The first train I slept on, what a relief! However, I still wasn't pleased to be waking up at 6am and bundling myself and bags out of a train station and stand for half an hour waiting for transport to the hotel to be arranged. Once there we settled into some rooms to freshen up and hit the road to see Akbar's palace.
Akbar had 3 queens, one Hindu one Muslim and one Christian. The Hindu queen was the favorite because she was from the Royal family, prettiest and also gave him a son. This queen was given 2 palaces one for winter and one for summer. Each queen had separate palaces so thy didn't argue. Each place has different architecture according to their religion. The Hindu queen had swasticas engraved because it is a good luck sign in Hinduism. The Hindu queen had her own Hindu temple. Hindu queens palace was a courtyard with one side open with a lake behind to make it cool in summer and the other was closed on the back, in the middle of the courtyard was a monolithic pot filled with basil when she lives here. Hindu queen was from rajistan, she always ate vegetarian food. On her kitchen there are many earrings depicted via carvings. The Muslim queen came from Turky and the Catholic queen came from Goa. He had other illegal wives but they lived outside of the complex.
The entertainment place had a lake with an island in the middle so that the singing would reverberate. The king was only 5ft4 so when people came to visit him in his bedroom they would have to bow to leave as respect. In the day the king had a very high bed so the breeze from the lake would give a breeze and they kept rose water on the floor under the stone bed – summer bed. At night he slept in the queens beds not his own. They made their own rose water by filling with water and roses and grinding in a huge pot, now broken, for the queens to bathe in.The Muslim queens palace was the most intricately carved and was called the mirror palace because all the walls were covered in reflective colours. Akbar played ludo with real life beautiful girls in the courtyard. Gold dice shaped cube, the girls would move according to the dice by dancing.
King parliament: at meeting times the doors would be shut they sat upstairs, Akbar sat in the centre. Akbar thought if he made relatives with other religions he would make allies, he started his own religion the name meaning one religion. On the pillar in the centre has architecture from all 3 religions, combines swastik, lotus flowers and church doors. Akbar collected water in a tank from rain water, next to the army barracks behind the palaces.
Only 40% of the monuments is still standing. The Elephant who used to crush people's head was buried and a big tower built in his honour when he died. There is a building with 3 rooms: 3 separate treasuries, one for each of the queens. In the corner of the rooms there were very deep holes used as coin lockers. There was even a royal family hospital! 5 floor pillar was an entertainment spot where he sat with all 3 queens in summer so they had a breeze from all 4 directions. Akbar only had 1 son given to him by the Hindu queen. His son had 3 names.
There was a ministers palace because the king was illiterate so the minister wrote and read for him, his palace was the second most beautiful. This palace backed into the horses stables- even the horses had an indoor place to live for the winter. A chill became present in the air as we left the palace but luckily we were in cars instead of tuk tuks. After our mammoth all you can eat buffet lunch my tummy wasn't feeling so great so I stayed at the hotel while Adam went with the group out to dinner.
We rose very early at 5 to walk to the Taj Mahal for sun rise. Bit of a palaver to get through security (especially for Adam with his tripod) because the governor of India was arriving at 11am. As we entered the grounds the Taj was impossible to see through the bellowing mist that surrounded it. As we walked around the mist began to clear and the grand white domes revealed themselves. I feel the pictures speak for themselves but I have put in information in to remind myself!
The Taj – shah (Mughal emperor) met this wife at a charity bazaar where the rich women would sell goods once a year but this was the only day of the year where they didn't have to cover their faces; he fell instantly in love with her. They were together for 19 years and had 14 children, during labour of the 14th she died. The Taj Mahal was constructed to contain her tomb. The shah was overthrown by his son and put under house arrest in Agra, but when he died his son buried him next to his wife in the Taj. The floral design was created by laying down the white marble followed by sandstone and then marble again and then etched through the top layer of marble. Inside the tomb room has an octagon to represent the 8 levels of paradise.
We went back to the hotel for a delicious breakfast and discussed the plans for the day. We all decided against going to the red fort, I had been before so I wasn't too fussed and it's very much the same as Akbar's palace. Adam said he was going to stay in that afternoon to be near a toilet… Instead, we headed to the mini Taj Mahal. This was built for the grandfather of the shahs wife (the one the Taj was built for). It was certainly a lot smaller but far more detailed and I found it even more beautiful than the Taj itself. It was lovely to have an hour to sit in the tranquil gardens and just relax in the sun for a while.
KFC for lunch! My veg zinger burger bun was mouldy… I didn't plan to eat it anyway so I at the veg patty and went to complain, I ended up getting Rs70 more than I paid for it! Shortly into our walk back to the hotel Lizzie, who hasn't eaten anything at KFC, became very ill. Unfortunately, for Lizzie we were onto a train to Jaipur for the evening, at least it wasn't an over night train!
Boarding the train, Adam, Nadine and I were in a separate carriage from the others. Adam jumped on first shorty followed by Nadine and I. A kaffuffle commenced… A child and a man had walked into the empty carriage before Adam entered the door area, the child and man then needed to come off the train but Adam couldn't move anywhere so just squashed himself against the doorframe and the child of 6 just about managed to squeeze past. The man on the other hand was larger than the child, naturally, but attempted the same squeeze… He paid homage to mr fantastic, he turned sideways and flattened himself through an impossible gap, much to our surprise as well as his own! The train ride as well as the fact that we had been awake since 5am plus the majority of people had a cold and/or a dodgy tummy made us all a emotional and grouchy. This mood was not made any better by the men leering at us as we got off the train some of them following us, made worse by the tuk tuk drivers who almost threw one group into a ditch while trying to overtake cars.
We arrived at our hotel 'mosaic', it was luxury! Soft beds, big pillows, clean big rooms, hot water and silence!!!! Night night!
Amelia
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