Taj Mahal Summary

I'd post more Taj Mahal photos but the uploading here is too slow and times out a lot. The flight to Agra was full of white tourists. When we landed, there was a pre-paid taxi stand as usual that is safe to take, but this time they offered a package for round-trip taxi and drives to the Taj Mahal and Fort Agra. It was worth it since I wanted to do all of that, and it actually turned out to be a tour guide and driver as well. That was good b/c the locals swarm at you b/c it's such a tourist town. So the guide stood by me the whole time so I felt more protected. He also took pictures of me at the Taj so that was even better. Usually I can't take pictures of myself and the background b/c it's too close up with my short arms. So I got some good photos of me with the Taj.

We went to Fort Agra first which is large and has a lot of open stone rooms. Intricate stone work and the Indian army still uses half of it. It's also known as the red fort because it is mostly made of red sandstone. Very thick looking walls in the front. Then we went to the Taj Mahal for the sunset. It was crowded b/c it was the day before India's second largest holiday, the Holi festival. The Taj is definitely better in person, huge and very detailed. It took 22 years to build and the emperor built it to mourn his only wife that bore him 14 children, very romantic. Later his greedy son imprisoned him and he died, tragic. It is all white and there are no factories allowed in Agra so that it stays white. There are a lot of foreign influences in the architecture too b/c he hired different architects and flew in different materials. It has a lot of small colorful stone inlays, not paint. They restrict what visitors can see on the inside. You can see a replica of the inside tomb and 2 other small rooms, but that's about it. The mineret towers used to allow visitors but they closed that off in 1985 b/c too many people fell out to their deaths. There's also 2 other buildings to each side of the Taj. One is a mosque only opened on Fridays to worshippers. There's also a gateway building. The grounds are pretty with a lot of grass, plants, and flowers that they re-plant every season. The water reflects the building so everyone takes those photos of the Taj in the water, including me. There was also a stray dog that went into the water to cool down, and a guard chased him out, haha. He did it before I could get a picture of it. It's very hot here, 95 degrees, but everyone covers there legs. I wore pants too, but then next day I wore shorts b/c I saw other tourists wearing the same. A lot of Russian tourists here in India. I had dinner at the 5 star hotel, Oberoi Amarilas, which I wasn't that impressed for being a thousand dollars a night. The good thing here is that meals are really cheap, like $3, so there idea of really expensive meals is like $20. I had chicken tikka masala b/c an Indian friend says it's really good in India. It was, but tasted similar to Indian in the US. They give a lot of included Indian breads though.

The next day was the Holi festival and I had no idea how large an event it was. It's when they through colored powder at each other. They've done this in the Amazing Race once. Everyone is head to toe in colors, like a smurf. The guide said I shouldn't go out though b/c it's dangerous b/c they drink and drive all day starting at like noon. I was back at the hotel by then. Everything was closed but luckily the Taj wasn't, which is where I wanted to go to again in the early morning to see the sunrise. Books say to see it at both sunset and sunrise, b/c the stones glow differently in the light. I guess it looked brighter. This time, it was really empty b/c only tourists were there while locals took the day off. I explored by myself this time and was able to linger more. I took some more up close and artsy photos. I also sat down and just stared at the building from different distances to have it in my memory rather than just always taking photos. I met a Canadian-Asian guy who asked if I could take a picture of him with his camera. He's been backpacking India for 2 weeks. Then 2 random Indians with popped up collars came up to me and I thought they'd ask if I could take their picture with their camera. But they asked if they could take a picture WITH me! I was like, uh ok and they put their sunglasses on to look cool and put their hand on my shoulder, baha. That actually happened to me once in Miami too, weird. But that time I declined b/c I was in a rush. It reminds me of when Japanese girls ask to take pictures with blonde American boys.

Then I ate lunch at my hotel on the top level that had a view of the Taj in the distance. I had some good chicken and fish kabobs with naan. Probably the best food I've had yet. I've been having trouble with eating spicy all the time. Even the corn cheese grilled sandwich I had at work lunch had a kick to it! BTW, corn in sandwiches are good. The trip was short b/c I only had the weekend to go back to work in Pune, but that's really all Agra has anyways. They say not to go shopping there b/c it's a tourist rip off, plus I was tired of them all trying to sell me stuff. The tour guide also brought me to a carpet and marble store. I didn't even ask to go there, he probably gets commission. I did see a scooter/motorcycle accident and there was a big crowd of 20 people yelling at each other, on my way to the airport. When I got back, my Pune Westin hotel had actually had a Holi powder throwing event for the hotel guests in the hotel. That would've been fun if I was there, safely throwing powder and colored water at white businessmen.