DAY 2 Trip to Taj

Day 2 Trip to Taj

When I thought about blogging for this trip, I thought to myself that I would probably do a blog or an update every few days/weeks to keep a recollection of the journey. Well after today I'm thinking that's going to be somewhat different as we have so much to share.

We awoke relatively early New Delhi time about 6-7 am. Given the fact that we wake this time usually. We considered this asleep in as it was about 11 am in Australia.

Breakfast consisted of sambar, dosa, poha, bacon and tea. Delicious! Describing the flavours is too hard, so you'll have to imagine it or try it yourself.

After we arrived last night, we arranged a tour of Old Delhi when we returned from Agra in 2 days as we have the afternoon/night free on the 31st and didn't get much time to explore before today's trip to Agra. Today we march on the old capital, Agra home of the Taj Mahal. The drive took us about 3 hours to reach Agra and a further 40 mins to get to the hotel. Traffic was at its worst after we arrived.

Checked into the Radisson Blu Hotel, We met by our local guide in Agra 'Jatin'. He and Sanjay, our driver, would be taking us around for the next few days and they let us choose our itinerary with a strong recommendation to visit the Taj Mahal at sunset today as the weather was great.

After settling in, an hour later we were off to combat traffic yet again en route to visit Sikandra, also known as Sikandara by the locals.

The tomb of Akbar the great, he considered by himself as a god when alive, he expected all to bow to him. Even when dead, his grave was down a long ramp in his mausoleum, which forces people to bow down to him as they walked to his tomb. Pretty amazing to think he still has the power to make people do things even after death.

We spent about an hour here before a short hotel rest and then onto the great Taj Mahal.

Mostly everyone knows the basic story about how Shan Johahn built the Taj created. Shan Jahan built the monument as a promise to his second of three and only wife at that time Mumtaz Muhal who died at 37 during the birth of her 14th child. If you do the math, that means she conceived a child within 2-3 weeks of giving birth to the previous child. Sounds like he loved her a lot.

*vomit*.

Anyway enough about the history. Walking into the Taj was probably the most spectacular monument I have ever been to Including the Great Wall and the Pyramids of Egypt, the size and grandeur of it all was humbling and a little bit overwhelming.

To think it took 22 years to build sounds long but seeing the details of the gemstones carved and placed flush within the marble walls and the detail in the lines of the stone, as Aaron said "I know blokes that can't get lines in tiles this bloody good today with technology".

The sunset over the Taj was terrific, the colour of the marble changes and some of the gemstones sparkle, and when the moon hits the dome, the gems make the Taj Glow.

We finished the day off with a couple of cold beers at a rooftop restaurant in Agra, and then rode a Tuk Tuk back to the hotel for a nightcap and talking about cricket with the bartender. Well let's be real Aaron talked cricket I just drank the 2 for one rum.

Taj Mahal 'Tick'

That's now 4 of 7 Wonders of the world off the list.

- End