Day 9, Taj Mahal and Agra Fort

I wish we had more time at the hotel.  We were exhausted.  After about 8 hours rest, we had a beautiful buffet, then we were off to see the Taj Mahal.

Our guide was a Taj-Mahal-Guide rock star named Nitin.  We had met him the night before and when I told him I was from Idaho, he asked about Boise, and I said I lived about two hours east of there.  He asked if I knew about the new Twin Falls Temple.  You have to imagine, I’m talking to an Indian tour guide born and raised in Agra, India.  I was astounded.  Turns out that the recently released Twin Falls Temple President (Nelson) was a past mission president in India, and Nitin knew him well.  I’m telling you it’s a small world. 

As Nitin took us through the security point on the way to the Taj Mahal, I mentioned that Benson had told me he had taken Arnold Schwarzenegger on a tour.  He said, yes he had, but that he had also taken a few of "your Twelve Apostles" as well—Elders Anderson, Oaks, and Holland.  He mentioned that Elder Holland was very inspiring.  I mentioned that Elder Oaks was very nice.  He said, “It’s not just Elder Oaks.  There’s something about you Mormons.  You are all very, very nice people.”

As we entered the gate to the courtyard, I almost got emotional, as strange as that sounds.  We could just see the beautiful Taj Mahal peeking over and through the gates, and it was so beautiful, and I couldn’t believe I was actually here looking at it….  More photos from the iPad to come.

We took a tour of Agra Fort with Nitin.  Here is the moat

The delivery guy!

Agra, as I mentioned appears to be a very poor, dirty, run down place.  In some places the road was dirt and very uneven.  There were many, many water buffaloes.  We found out that most of the milk consumed there actually comes from them.

On the way to Jaipur, Benson asked if anyone needed to go to the bathroom.  Someone did, so we stopped at a restaurant by the side of the road.  Benson suggested the rest of us get out to stretch our legs.  Our driver took his lunch and tea.  We were just standing beside the van waiting for Ram, when all of a sudden, several police vehicles raced into the parking lot, and probably 15 or 16 military guards with machine guns streamed out.  We wondered what on earth was happening.  Then out of a plain car followed a jolly looking man dressed in a pink turban and white robes, with a curly mustache.  He immediately walked over to Lydia (of course) and he took both of his hands and touched her cheeks and smiled.  He then did the same to Elizabeth. We figured he must be important.  Well, sure enough, Benson started talking to one of the guards and discovered that this man was the head of anti-terrorism for all of India!  Someone suggested we go in a take a photo, and he seemed more than happy to do so.  “Come” he said, and we took a family photo, then one with just him and the two younger girls. I think we were more excited than Elizabeth and Lydia.

We talked with one armed guard who was extremely friendly.  He stood there, smiling, telling us about his United Nations tour to Haiti and how he loved visiting America—Miami, New York, etc—all with his machine gun hanging around his neck and resting in his hands.  I gave him a handshake as we parted.