We had a 7:00 a.m. flight out of Chennai on Friday morning, so we had to leave Rising Star at 3:00 a.m. Friday was pretty much just a travel day with one sight in Agra. We had a 2 hour drive from Rising Star to Chennai, a 2 hour flight from Chennai to Delhi, and a 3 hour drive from Delhi to Agra.
When we got to Agra, we checked in to our hotel and then went to Agra fort. This fort is made out of red sandstone, so it had the nickname "The Red Fort". It was built around 1500's-1600's by three Mogul rulers in India. I'm not going to sit here and give you all a history lesson. But what I will tell you is that it is beautiful, and you should look it up if you are interested. This history is really cool stuff! Then we went to a rug factory where we saw how the rugs are made in India. It is all done by hand. There are no machines involved. Then, we went to a couple of shops for clothing and stuff like that. It was a tiring day, so it was nice to get back to the hotel and sleep.
Saturday was a super packed day, as well. We left the hotel at 5:45 a.m. to go to the Taj Mahal. I'm glad that we went really early, because the lines get really long during the day. When we got there, there was barely any line, so it was really nice. While we were in the Mausoleum (the famous white marble building), it started to rain. So, being the crazy teenagers that we were, a bunch of us from our group ran out and played in the rain. We ended up walking around the whole building. Some people who got caught in the rain and ran for cover outside even ended up taking pictures of us. After the Taj Mahal, we went back to the hotel and had breakfast. Then our family split up from the rest of our group. They all went back to Delhi for shopping and some sight seeing. They are all leaving a day earlier than our family, too. After we split from are group, we drove to Jaipur.
On our way to Jaipur, we stopped at Fatehpur Sikri, which is a city that was built in 1569 by the king at the time and was only used for 4 years. If you want, you can look that up as well. It was beautiful, but it was super hot!
It was a crazy two days!
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| Wild Monkey |
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| Front gate of the Taj Mahal |
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| The Mausoleum in the Taj Mahal |
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| Camels as transportation |
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| Fatehpur Sikri |
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| Mausoleum at the Taj Mahal |
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| Dancing in the rain at the Taj |
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| The Mosque at the Taj |
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| Fatehpur Sikri |
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| Fatehpur Sikri |
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| Mosque in Fatehpur Sikri |
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| Add caption |
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| "Victory Gate": the tallest gate in Asia |
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| Tuktuk |
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| Fatehpur Sikri from far away |
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| Agra Fort |
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| Agra Fort |
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| Agra Fort |
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| Agra Fort |
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| Me and Amy (a coordinator at Rising Star) in Agra Fort |
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| Agra Fort |
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| Agra Fort |
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| Agra Fort |
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| Great view of the Mausoleum in the Taj Mahal from Agra Fort |
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| Agra Fort |
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| Agra Fort |
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| Making a rug by hand |
