The Taj Mahal

Trip Start Dec 26, 2008
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Trip End Feb 06, 2009


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Where I stayed
(Agra hotels)

Flag of India  , Uttar Pradesh,
Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The alarm was set for 6.20 and it was the speediest we'd ever got up and out of the room. 7am found us in the line up at the East Gate, and a short 10 mins later, we were there. Ahead of us was the Taj Mahal.

It truly is spectacular. Nothing, no photo, no image, no description can ever quite prepare you for it. We were there for sunrise, but there was too much haze for it to be visible. But it didn't matter, because the building itself was enough. And at 7.15 in the morning, there was barely a soul about. Beautiful. Majestic. Awe inspiring.

We spent two hours there, just looking, walking, photographing. I didn't want to leave. In fact, Ted practically had to drag me away. I was so drawn to it, I couldn't quite explain it.

But leave we must, and so we checked out and headed over to Agra Fort. It often gets overlooked in favour of it's stately neighbour, but it is impressive in it's own right. A mix of red stone and while marble, it dominates it's skyline and is a testament to the Mugal empire. We bumped into Gary there, and decided that three made for a good travel number, so trotted over the road to sample some street fayre. Yes, Michelle has gotten over her fears of a dicky tummy and is jumping right in. The touts left us alone while we ate, but both before and after, we were swarmed. After some particularly hard bargaining, we grabbed a rickshaw and headed to the Baby Taj - so called a it's a mini version of the big guy; although that's a bit of a misnomer in fact, as the Baby Taj came first.

As in Kerala, it was damn hard to find any beverages of the alcoholic variety but Ted and Gary managed to do so; only after I'd managed to trip over a drip in the road and severely sprain my ankle. After that, a beer or two was required, let me tell you. So we passed our last few hours on the rooftop patio of our hotel, making friends with a view of the Taj as the sun went down. Bliss.

We said our goodbyes to our new friends and headed to the train station to make our way to our next desitination - Jaipur. We were in 2nd class and practically had the compartment to ourselves. A 5 hour journey took us to Jaipur, the Pink City, and a whole host of new experiences!
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