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Published: December 19th 2006
The classic Taj Mahal shot!
Appartently they hardly ever turn the fountains on so that people can take this photo!Before leaving Jaipur we'd reserved no.1 choice in the LP to stay in! We had no idea what to expect but new it was pretty pricey.... Rocking up at 11pm on a cycle rickshaw freezing cold we were greeted by dinner, a damn nice garden and super clean room... We had struck lucky! The place was also right next to the entrance to the Taj so we could maximise sleeping time before having to be there at 6am! (Dan was v. happy about this!
We were up and about on a freezing cold day (never thought it would be like this in India) and made it to the ticket counter at 6am. We had to pay through the nose to get in since the guys running it know that they can charge pretty much whatever they like to tourists. Indians paid 20Rs and foreign tourists 750Rs - we have found this type of thing everywhere but nearly 40 times bigger was a bit of a joke!
We got in and positioned ourselves for the sunrise. The sunrise itself wasn't amazing but the Taj could not have been more incredible! Having not expected to be blown away by a building
Lifting the lid....
Just to go next to Jane's photo! we were totally dumbstruck by its size, intricacy, detail and beauty. Also as we sang many times that in the words of Bryan Adams it was 'all for love, all for love!'
After using and signing a visitors book for some of the best toilets in India we went inside the tomb. The lack of people made the whole thing so much more enjoyable and meant that Soph could really go to town on taking pictures of the semi-precious gem in crested marble that the Taj is made of.
We left by 9am and headed home for some breakfast and to check out. Much against our ideals we hired an auto rickshaw for the rest of the day and were driven about and around Agra. We went to the Baby Taj (obviously smaller but more delicate than the actual Taj and the first Mugal building to use Marble and not Sandstone), Akhbars Moseleum (a huge part surrounding the great emperor's tomb in red sandstone) and then the Mugal Gardens behind the Taj (where we watched a falling sun (no time for sunset) and had a really cool chill at the end of the day).
After a huge
days sightseeing we had to make it up to Delhi for the night - the train was late in and so we didn’t arrive till 11pm but we were still gutted to have been on our last train ride of the trip. Soph felt a special affinity with the trains, mainly because they had toilets available all the time unlike the busses!
We rickshawed it to the central backpacker area and our hotel that turned out again to be amazing.... and it is our last stop in India
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Mike Summers
non-member comment
The last three Blogs came along like a string of buses. Amazing reading and particularly this last one. Pics too. Safe travels. See you tomorrow. M/D