Included in the tour are various stops to factories where the tour guide gets a kickback. These places are always overpriced, but if you don't buy anything the demos they give on the making of their particular product can be interesting. The problem with these visits, however, is that they're far too long. But I guess if you really wanted to buy marble, you'd want all the time you could get.

So we visited a marble factory. Marble is big in India. Taj big.

 

 

We visited a ton of forts, including Agra Fort, where Emperer Shah Jahan was imprisoned and forced to watch his son complete the Taj Mahal only a few miles away.

 

One of the many things I found interesting about Agra Fort is that it's built like a Russian nesting doll. There's always another doorway, leading to another room and another doorway, and so on. It seems neverending. So first we enter here.

 

Then we find this and enter this.

 

 

We find this and enter this.

 

We find this building and enter it.

 

Then there's this courtyard and building, which we'll enter, too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This gives a good idea of how immense the Taj is.

 

 

 

The tour guide was taking the time to explain every single room, and I realized that at that rate we wouldn't get to see the entire place as a group. So I ditched the group and went wandering on my own, entering doorways and climbing stairs until I came to this courtyard. At the end of it was a door with several pairs of shoes sitting outside it and a sign saying it was a women's mosque. So I took off my shoes and entered.

 

I found this beautiful white marble mosque. The floor is marble, which feels great against stockinged feet.

 

Inside the mosque I found this room.

 

 

Past the women's mosque, down the hidden passageway...

I ended up talking to these guys. They have family in New Jersey, of all places.

 

 

 

I found another passageway which took me down to ground level and out into one of the first courtyards I entered. Still no sign of the tour, although I joined up with them immediately after. The guide didn't take them to the women's mosque, so I'm glad I found it on my own.

 

Look at the beautiful treasure hiding behind.

 

Next