The Taj Mahal

We would like to dedicate this entry to UNESCO. Thank you for creating World Heritage Day.

Rising early this morning wasn't too difficult because we knew it was for a great cause. Today we would see the Taj Mahal. We left the hotel at 5:30 on a moto-rickshaw and passed the army cadets running down the street in formation on the way to the Taj Ganj area of Agra. We had to walk for about 1km to the main gate of the Taj Mahal as the government has banned motor vehicles and development around it. There were so many people around doing all sorts of things in the park. People were exercising, families eating breakfast, and lots of cricket matches going on all before 6a.m. We reached the main gate and were about to approach the ticket counter when a lady (tourist) told us it was free today because it was World Heritage Day. At 6 the gates opened and we walked through the security check to a courtyard which led to the grounds of the Taj. There were less than 100 people walking in and our first view of the Taj was pretty much sans people.

** interlude** Kel is a freak and has conversations with me even when she admits she didn't hear what I said to begin with.

The Taj Mahal is beautiful, stunning, spectacular, awesome, cool. We were not expecting such a strong reaction, knowing that these types of things tend to get built up in your mind to be better than they really are. But the Taj is everything we imagined and more. Sounds lame, but it's true. We just stood there in awe, staring at it from about 150 metres away, and seeing the view from where 99% of the photos are taken. With the sun not yet risen, the Taj had a misty/hazy blue colour to it. It looked fake, like a painted movie backdrop. We took about 50 photos, then got a little closer as the sun got a little higher. The blue colour wore off to a pinkish colour, some bits of inlaid stones sparkling. We were able to see the Taj's reflection in one of the fountains in front of it. The whole structure appears so white, yet it's not. The marble has greys and pinks and blues and yellows streaked throughout it. And we were surprised to find that there are areas of intricate stone inlay patterns, Persian script of the Quran etched on it, and carved sections. It was cool to see all of the various details as we got closer and closer.

We put some funky elf boots on over our shoes (to protect the marble) and walked up onto the Taj platform. We spent about an hour just walking around it, all the while just staring up at it. The Taj Mahal was built from 1631-1653 as a mausoleum for the Emperor's wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Inside is her tomb, along with the Emperor's. The tombs are patterned with precious stone inlays and are surrounded by a 7 foot high marble lattice screen, incredibly detailed with the carvings and more precious stone inlays. We had to work to get some interesting photos of the Taj because it is so perfectly symmetrical, which is probably another reason it looks like a movie backdrop. It took 20,000 people to build, and it's said that some had their fingers or hands chopped off when it was completed so that they could never duplicate the Taj's beauty. To one side is a Muslim mosque, and on the other side is a mock-mosque built purely for symmetry.

We spent over 3 hours at the Taj Mahal as the sun rose. I think nearly half of this time was spent posing for other people's photos, mainly Indian guys who want a photo with a blonde girl. And not just happy snaps with their cameras either. They all paid one of the many professional photographers who roam around the Taj grounds taking tourist photos. I'm sure we'll end up as someone's keychain or something. When it started to get too hot and our tummies started growling, we headed back to our hotel for breakfast. We did some laundry, tried to work out plans for the next few days, and just relaxed. We're taking things a bit slower here in India than we have been the past few months. Around 4:00 we went to the train station to get tickets to Jaipur for the next day or two, but all of the trains were full. We took a rickshaw back to the Taj Ganj area and had a beer at a restaurant just outside the Taj Mahal. We would have had a few more, but we didn't want to waste all of the money we saved by not having to pay an entrance fee for the day. Then we went back inside to the Taj Mahal to watch the sunset. Normally we would have had to pay another entrance fee to get back in, but thanks to those UNESCO people and World Heritage Day, we took advantage of the free entry. Normally this double entry would have cost us about AU$100. After several more photos with newfound friends (one guy had the nerve to touch Kel on the bare knee and put his arm around her shoulder), we found a shady bench out of the way (and away from the guys asking for our photos) and just sat for about 2 hours as the light changed from yellow to orange and slowly faded. We found it amazing how we could spend 5 hours of the day just staring at an inanimate object.

As the grounds closed, we walked around the Taj Ganj area a bit, but decided to head back to our hotel for dinner, since the food is good and the service friendly...and we hadn't been sick from the food yet either. Not much exciting to report for the day, but truly a fantastic day.