September 10, 2010

Friday, After getting up at 5am we went to the New Delhi Train Station to catch a 6:15 train to Agra. After two hours on the train we reached Agra and went on a bus that would drive us around. The first place we went to was Fatephihur Sikri which is city built by Mughal emperor Akbar beginning in 1570 and served as the empire's capital from 1571-1585. It was abandoned after 1585 and there are many rumors as to why it was abandoned. We went to the sufi mosque that Akbar built, even though he was Muslim. The mosque was really beautiful. In the courtyard on the way to the mosque there were many people getting ready for Id, since it was the day before Id. Id marks the end of Ramadan. I have been here three years ago but it was still nice to see it again. I enjoyed it because it is a very peaceful place.

After Fatephihur Sikri, we drove 40 minutes to Sikandra which is the tomb of Akbar. It was a very beautiful and peaceful place. After spending some time there we went back to Agra, Fatephihur Sikri & Sikandra are in neighboring towns of Agra. On the way to Sikandra there was a lot of traffic, which is common in India. However, there was a certain reason for this traffic, there was a protest against Terry Jones. Terry Jones is the idiot who wanted to burn Qurans on September 11. We had to pull the blinds on the bus since the Muslims protesting saw the bus and they pointed to us, luckily they did not come near the bus.

When we got to Agra we went to our nice hotel and some of us decided to go on this nature walk. The nature walk is new and you can see the Taj along the walk. Even though it was raining I am glad I went because we saw really pretty views of the Taj and it was a nice walk. After the walk we met up with the rest of the group to eat dinner and then went back to the hotel and went to bed.