Agra

Day three started early, as we were set to meet our driver at 7am to travel the 200 km to Agra. As we were getting ready, the power went out - it seemed like it was a regional outage, since soon afterward the generators started going. It took our hotel about 40 minutes to get their generator going, but soon we had power again. But that meant breakfast at our rooftop restaurant was  unlikely. Fortunately,  we all had packed snacks, so we munched away on granola bars and dried fruit.

200 meters is a long way when you are in crazy traffic. And before you ask, yes it was almost the whole way. There were so many slums all along the side of the road, with cows, monkeys, donkeys, pigs, and more cows hanging out along with all the people, and a lot of mud.

Our first stop in Agra was at Sikander, the Mughal Emperor, Akbar's, tomb. It was beautiful, but was not as impressive as some of the other tombs we have seen. The detail was Persian (from where the Mughals came) and Hindu, with words from the Quran. Akbar was known to be egalitarian in his religious endeavors. 

Sikander, Agra

After a very late lunch, we went to Agra Fort. It was quite impressive, with fantastic technology for both defenses and keeping rooms cool in the hot summers. There was an amazing view of the Taj Mahal, especially from Shah Jahan's personal quarters. I suspect his wife loved her view over the river valley from her morning rooms, which led to the choice of location for her memorial.

Agra Fort, Inner Gate

Tonight we are at another hotel which is right in a busy market area. This is a fun atmosphere,  but it is noisy! We went to dinner at the rooftop restaurant, and while we were there, the nearest mosque put out their call to prayer over the loudspeaker. My brother poked his head out to see where the mosque is, and said, "yep, its right next door." So it should be easy to get up tomorrow morning. Maybe too early.

Rooftop restaurant for our hotel in Agra. We did not eat snakes.
Evidently, there is an amazing view of the Taj from here, but sadly it was too foggy for us to see.