordering ice, lime and tonic water. I had to hide the gin as it was Gandhi's birthday and no alcohol could be sold in the Hotel. Thank heavens for duty free Gin!
After testing out the pool and relaxing in our opulent rooms we were bustled on to the bus for an adventure in modern Indian entertainment. We arrived at an amazing place....I'm not sure how to describe it! It was a combination of an amusement park, closed cover foodcourt and theatre complex all designed in absolutely over the top decor which included giant elephants, a painted sky over the food court, a gigantic mirrored lotus doorway and much more. It's called Culture Gully.
 |
It was a picture in green velvet and gold braid and chandeliers. Another multi course Indian dinner was quickly consumed before we rushed to the theatre for...guess what!.......Bollywood! Yay!
The show was called Zangoora! meaning the Gypsy Prince and it was Bollywood in all its splendour. It had: people arriving on flying carpets or flying boats or a flying eagle, strobe lights, glitter, fire, mermaids swimming through the air, a very evil sorceress who kept appearing from the sky (sometimes upside down!) magic tricks including levitation, lots of impressive six-packs on very fit bare chested young men, beautiful lithe young women, a number of very evil baddies ...and, of course, loud music and lots of dancing. What's not to love???!!!
At interval I went to see if they were selling anything that looked like Jaffas or chocolates but NO! they were selling weird fat hot dogs, cold drinks with rice in them and popcorn by the bucketful. I resisted!
We all thought it was fabulous! Although audio guides were supplied to provide an English translation I didn't use mine at all as the story was not hard to follow... there's a surprise!! And they all lived happily ever after, except for the baddies of course.
Back to the gorgeous Hotel, and we all farewelled Thelma as she was leaving early the next morning to return home to Perth.
Your 'Jai-ho' correspondent
Diannel
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