The Taj Mahal

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After 2 days of non-stop travel, Joe and I finally made it to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. We arrived at night and had plans to wake up before dawn to see the sun rise. Well, we slept in, of course. However, we did have the opportunity to have breakfast on the rooftop of our hotel with beautiful Taj views. We headed to the Taj Mahal soon after and were lucky that it wasn't too busy. We hired a guide, coincidentaly named Love, to show us the ultimate monument of true love.

Well what can we say, it was everything we heard it would be.....simply breathtaking. And with such a romantic and yet tragic story behind it. The quick version for those who don't know (and I may get some of the exact info wrong but this is the main idea of the story):
The Taj Mahal was built by the King for his 3rd wife, who he loved more than anything in the world. While giving birth to their 14th (or something rather) child, she died. Before she died, she had three requests: 1. He may never marry another woman. 2. He must take good care of all the children. And 3. He must build ner a monument for all the world to see. She was a very demanding woman! But, he fulfilled her wishes, and hence the Taj Mahal was built. It took 22 years and 22000 people to build the Taj Mahal, which is symetrically perfect. After the Taj was built, the king wanted to build a mirror image of the monument across the river, only in black. His son was very angry that his father wanted to spend so much money on such a useless thing so he locked him up in the fort a mile away. The king was given a cell with a single window that had a view of the Taj Mahal. The king stared at the Taj Mahal through his window for 7 years. He died at the age of 66 of, as they say, a broken heart.

We spent the entire day taking pictures and enjoying each others company amongst the beauty of the Taj Mahal. Although, we didn't see sunrise, we enjoyed a beautiful and very romantic sunset.

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