In life we're exposed to stories, images, ideas that become normalised and establish a place in our psyche and understanding of the world. The Taj Mahal is certainly one of those images. Whenever anyone thinks of India it is hard to look past the eloquent symmetry of towering marble that rises out of the carnage around it.
We rode in and caught a glimpse beyond the Agra Fort as we wound our way around the river, sadly black with sludge not water. Once it was drinkable we were later to find out. It was a moment of joy as we saw the building come into view. The culmination of 8 years of dreaming, planning and saving, and 9 months of cycling had finally led us to the Taj Mahal. I had emailed Agra Tourism about getting a shot with the building from one of the not so popular vantage points. They confirmed our arrival and looked forward to hosting us, according to the email. When we turned up we found out it wasn't as we thought. Many phone calls later and frustrating nonsensical Indian bureaucracy piling higher and higher we decided to can it. They would send a representative from the Tourism Board to talk to us about our proposition later.
Our hotel was only one hundred metres from the Southern Gate of the Taj. We frequented a rooftop restaurant during our time in Agra where we relaxed and soaked up the view of the Taj.
Mr. Honey - the lovely man who kept us fed in Agra
On our first day we gave ourselves time to recover from our no-break-day ride from Pokhara in central Nepal. We walked to the Agra Fort which was built during the Mughal Reign which was when the Muslim Kings had control over central India. It was a time in which the finest Indian architecture sprung up, including the Taj. Struggling to defend our position in the line we made it into the Fort. Beautiful carved marble facades led to expansive halls and bedrooms. These opened to green lawns, immaculately kept and presented. Red sandstone walls towered above the inner complex. It was incredibly beautiful which sparked my frustrations again. India is a land of so much beauty and so much incredibly rich history and culture yet it is so poorly cared for. The rivers are a disgrace. Plastic is burnt, the air is thick to breathe, rubbish lines the streets everywhere as there is no central disposal system, humans and animals piss and shit wherever they please and everyday I would lose a little bit of hope for the world. Then one walks into a building like the Agra Fort and is confronted with opulence and elegance on such grand scale. It is the great contradiction.
The red colour comes from the local sandstone
The grounds were immaculate. Outside the building you would never see such clean, organised order
The inner bedrooms were all made from marble and were intricately carved
Keeping a lawn so well manicured is a tough job
Saris, sandstone and the odd Sandstorm
The next day we visited the Taj. We walked through the Eastern Gate just after 6 am as the sun was rising. We got directly in front of the building as the sun hit the dome. There were swarms of tourists all vying for that one shot down the mirror pool to achieve perfect symmetry. We couldn't resist it either. The tomb itself was interesting with the wife of the Mughal Emperor lying in the centre in symmetry with the rest of the building and his body lying off centre to the side. It seemed to me the first time in Indian society a woman took precedence over the man. It was nice to see.
The three of us somehow managed to make it to the Taj from Indonesia on our bikes. That felt rather special
Perfect symmetry
Seriously punishing iPhone shots were taken and may never see the light of day (look at those biceps)
The view to the South Gate down the Mirror Pool
Sweet, sweet sunrise
Our time in Agra was short and sharp and we left for Fatehpur Sikri. This ancient city was built 40km from Agra and was once the capital of India before they ran out of water. Not enough town planning was done it would appear. Left is the ruins of the ancient walled city and a number of old buildings including the Jama Masjid, a towering mosque. We had the afternoon to explore and were taken around by a young Muslim lad who asked for no money. He showed us the secret passage to Agra and Delhi. 200kms of underground passageway in which the Emperor could ride a horse between cities secretly.
The entrance to Jama Masjid, the largest gate in India
The devoted, the salesmen, and the tourists
It's a shame he couldn't have been employed to clean up the disaster of a mess outside the building also
The male tombs were outside and the female ones inside. I was expecting it to be the other way round quite honestly the way women are so regularly subjugated in Indian society
Attention to detail everywhere
Women pray at the woman only section of the mosque
The bougainvillea was particularly beautiful against the ruins of the former capital
Art and I at the bottom of the steps to the mosque the morning of the big ride
We set off the next morning on the beautiful double lane road towards Jaipur. We left with no lofty ambitions, only to get 100kms down the road to a small Hindu temple town we were told was safe and interesting. I was on the front early and noticed the wind was behind us. We were sitting at a steady 32kph which is not slow for 50kg bikes. I started to get the idea we could go the whole way to Jaipur in one day. The sign telling us we were entering Rajasthan came and went. The landscape changed and we started to see desert and the odd camel, my new favourite animal. At a chai stop I brought up the idea of going the whole way to the others. I expected resistance but instead had two keen replies! It would mean going over 200km in one day. We set off with new vigour and the kms started to fly by again. The sun was exceptionally hot and salt dried on our skins. The wind shifted around and came head on and fast. Fortunately a slow moving tractor passed us and we caught up and sat behind him, avoiding the wind for 20kms. We arrived in Jaipur at 5 30pm after riding through a tunnel in the hills despite it saying no bicycles allowed. We had clocked up 208.66kms, a new record for our trip.
No biggy - we'd always dreamed of knocking this one off
Crossing into Rajasthan I had a hilarious head wobbling exchange with a man in the back of a tuk tuk travelling similar speed. I wobbled at him, he wobbled back with a big smile and so it went on. It delighted him no end
Sean has 200km for breakfast mate
We bought a composite ticket for Jaipur's sights. Over the next few days we saw the Amber Fort, The Jantar Mantra, The Albert Hall Museum, The Nahar Garh Fort, The Jawa Mahal, The Sisodia Rani Bag garden and the Sarasul Risarlat. In this time Sean fell sick and was bed ridden. Art fell ill shortly after. On the morning it came time to leave I woke up horrendously feverish and weak. We got as far as putting on cycling pants and then got back into bed. The next day we were okay to leave. Jaipur is incredibly beautiful. The colour of the sandstone the buildings are made out of gives it the name 'The Pink City'. It's in the desert of Rajasthan so there are plenty of camels and a stream of beautiful buildings. It didn't seem as dirty as other places in India or as neglected.
My new favourite animal sadly chained up to entertain tourists
Delicious lassis. The terracotta glasses are single use which seemed sad but then it's a great alternative to plastic as it returns to the ground fairly quickly and easily
The Chai Wallah with all the colour you'd ever need to serve a cup of tea
Great building here
The Jawa Mahal - a palace from which ladies peered out of the windows so they could watch the proceedings in the street below unobserved
This is a giant sun dial which was the centre piece of the Astronomy department I've forgotten its name
Samosas and roti always the staple food. We never got sick from samosas
Jaipur is walled in all around on the hills
More castles on hills
The interior of the Amber Fort
Being silly buggers at The Amber Fort
Mughal style roof paintings, always good against marble and full of flowers
Exterior of the Amber Fort
It would have been fairly difficult attacking this beast
The stepwell - an incredibly elegant solution to getting down to your well. The water at the bottom since has stagnated and would kill within 30 seconds if you consumed. A sad reality of all freshwater in India
At one of the gardens we visited a wedding had been hosted the previous evening. The place was an absolute mess but the lovely petal designs were left behind on the walkways
Our first day out of Jaipur was fine. 130kms on large roads with a blistering tail wind. The next day was the one we anticipated. The ride to Delhi. 135kms of cycling into one of the largest urban areas in the world. 26 million people. With 40kms to go the air quality deteriorated significantly and the traffic built up. The road widened to four lanes then five. At one point near a toll both there must have been 20 lanes wide on our side alone. It was the widest stretch of road I've ever seen. We pinned our ears back and went full gas. In cycling it is often much safer to stay at the pace of the traffic as much as possible. This we tried to do which meant tiring ourselves out. The highway became close to a motorway with a no motorbikes or bicycles sign. All the motorbikes were ignoring it so we thought we would too.
We raced in through the madness, past the Indira Gandhi International Airport and into the streets of Delhi. It was a huge relief when we arrived and parked the bikes away at our hotel, our Asian leg completed.
Dirty, tired, and on the edge of sanity, we rode into Delhi the day Holi began
Alive but exhausted from the effort
'Aint nothing gonna break my style, aint nothing gonna slow me down, oh no, Sven will keep on moving. Toot Toot.' - S. Wakely, 2018.
Our first day in Delhi rather fortuitously coincided with the Holi Festival, a festival where everyone shoots coloured water at each other and throw around coloured powder. Everyone hugs everyone and says 'Happy Holi!'. Kids rather mischievously would pop out of nowhere with a water-bomb, delighting in hitting tourists the most. Our friendly hotel staff, after we'd cleaned the bikes on the roof of the hotel, joined us and shared around a bottle of whisky which got everyone well in the spirit of things. By the end of the day we were colourful messes. To this day I am still trying to wash the pink off my scalp.
Colour everywhere
There was so much colour in the mo it had to be shaved off, stapled to a frisbee, and flung over a rainbow to get rid of it
Someone get that man a Colgate contract
The next day I got sick. Rather badly so. We wandered around the old part of Delhi and past the Fort but I called the sightseeing short there and went back to bed. Our bicycle boxes arrived later that evening and I, never being able to sit still for too long, got up and put them together.
The next few days were spent in the smoggy city surviving. I didn't see much and spent most of the time in bed but managed to get out for a few of the sights. I started to become rather disgusted by everything as one can when sick. Our bathroom was rather disgusting, the price you pay for a cheap hotel. The shower wasn't separated from the bathroom so water went all over the grimey tiles. Any movement in there during the day would result in a filthy floor. The alley way our hotel was on smelt like piss. There was a small indent into the wall where men pissed into the stagnant drains. This was less than 30cm from where a stall was cooking meat. With my stomach rumbling, the water unsafe to drink, the food all of shocking sanitation standards and the smog it all felt rather unhealthy. I was delighted when the morning rolled around to load our bikes into a van and drive to the airport for our flight to Georgia via two stops in Kazakhstan.
Our hotel was on an alley off this street. Madness everywhere
The way to the Gandhi statue
Arthur with Noni and Nilima, friends of mum and dad. They'd met mum and dad in the 1980s during their cycle tour and now got to meet Arthur. They knew who he was straight away! Such lovely people I was saddened not to meet them myself being bed ridden
The Lotus Flower Temple, a temple of the Baha'i faith, a religion I never knew existed. Something about harmony with science, the belief in universal oneness and unity of the world. It seemed progressive compared to the older religions of the world yet it would have to be being a rather new, novel, idea
The India Gate. Touters and selfie takers everywhere. We didn't stay long. It just didn't seem overly original
Excited to be on the way to a new leg of the trip
Our time in Kazakhstan was more than we'd bargained for... more on that one in the next blog.
