The Lotus in the cesspool

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Our bus into Agra was relatively uneventful, but we immediately felt like we were in back in a big city - home of the Taj! We were finally going to see it and couldn't wait!

We got into Agra about midday and were picked up by 4wDs to take us to our hostel. It seems we were staying just outside the East Gate of the Taj which was about a 5 minute walk - if that! The weather was predicted to be crap the next day, hazy and overcast, so we were off to the Taj that afternoon.

We decided to go for a wee donder around the place to check Agra out after lunch, and our expectations were low as our guide on the first day had told us that the Tag Mahal was the "Lotus in the cesspool which we thought was a tad harsh! We discovered we had to 'run the gauntlet' as the main street our hostel was on was the direct path to the East Gate and hence all the vendors were out and trying their best to get you into their shops. We were actually a bit struck at how desperate they seemed - we didn't feel like there were heaps of tourists around (we were staying next to the quietest gate apparently, there are four) and chocked this up to the tourist attacks just over a month ago.

Not long after, we finally got to go in and see the Taj Mahal. Now, my expectations were high as I'd seen so many amazing photos of one of the seven wonders of the modern world, and I was not disappointed! The 17th century mausoleum did not let us down - the weather was perfect, the skies were blue and the Taj looked amazing. As the story goes, the building was started in 1632 by the Emperor Shah Jahan and took just over 20 years to complete in memory of his great love and wife, Mumtaz Mahal.

It really is breath taking, the fabulous white marble doesn't looked affected by age (though some say it is going a tad yellow due to pollution, I didn't see it though) and just the equisite level of detail in the flowers and motifs is absolutely beautiful. Inside the domed Taj are the sarcophogi of Mumtaz and Shah, and a popular rumor was that Shah was going to build himself a black Taj across the Yamuna river, but his son locked him up before he could start it as it would have sent the country borke. This was just a rumour, but the true part was that Shah did get locked up by his son and spent the rest of his life in a cell - nice kiddy huh?

There were quite a few tourists there - Indian and alike - but certainly not as many as I thought there would be. We spent most of the afternoon walking around the gardens, gazing over the Taj and watching the sun set (monkeys in the background and everything). It really did live up to expectations - a real rarity nowadays!

That night we went out to dinner and had a fantastic feed (vego of course) and stuffed ourselves silly. We still had another day in Agra and thought we were going to be stumped for something else to see - after all, what else was there to see in Agra? Well, apparently there is more! We attemped to find the 'Nature Walk' which was just up the road from us and again, our expectations were low, but we did end up finding this little park/nature area which was this lovely little area where you could escape from the bustle of the city and tourists and had a pretty good view of the Taj.

We also trekked into town after lunch and checked out the impressive Red Fort which is situated along the river as well - very cool. When we got back, we were given the bad news that our public overnight train we were due to catch that night had been cancelled, and instead we had to hire our own bus - it was gonna be a long and painful night...

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Photos

Rach & I & the Taj
Just inside the main entrance to the Taj Mahal

Monkey
Monkey checking out the view of the Taj on the river too.

Taj Mahal again
Ohhh, I went a bit nuts with pics...

The red fort
Rach & I outside the Red Fort