Vipond Adventures: Agra: Taj Mahal

Well Agra ended up being a little Delhi. It seemed we were in a small city going there from Delhi and we were, I mean it seemed like maybe the size of Dauphin, then I asked our driver, how many people live here?" he replied, "one million" Ok so maybe not Dauphin but it was a lot smaller then Delhi. Agra is a major tourist city and therefore children and store owners are everywhere trying to get you to go into their store and buy something. They pile out on the streets near the Taj Mahal gates and swarm tourists walking by. Its gets to be a pain in the ass after about... oh 30 seconds. We were lucky our hotel was only about 50m from the east gate so we didn't get it as bad as the tourists walking down the street from a block away. The road is blocked off for about a block all around the gates so that traffic does not get out of control as it is a very very busy area. After touring around the Taj Mahal we grabbed a taxi and had the driver bring us to some common shops in Agra. Our first stop was a Indian carpet factory. Ok but as a guy I was unaware that India was famous for carpets, nor did I care very much, until I went to this place. Wow what an experience. This factory is run by the Indian Government and all prices are set by them. Also as Agra is the major Indian Carpet manufacturer there is no tax on any carpet that is made in Agra or within 30kms of Agra. There were two men sitting in the store making a carpet as we walked in. A well dressed man came up to us and said, "hello my name is Yogi welcome to my store". He shook all our hands and started explaining to us all about the making of carpets. These two men working on the carpet worked so fast you couldn't even tell what their hands were doing. The owner told the one man to do it in slow motion so we can see what he is doing. Then all the girls got to sit with him and try one knot themselves. After that the owner explained to us what makes a good carpet and how to tell a quality carpet from a crappy one. Its simple, look at the underside. It should perfectly replicate what is shown on the front. Then you want to know if a carpet is actually "hand made". That is easy to tell too. When the carpet is laying down walk from one end to the other and if it is hand made it will change color from light to dark and from dark to light as you walk across it. The reason for this is that when a carpet maker ties the knot on the carpet and cuts it with his knife he is always cutting the yarn in the same direction. This makes the yarn have a slightly different tone on the cut edge. When carpets are made by a machine the machine cuts the yarn square at the top, like a lawn mower cuts grass, and it does not make for that color distinction. He then brought us into the warehouse to show us some carpets and served us beers as we watched his men bring out examples and lay them out in front of us. He assures us, "we ship all over the world" and "shipping is included in the price". Well we couldn't resist after seeing about 40 carpets and us downing a couple bowls of "loud mouth soup" we ended agreeing we had to get one. We asked the price of one that was layed out. It was about 12' x 8' way too big for many living rooms but we were interested. "$1,688 he said. So we looked at some reasonably sized ones for homes and they ranged from $400 to around $900. All shapes all sizes and you can custom order any design and color you want. Just be prepared to wait 5-9 months for it to be completed. We bought 3, two where done and the third we ordered so it will be started on right away and completed in about 5 months. Oh and the workers, they make around $480 per carpet. Imagine working on something for almost a year and getting 500 bucks for it. Not this cowboy.

Well thats our time in Agra for the most part. One interesting thing about India is that there are a lot of security guards everywhere carrying machine guns. At the gate of the Taj Mahal, on the train, all around the grounds of any tourist monument. I can't even count how many times I looked down the barrel of a machine gun pointed at my head as I was on the top bunk on the train. Damn guards walk by with the gun strapped to their backs and the barrel points right up at anyone sleeping on the bunks. Geez, tough to get any shut-eye. Got used to it though after 30 hrs total train time. I'll tell ya maybe VIA Rail, or Greyhound for that matter, can learn a bit from Indian security. Give train conductors machine guns and that would smartin up some of those people getting rowdy on the train. We definitely had calm; cool; collected train rides.