Thursday 4th October
This morning, when 5.30am rolled around I wasn’t thrilled to be getting up and getting ready, but seeing the Taj Mahal is Rory’s dream (and the main reason why we’re doing this trip) so I rolled out of bed and dragged myself in to our taxi for the morning.
Our hotel is a few kilometres away and our taxi parked up at the super fancy and super expensive Oberoi Hotel where we transferred to a little golf buggy that drove us right up to the East Gate. Tickets were 1100 rupees each and while there were a number of “government authorised guides” offering to give us a guided tour, we decided to go it alone.
The Taj Mahal has been undergoing an extensive cleaning programme – all four minarets have now been cleaned and work on the main dome was due to start at the start of the month which would mean lots and lots of scaffolding. Thankfully the work has been delayed so we made our way through the entrance and got our first glimpse of what has been described by Rudyard Kipling as “the embodiment of all things pure”.
Built by Shah Jahan as a monument for his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died while giving birth to their fourteenth child in 1631, the main building took around eight years to build while the complex wasn’t finished until 1653. Despite being overthrown by his son and imprisoned in Agra Fort, when he died Shah Jahan was buried here alongside his wife.
It’s not hard to see why the Taj Mahal is a modern wonder of the world. The sheer size and the detail that each of the 20,000 craftsmen put in to the building is beyond impressive. I hate to admit it – but Rory made a good call putting it on the itinerary.
We spent a few hours walking around the grounds and enjoying the complex before the mid-day crowds arrived and we even made it back to our hotel in time for some breakfast! After a bit of a rest we ventured in to Agra to find a camera repair shop.
My camera hasn’t been focusing properly and while I have managed to take some shots using the manual focus, we’re heading off on a tiger safari in a few days and I want my camera to be at its best, just in case Shere Khan pays us a visit. I wasn’t completely sure that leaving my camera was the right thing to do but after some back and forth, I said goodbye and agreed to come back three hours later with the agreed 2600 rupees.
We spent the next few hours swimming and sunbathing by our amazing pool. Despite our many, many holidays, we haven’t actually sat by a pool since our backpacking trip to South East Asia which was six years ago! It was nice to relax and do nothing for a change but we were obviously feeling guilty about our lack of sight seeing as when we collected the camera (which seems to be working, at the minute anyway), we paid a visit to Mehtab Pagh. The riverside park has excellent views of the Taj Mahal and was surprisingly empty. In fact, it was much nicer than we expected and once we’d had a good look around and taken a fair few photos, we headed back to our driver who took us past Agra Fort (had we known how impressive the fort looked, we would have planned a visit) and back to our hotel.
We both really enjoyed the drive around the city. Yes the traffic was hectic, there were cows in the middle of the road, motorbikes and push bikes alike on every side of the car and no working seat belts but it is a great way to see the city! Our evening was slightly less hectic – we ate at the hotel restaurant where they made us two traditional Indian meals – both vegetarian, neither of which were on the menu. They also brought out a soup course, poppadums, rice, breads, dips, desserts and extra drinks. The hotel has gone above and beyond in every way - for 75 pounds, which is less than most budget hotels in the UK, you are treated like royalty – something I could definitely get used to (take note Rory, this is how I expect to be treated in number six)!
This morning, when 5.30am rolled around I wasn’t thrilled to be getting up and getting ready, but seeing the Taj Mahal is Rory’s dream (and the main reason why we’re doing this trip) so I rolled out of bed and dragged myself in to our taxi for the morning.
Our hotel is a few kilometres away and our taxi parked up at the super fancy and super expensive Oberoi Hotel where we transferred to a little golf buggy that drove us right up to the East Gate. Tickets were 1100 rupees each and while there were a number of “government authorised guides” offering to give us a guided tour, we decided to go it alone.
The Taj Mahal has been undergoing an extensive cleaning programme – all four minarets have now been cleaned and work on the main dome was due to start at the start of the month which would mean lots and lots of scaffolding. Thankfully the work has been delayed so we made our way through the entrance and got our first glimpse of what has been described by Rudyard Kipling as “the embodiment of all things pure”.
Built by Shah Jahan as a monument for his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died while giving birth to their fourteenth child in 1631, the main building took around eight years to build while the complex wasn’t finished until 1653. Despite being overthrown by his son and imprisoned in Agra Fort, when he died Shah Jahan was buried here alongside his wife.
It’s not hard to see why the Taj Mahal is a modern wonder of the world. The sheer size and the detail that each of the 20,000 craftsmen put in to the building is beyond impressive. I hate to admit it – but Rory made a good call putting it on the itinerary.
We spent a few hours walking around the grounds and enjoying the complex before the mid-day crowds arrived and we even made it back to our hotel in time for some breakfast! After a bit of a rest we ventured in to Agra to find a camera repair shop.
My camera hasn’t been focusing properly and while I have managed to take some shots using the manual focus, we’re heading off on a tiger safari in a few days and I want my camera to be at its best, just in case Shere Khan pays us a visit. I wasn’t completely sure that leaving my camera was the right thing to do but after some back and forth, I said goodbye and agreed to come back three hours later with the agreed 2600 rupees.
We spent the next few hours swimming and sunbathing by our amazing pool. Despite our many, many holidays, we haven’t actually sat by a pool since our backpacking trip to South East Asia which was six years ago! It was nice to relax and do nothing for a change but we were obviously feeling guilty about our lack of sight seeing as when we collected the camera (which seems to be working, at the minute anyway), we paid a visit to Mehtab Pagh. The riverside park has excellent views of the Taj Mahal and was surprisingly empty. In fact, it was much nicer than we expected and once we’d had a good look around and taken a fair few photos, we headed back to our driver who took us past Agra Fort (had we known how impressive the fort looked, we would have planned a visit) and back to our hotel.
We both really enjoyed the drive around the city. Yes the traffic was hectic, there were cows in the middle of the road, motorbikes and push bikes alike on every side of the car and no working seat belts but it is a great way to see the city! Our evening was slightly less hectic – we ate at the hotel restaurant where they made us two traditional Indian meals – both vegetarian, neither of which were on the menu. They also brought out a soup course, poppadums, rice, breads, dips, desserts and extra drinks. The hotel has gone above and beyond in every way - for 75 pounds, which is less than most budget hotels in the UK, you are treated like royalty – something I could definitely get used to (take note Rory, this is how I expect to be treated in number six)!
