Day 49 (25 July): The Taj Mahal & Beyond

Early this morning, I got up to watch the sun rise over the Taj Mahal and to actually tour its grounds. The building is certainly impressive and probably more impressive than it comes out in pictures. For those of you who don't know the story of it, it was built by one of the Mughli emperors for his wife. He was to have one built in Black across the river and larger in scale, but ended up running out of money to do so.

From there I went to Agra Fort which also took several hours to see. Since the Mughli were also Islamic, it had a number of the same features in its internal palaces as those found at the Tokapi Palace in Istambul including a large harems.

In the afternoon my rickshaw driver took me to some minor sights, exhausting Agra's sights. I also agreed to go with him to some shops so he could make commissions. Since my train didn't depart until later and I'd befriended him enough, he took me to one of his friends houses to drink a beer, talk, and watch a Bollywood movie to pass the time while I was waiting.

Observations:
1) Bomb-sniffing dogs. While I was at the Taj Mahal, I ended up talking to two guys who had dogs with them. They explained to me that they were in the Indian Army and that the dogs were actually bomb-sniffing dogs. Their assignment is to make sure that there are no terrorist attacks on the Taj Mahal. They seemed to think if one happened, all tourists would stop coming to India and the economy would collapse; I doubt it since tourism can't be that big a part of the economy, but it probably lets them think their important to beleive that.
2) Power outages. These were very common in Agra and happened at least four times while I was there. Most places had back-up generators to keep some of the lights going.
3) Taj prices seem very unfair. They cost way more than any hotel I have stayed in so far in India at 750 Rupees (about 18 USD) for foreigners and only 20 Rupees (about .5 USD) for Indians.
4) From my conversation with a guy in one of the stores who was a Muslim Indian or more of his rant, rather:
a) There is currently a law suit in the high court over the unfair pricing of Foreign entry fees vs. domestic entry fees at many places based on the skewed prices at the Taj
b) In India there is a huge link between education and poverty that he thinks is near and endless cycle unless more people volunter time to teach kids which he does. This is because many families believe that women don't need education and because they need money immediately so they can't pay for education and their kids don't have the time for it. He sees teaching English as a first way out in Agra at least where kids who know English can learn a lot by talking to foreign visitors.
c) The problem with Islam and terror is a lack of education due to poverty.
d) People who are Islamic and live in other country can like George Bush. This guy was a huge fan. I think much of his enthusiam had to do with the recent Bush-Singh meetings which he was convinced would give India an edge over China.
5) Rickshaw driver conversations/comments:
a) The rickshaw driver earned commissions from taking me to certain stores, restaurants, or hotels. He was very open about this so I asked him lots of questions and helped him earn money in ways where it didn't cost me anything. At some stores, mostly the nicer ones he earned about 10 Rupees for just taking me there; for these stores he took me in a car rather than a rickshaw, since they wouldn't give him commissions unless I seemed like a bigger spender. For other stores, I had to buy something for him to get a commission; these tended to be smaller with cheaper items for sale.
b) He thought it was funny that I described myself as being from the US or as American when people asked me where I was from. He said most Americans just say the state or the city when saying where there from assuming people in India would know exactly where those places are, leaving many Indians asking what country. This seems pretty arrogant on most Americans parts...
c) Indians generally distrust their politicans, especially those in Agra; I heard many comments to this effect today.
d) Even Indians have to be on gaurd when they travel or are out of the house as people are constantly trying to rip them off too; the only place where they feel comfortable is around family.
6) Rickshaw tussle in Delhi. When I got out of the train in Delhi, I went through yet another rickshaw price negotiation and eventually settled on something that I knew was about 10 Rupees (25 cents) too high because at 11 pm it didn't seem worth arguing for another 15 minutes over that amount. The rickshaw driver threw my backpack into the back of the rickshaw and lodged it firmly against his back window. On the way to the hotel his back window broke with the weight of my bag over a pothole. Once we got to the hotel, I he raised the price he demanded by about 200 Rupees which he said was necessary since I broke his window. Since breaking the window was not my fault I refused to pay which led to a staring match in the hotel as he followed me in and watched me through the check-in process and tried to convince the people at the check-in counter to force me to pay. They let him stay for about 15 minutes but eventually kicked him out. I really did feel bad, since I know he'd have to pay to fix it, but I also know that he was trying to rip me off when I suggested he show get the police involved if he was sure I owed him the money, but refused to do so. The principle of getting ripped of partially because I am white, but also because I am traveling makes me angry. Nonetheless, it makes me feel like stingy and generally bad to try to hold my ground.