Taj Nature Walk, Mehab Bagh (Agra trip, part 5)

View from the hotel rooftop

Saturday was our last day to enjoy Agra, as our 6:00am train home on Sunday morning didn't leave much time for anything other than rolling out of bed and getting to the station before the train left. In lieu of another stop at Joney's for breakfast, we decided to try the rooftop restaurant in our hotel. As promised, there was a great view of the Taj, and the food was not bad either. Brandon opted for a traditional Indian breakfast, which consisted of aloo paranta (potato pancake), curry veggies, curd (yogart), some kind of fried bread thing I don't remember the name of, and masala tea. He did not eat the pickled veggies that also came with it. I had a "buttermilk pancake" (that turned out to be more of a crepe) with bananas and chocolate sauce. Aren't we a great pair? It was nice to be outside – the mornings were quite pleasant, so we made it a point to get up early and enjoy the coolness before the blazing temperatures settled in.

These arrows deceptively gave the impression
that there would be guidance throughout
the park.  There was not.  We got lost.

After breakfast, we made our way to the Taj Nature Walk just down the road from our hotel. This park has 9km of paved paths through an elaborate park supposedly filled with animals, insects and plants local to the region. We didn't see too many animals, except a peacock near the end! Like everything in India, it seemed to be half-way constructed. There were gaps in the path across small creeks where it looked like they intended a bridge; part of the way, the path just stopped and turned into sand. And there was a fence completely blocking the path at one point, so we had to make our own path. There were several hilltops with lookout shelters that provided a great view of the Taj in the distance – one of the big selling points on the park's website. One of the great things about the park was the near-silence and complete absence of other people during many parts of our stroll. We enjoyed some time to talk and enjoy the scenery. At one point, we were sitting all alone in a little shelter on one of the high-points with a view of the Taj, and Brandon says: You know what would make this perfect, a little breeze! And wouldn't you know, the winds started blowing! It was very peaceful, if not entirely as beautiful and lush as I had imagined. (We did come during the hot, dry season…so maybe it is more enjoyable during a different season). As we walked along, we bumped into a couple from Costa Rica who had been traveling all over India for over a month! We chatted with them a bit about their journey. This would be a hot time to be traveling by train, lugging a backpack, out in the sun all day enjoying the sites. They are both tour guides in Costa Rica, and working towards graduate degrees in some kind of biology. The woman told us her father was actually born in Iowa, and she is looking seriously at a school in northern Wisconsin, because is the only place with the degree she's interested in. Small world. They definitely convinced us that Costa Rica should be on our "must visit list" – sounds amazing! I think Brandon's favorite part of the park was when he spotted a rather large animal not too far away. He jumped up and tried to get in for a closer look. He wasn't able to find it again, but after some investigation, we believe it may have been a blue cow (which is not, I'm pretty sure, a regular cow that is blue).

View from one of the watch towers in the Taj Nature Walk park

Lunch - After covering many km's, we were hungry again – time for lunch! We once again resisted the urge to pop over to Joney's (I know, right?), and instead tried a place called "Treat." They had rooftop seating, so we made our way up…and had the place to ourselves! Treat overlooked a busy little circle right at the intersection of five different roads/alleyways, and right outside the south gate of the Taj Mahal. It was bustling during the middle of the day, and we had a great vantage point for pictures! I won't post them all here…but find them over at Shutterfly. We enjoyed a really nice meal as we took in the scenery. I LOVE to watch people, so this was perfect. Brandon enjoyed some mutton (baaaa!), but I stuck with something more familiar. Something funny we discovered – I think glass bottles are reused (after being cleaned, of course), instead of recycled, so many of the logos are really old-school. I'm not sure if you can see it in the picture, but Brandon got a Pepsi with his lunch, and the logo is definitely nothing you'd see at home right now. It was the same way with other flavors, as well. 

Lunch!  Mutton for him, curry for her

Stores must get a pretty hefty deposit for returning the used bottles, because they never let you take it with you. One of the most interesting things we spotted during our lunch-from-above was the many modes of transportation of children returning home from school (yeah, they had to go to school on Saturday….what a bummer). There were many kids perched in front of dads on motorcycles. Many rickshaws crammed with four or six small children. Two or three kids on one bicycle. But the coolest was this auto rickshaw that looked more like a mini school bus. It even had a luggage rack on top for the kids backpacks. We counted at least 17 backpacks on top. There were kids falling out everywhere – we've been inside plenty of auto rickshaws, and I have no idea how they stuffed that many children inside of one. It was crazy!

"School Bus"

After our bellies were sufficiently full, we made our way back to the hotel, to our slightly-less-warm-than-outside hotel room (where at least we had a fan blowing hot air all over the room) to try and move as little as possible through the hottest part of the day. After the temps started falling again, we ventured out for one last adventure – Mehab Bagh. This Mughal-style garden is located on the river, just across from the north side of the Taj Mahal. We didn't actually go into the garden – we didn't want to pay the fee – BUT, you can walk around the garden to the river and enjoy a fabulous view of the Taj Mahal across the river. It is probably the best view of the Taj we saw – and we had many to choose from. Now, the cool thing about the Taj Mahal is that, because it's made entirely of white marble, it does some crazy-cool things at dusk and dawn, and especially under a full moon. We were in Agra during almost a new moon – so a night viewing was out of the picture. We originally wanted to get to the other side of the river around sunset to see the magic show as the Taj changes colors during the sun's decent. But, we had also heard the journey took a little bit of time. We ended up going a little early, and once we got there didn't want to wait around probably another hour. So we didn't see the colors, but I did get some great shots across the river. Since the Taj is symmetrical, it is the same view from the back, as in the front (or either side).

Backside of the Taj Mahal

One last look at the Taj, from across the river

We topped off the night with dinner at another rooftop restaurant. This one promised a view of the Taj – but it was all a lie. We had the place to ourselves once again (one of the perks in traveling during the "off" season…the flip side of that being the weather, which is why I suppose no one travels here during this season). It was starting to cool down, and we were both exhausted, so we lingered and relaxed as we enjoyed our dinner. We also witnessed a funeral process, of sorts. It was interesting for several reasons: It was all men, and they all wore white caps; they took turns carrying the casket, each person only carrying for a moment before someone would come and take over, all without pausing or stopping the procession; and third, the traffic began to back up behind the processional, but almost no one honked or shouted (because they must have known what was going on), which was really strange to see after so many weeks of constant honking. All in all, it was a great trip, and we're glad to have been able to go. I think I have one more post to squeeze out of this trip – a few more reflections on our time in Agra.

Some of the water bottles we accumulated during our trip

                                                                 Saturday's Stats:

• High Temp: 106^o
• Liters of Water Consumed: 9.5
  
• Requests for me to take a photo of someone else on my camera (umm…okay?): 2*

*Okay, a little explanation:  As we were walking around the Taj Nature Walk, shortly after the path stopped be a stone path and starting being just sand, we happened across a huge, wide, shallow hole in the ground.  There were have a dozen men with shovels digging said hold.  It appears that they were putting in some kind of artificial lake, and that path will eventually wind around this lake.  I'm sure it will be lovely.  This one guy started motioning to Brandon, make gestures with his hands.  It was flippin' hot, so Brandon thought he was asking for some water and tossed our water bottle to him.  He caught it, and sat it on the ground next to him.  Confused, Brandon motioned for him to take a drink, and then motioned for him to toss it back.  The guy did so, and then continued to stare at us, almost posing.  Then another guy started saying: "Foto, foto," and pantomiming taking a picture.  Apparently this guy didn't want our water, he wanted me to take a picture of him...on my camera?  Sure.  Then, further down the "lake" another group of men wanted their photo taken.  Sure, okay.  That was weird.  Usually other people want to take photos of us...today, these guys wanted to be the star.  (And I guess it worked, because now his picture is on the internet for all the world to see).

Take my picture