It has been quite some years that I have been wishing to visit the Golden Triangle. We were lucky to make it happen during the second week of September, 2011. There was no huge plan behind it… but a postponed trip to Kodaikanal triggered us to think about a bigger one.
As soon as we made our mind, I made sure that we have got our leaves and started working for a plan to cover the cities. The basic plan was to travel mostly in public transport so that we can mingle with the local people and that would be less expensive. The flights got booked at the earliest as my travel is the next day of Onam. I didn’t really have a plan on how to move around and it was that time that my dad told me that the date of our journey will be on a full moon day and during full moon days the Archaeological survey of India allows night visit to Taj Mahal. So that caused the first decision. We need to be at Agra on the next day of our travel.
There are no flights operating to Agra as the airport is under the custody of the military. And the Delhi Rajasthan lobbying is so harsh that there is no proper bus service to this place. So, every tour operators that I approached was persuading to take a cab for my entire journey all the way through Delhi -> Agra -> Jaipur -> Delhi which is a clean sweep of almost 20-25 grands. So I started thinking about the public transport and it was then I noticed the Bhopal -> New Delhi Satabdi express and I booked it. It is supposed to be the fastest train in India, covering the distance of ~200 KM between Delhi and Agra in 2 hours. A ticket in the train includes a meal and so that turned out to be a wise decision.
Regarding the lobbying, I must say that, I have felt Agra is nicely ignored by the officials and the government. No good transport , the public complaining of unemployment. The only interest for the city is for the tourists and for the archaeologists. There is no bus service from Agra to Jaipur too. What the lobbies have made Agra is that it is worth of a day trip. But I have found it more interesting than Jaipur and Delhi. Because it is Agra that was the capital of the Moguls. They have built enormous buildings, where Taj is just one of them.
At Agra..
We were welcomed at the railway station by my cousin who was with me for the entire day and I had hired a private guide for the entire day who had been much helpful for understanding the history of Agra. His name is Rajeev, who became a historian and guide by destiny – how strange each life is! There was no issues in communicating with him and he has been very helpful in collecting the tickets for the moon light visit of Taj and has been helping us throughout our stay in Taj.His knowledge about the monuments and history and architecture is great and he has good analytic skills through which he has made his own versions (of history!) and they were making good sense too. ( If you need his number / email ID , please contact me – I assure that he wont disappoint you 
)
We first visited the Agra fort. There a statue of Chatrapati Sivaji welcomed us in this red fort. Being an enemy of Moguls ( Aurangazeb held him under prison for a few months), I wonder how that statue came there. The belief is that Delhi (Hindustan ) will be under the custody of the ruler who have the Agra fort in hand. So after Moguls, British came there and now the greater chunk is with Indian Military. The Archaeological survey of India is now successful in the case against the army and now the fort will be under them with in an year or so.
These forts are made in red sand stone and marble. It was Shah Jahan who started using marble extensively. Till that time it was the red sand stone which was being used (Agra Fort at Agra, Red Fort at Delhi, Fort at Fathepur Sikri etc).Mugals considered red as auspicious and suitable to represent their valour. Akbar used red sand stone for his forts which were also embroidered with jems and jewels just the same way Shah Jahan used gems in Taj Mahal. But red sandstone does not hold gem stones well and these were lost mostly due to natural wear & tear, than war and looting.
Deewan-e-aam and Deewan-e-khas is similar for all forts. A great chunk of the fort is in red sand stone and there are a few places where we can see the marble buildings too. Aurangazeb imprisoned Shah Jahan in one of these marvelous marble suits of the Agra fort from where he could see the Taj Mahal through the windows… & that was where I had my first look at the Taj!
From there we went to see the baby Taj. That is a wonderful building which was built by Noor Jahan in memory of her parents. Jahangir gave ~ 7.5Million Pound sterlings to this Persian lady to be his wife and it is believed that, with that money she started a ship service to Mecca and she should probably be be the first woman entrepreneur :-p
Baby Taj is considered to be a predecessor to Taj. This uses white marble instead of red sand stone which was the standard construction material for Mogul buildings till then. It used blue Persian paintings on the inside roof and is believed to have had gold filigree work intertwined with the paintings and semiprecious stones.
Then we had a view of the Taj Mahal from the other side of Yamuna river. I deliberately preferred to see Taj after all others as Taj is the most younger constructions of Agra… and the base of the architecture of Taj is adopted from all other constructions…and we wanted to see the Taj Mahal from all the different perspectives possible before we actually went in! 
We rushed to the Fathehpur Sikri,which is ~40KM away from Agra City. This is again a planned city built by Akbar. The architecture there is not 100% Mogul… and it makes us think that some part of the fort was already there, which was enhanced by Akbar to a marvelous fort. The Buland darwaza and the mosque and many other pillars are quite a masterpiece of the might of the Moguls.
And from there, we went to the hotel, the Grand Hotel at Agra, to check in and we reached the hotel by 19 30 and just checked in , the room was quite good, and spacious… and we then quickly packed our bags again to see the Taj at night… We were nervous as it was our first visit to one of the 7 wonders of the world and that too in the full moon (You get that opportunity only once a month!!). We reached the eastern parking bay by 19 55 and rushed to the CISF station where we had to go through a security check and we were not allowed to take anything other than a camera (and ourself, ofc .. 
) to the monument. There were another 20 -30 guys waiting and within 15 minutes we were taken to the electric cart which takes us to the monument which is ~ 1 KM away. They dropped us near to the gates , and we had another round of body scan, mechanized and manual, and they even scanned my camera before letting us in. And we were asked to stop at the main gate before we were taken, with military escort, to The TAJ … The excitement mixes with nervousness… it was a nice feeling …
We were at the eastern gate and there was a few minute’s walk to the main gate and then………..there lies the Taj on to our right…. calm , and quiet … holding the history of more than 400 years … it was really an awesome sight… and in a few minutes the officials turned off the remaining light too. That then revealed the beauty of the monument in its fullest. … Since they wont allow any tripod inside, it was pretty hard for me to take a pic of the Taj at night. Some how managed to take one, after spending some 20 minutes adjusting the camera. My wife cajoled me to take a good look at TAJ night view before the 30 minutes got over.
The next day, we came to see the Taj in daylight, used the audio guide to know what is what and was simply amazed by the massiveness and the symmetry of the structure. We walked all around, taking pictures, and getting to know more about it with the help of the audio guide.
We left Agra by 11 am after buying some Agra Petha.
I have tried my best to see if I can get a train or a bus from Agra to Jaipur… but there are no reliable bus services between the two places – so to travel to Jaipur from Agra, the best way is to use a taxi, unless you are traveling early in the morning or in the evening. The travel through the most fertile land in India , the Ganges valley , you will see no place barren .. they are cultivating potatoes and onions there, then you will see a a lot of wheat fields and corn.The road in the Rajasthan is quite good, they have managed to build a 4 way between the two places and that has made the journey a smooth one.
We had left the hotel room for Taj before the break fast hours and after walking all around the Taj appreciating the beauty of it was a sumptous meal to our eyes and aesthetic appeal, but our tummy didn’t quite agree. Having left Agra by 11 am, we had started getting hungry which we had to quench by eating some chocolates and petha as there was no good restaurants on the way… And thanks to google maps to find our hotel, Krishna Palace at Jaipur, which is near to the railway station.
At Jaipur..
As soon as we checked in at Krishna Palace, we decided to visit Choki Dhani as advised by our friends and also the cab driver. We had some mixed vegetable pakoras from Krishna Palace for tea. By the time we finished our tea, the cab was ready. We spend the entire evening at Choki Dhani relishing the Rajasthan culture and the royal Rajasthan Thali.The entry to the village is free if you purchase the thali meal coupon (~Rs. 450 to 650/-) or else you need to purchase the entry fee (~ Rs 400/-).
We had a camel ride in the village. Its very difficult to maintain your balance when you are on the top of a camel! .
Then we went to have food. The food was really good and there was live instrumental music at the restaurant. They helped us by explaining the contents of each dish. there were 3 different rotis (one type was missi roti, that i remember) too. Then we just wandered around the village admiring the local Rajasthan art and dance. There was a puppet show also.
The next day we went to visit the Jantar Mantar. The one at Jaipur is the largest of the lot. It has the biggest sun dial in the world also. Adjacent to the Janthar Manthar was the City Palace. Then we went to Amer (Amber) Fort. This fort is yellow (hence the name Amber). The princess used to wear dress weighing some 4-5 kg and then along with the jewelry it would be really difficult to walk around. So she was carried in doli. The palace has pathways to carry the doli around (similar to paths for a wheel chair) instead of or along with stairs. We saw Jal Mahal and Hawa Mahal from outside, on the way. We had lunch in between. My wife had decided to have only thalis from Jaipur, because she wanted to get a feel of it from different restaurants across Jaipur. According to her, only a thali gives you a complete feel of the food of the locality in one go.
Keeping in mind the night view of Taj we wanted to enjoy the beauty of Jaipur at Night. So we searched and found a night tour of Jaipur conducted by Jaipur Tourism authorities. We booked our seats and they said they would contact us and confirm the trip by afternoon. By afternoon they had booking for 4 more seats and our night tour was confirmed. We reached there a bit early and waited in the office for some time. The night tour covered Amar Jyoithy, Jal Mahal, Hawa Mahal and dinner at Nahargarh Fort. The night trip was value for money!
The next day early morning we left to catch our train to Delhi.
At Delhi..
Tags: Agra, bus from agra to jaipur, Delhi, Delhi agra jaipur trip, fastest train in India, Golden triangle trip, Guide in agra, Jaipur, Taj Mahal, time to visit Taj Mahal, Tour guide in Agra
