agra day 3 began at the tour of akbar, the greatesst of the mughal emporers. he was a very compassionate being in terms of religeous choice. the place was surrounded by a beautiful garden chock full of antelope, spotted deer, and the largest colony of well groomed fluffy langur monkeys. which were not of the aggressive persuasion. i've never been able to sit amongst that many of them cause they usually attack and steal your sunglasses. we strolled the exquisite gardens, than entered the mausoleum. we had to decend a narrow dark tunnel before entering the domed tomb area. an imam chanted, it echoed beautifully, as we circled clockwise (***note to all foreigners-don't be the idiot who decides to circle anything in a temple or mosque counter clockwise-please do your research and cover yourselves up, for gods sake). after the circle around, the exit and it was over.
the next stop was not so pleasant. it was a restoration of a radha (krishna's wife)temple. we were immediately shown around the temple-we thought the guy worked there, but NO! a groper in disguise. he took us into a remote corner of the temple so we could take pictures-which are strictly forbidden in temples. it happened so fast and before you knew it, he was groping me, pressing into my breasts for what felt like an eternity while j took a picture. i was quite angry at j for not kicking his touting nasty ass. we left with a very very bad taste in our mouths. not only that, he demanded 10 rupies for the grope. nice. and the shit shoe watchers, who usually get one or two rupies for watching the shoes, demaded at least 10, and called us foul names cause they did not think that was enought. nice.
so it goes up from here. next stop, and one of my favorites, kanu carpet factory. we were taken to the design shop, shown the over 50 varieties of sheep, all their wools, etc. made a point in telling us the germans like the thick wool, except the carpets won't bend so well and they wear out after 40 years. only the germans had this request. than we watched the weavers knot and weave at a loom, working at breakneck speed and cutting. average size rug taking up to 5 months to complete, one knot at a time. than the rug is taken to a large ditch where 5 men in rubber boots scrape and wash the rug for a couple of hours to remove excess dye. than the rug is hung in the indian sun and after, put onto a stretcher and nailed down. after a day, they take it to 5 more men with hard core scissors and they trim for a couple more hours each and every piece. the rug is washed again, and than coated with acidic acid to moth proof and set the colors. i bought a very long wool runner rug, a gift, and a silk one for my bum for the next few months i am staying here. there is nothing better than seeing the craftsmanship of the beautiful textiles here. so far my marble and rug experiences have been steller. these rugs were every bit as good as the kashmiri rugs. they export thousands to the US and elsewhere every year.
the final stop in agra, the golden moment, was at a gallery specializing in musical instruments and jewelry. we spent 4 hours there, j hypnotized by the instruments, me by the silver and diamonds. they provided a pro tabla player to play along with j as he learned how to play sitar (he was remarkably good)and the banjo(which is not like the american banjo, but an instrument with tortise shell keyboard for left hand and strings for the right hand). jamming went on for hours, a plate of dates, cashews and almonds appeared, 3 chai tea's were drunk, and soon chicken tikka bits. i was still with my pal getting talked into several gorgeous silver ankle bracelets and an 80 year old diamond with emerald in center. than a tray of beers started being distributed, i went into the instrument room where the jams were going on and we impressed the locals with our knowledge of many old hindi film songs "dum maro dum", "churya liya", "aja-monica!my darling!!!"(most westerners go phooey on bollywood-their loss) and one we wrote ourselves, me playing tabla like a conga and j playing guitar, all of us singing and dancing all over the place. time passed too fast and we were almost late for our train to delhi. ahhhhhhhhgra...had been very good to us.
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