We left a little early today to get a detour in on our trip to Agra. The Bhangarh Fort is billed as the most haunted place in India, with a posted sign warning people not to be there after dark.
It’s a former city that now lies in ruins, and there are at least two great legends recounting its demise.
The first has the ruler issuing an edict that no structure could be taller than his palace… and if anyone built one, or built one that cast a shadow on his place, the city would be destroyed. That’s one serious zoning ordinance… and apparently somebody broke it, because, well, this happened:
The second legend is that a powerful wizard fell for a city woman and concocted a potion to make her fall in love with him. She though figured it out and smashed the vial on a boulder atop the mountain… a boulder which promptly became attracted to the wizard and rolled down the hill to smash the town and the wizard as well.
Whatever the real reason behind the city’s collapse into ruins, there have been numerous tales of ghosts and hauntings, even a Ghost Hunters-type reality show episode set there. It may even have been Ghost Hunters but I’ve got really spotty internet connection so to be fact-check safe, I’m just going to call it a GH-type show.
This crisps bag is turned inside out… INSIDE OUT! That’s GHOST TRASH!
Actually, there was A LOT of trash about the place… and that was the scariest thing I saw. What a sad thing.
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We then headed to Chand Baori, arguably the most famous stepwell in India. This inverted pyramid dug into the ground was once featured in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises as a prison that Bruce Wayne backbreakingly finds himself in whilst Bane wreaks havoc back in Gotham City. I was excited about this…
… until I remembered I didn’t really like The Dark Knight Rises.
To be honest, I am feeling slothful amidst all this travel. I haven’t run all week which in Run Kevin Run years is like 2 and a half. There just hasn’t been time or a convenient location that felt safe to run – too much traffic of both the four wheel and four hoof variety.
Nonetheless, it was a great place to see…
I just wish we could’ve gone down into the well… and not just because I could’ve used some stair work.
Most of the photos I’ve taken of me this trip has me looking ragged, puffy, and extra-chiny. My hairline seems to be receding and thinning by the hour and I’m a little freaked out on the toll the years and mileage have taken on me… although this photo is pretty ok:
In any case, we’re only an hour from Agra where we’ll see an 80-minute stage show on the making of the Taj Mahal and then a quick dinner. I’m excited for tomorrow’s sunrise at the Taj. I worry I’ve built it up too much and have set myself up for disappointment.
I keep reminding myself of a scene from Albert Brooks’ Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World. It’s a disappointingly toothless and painfully stereotypical without providing insights into insulting clichés. HOWEVER, there is one absolutely amazing, standout scene in it. Brooks is talking to his two local assistants outside the Taj Mahal and saying how he’s always wanted to see it. In one long tracking shot, they continue talking as they proceed through the entire Taj Mahal, the great structure looming always in the background in all its splendor, and they exit the turnstiles to finish their conversation. They haven’t once looked around and Brooks says something like, “I really would like to see the Taj Mahal but I don’t know if I’ll have time.” It’s a great sight gag, a great commentary on tourism, on self-centeredness, on humanity. It has stuck with me for years… and tomorrow as I make my way through the courtyard, I’m determined to stop walking, turn around, and appreciate the place. Photos are important but this is a case where I also just want to… be… in that place.
What does the Taj have in store for me? Time and maybe this blog will tell.
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Our hotel for the evening. WAY better than the name implies… I thought “homestay” was more an AirBNB styled stay in a closet but the room was very posh.
