Hilary's Adventure: Day 5: Taj Mahal

Today we got up early to see the Taj Mahal at sunrise, so the alarm went off at 5.30am to be at the Taj at 6am. Out the front of our room we met the Spanish guy from the train. We organised to see the Taj with him before he goes and fights with the train ticket office. Our hotel is about 100mish from the East gate of the Taj so not a very long walk. As we approached the gate the men standing round out front said we have to go to the ticket box which is a half mile down the road to buy the tickets. What a stupid place to have the ticket box. Off we walk to buy tickets down the road in the humid hot wether. As we walk people are trying to sell us postcards, tour guides, fridge magnets and anything else you can think of that has to do with the Taj. When we get to the ticket box the tickets were more than I expected. I thought they were going to be 250rp (AUD5) but no they are 750rp (15aud). For what you are paying for it is so worth it. If you are an Indian then the price was like 20rp.

After all the walking to buy tickets we missed the sunrise on the Taj. That’s ok because it wasn’t far off sunrise and the sun was still quite low once we got inside. The process to enter the Taj is segregated into Female tourist and Indian and Gents tourist and India. This is because you get patted down for ciggerates, guns and anything that could damage the Taj. I don’t get why there is tourist and Indian segregation on the pat down. Once inside you can start to see the Taj peeking over the top of the gates and trees. The taj is surrounded by big red walls with ornate gate buildings. They are a complete contrast to the big white Taj.

I must say if you ever get the chance to see the Taj Mahal don’t pass it up. It’s just as beautiful in person as the book and internet make it out to be. The Taj was much bigger than I thought. It’s just sits beautifully amongst the trees and park area. We walked pass the place where Princess Diana had that famous photo taken. There was a que to sit on that seat so we didn’t bother; there were plenty of other photo opportunities just as stunning. We wondered round taking pictures of everything and anything. Once inside the mausoleum we were not allowed to take pictures of the Tombs. It was very dark and stunning inside. Up and down the walls were sand scripts carved then inlayed with black marble. Everything had such detail; even the arch ways roofs were faceted and hard to see the detail. The 4 of us wondered round for about 2 hours just looking, taking pictures and admiring the whole place.

After the Taj we headed back to our room to have a nap. We were up late last night talking and eating and up early this morning so we were all quite tired.

After our nap we headed out for some breakfast/lunch. In one of the guide books it suggested a roof top restaurant overlooking the Taj Mahal. The restaurant is on top of a hotel down a smelly dingy alley. If this hotel had air con we would have stayed here. It seems a lot more friendly then the place we are staying at now but it smells more. The up side to our hotel is the closeness to the Taj and no smell. The restaurant on the roof had a magnificent view of the Taj and grounds. It was fascinating to watch the shadows from the clouds roll over the top of the Taj. It is truly a wonder and deserves to be in the 8 wonders of the ancient world. My food at lunch wasn’t that interesting. I ordered a Chicken burger with chips to be on the safe side with my stomach and all. The boys order a range of curries and Dahl to try. My chicken burger was more a potato burger with a little bit of chicken and tomato. With lunch i also ordered a Banana Lassi to try. That was delicious; it was like someone just basically pureed a banana and put it in a glass with a bit of coconut on top. Kyle and Alex tried a Mango one. I had a sip of the mango to try and it was so much better then what you find at home, much more mango and other things then yoghurt.

After lunch we headed back to the room so Kyle can put on some shorts and head off to the Agra Fort. While changing Ceaser wanted to use Alex’s internet to buy train tickets and check emails. To make this happen was an ordeal. First Alex’s computer ran out of batter, we had to find chargers and adaptors to charge it again. Once that happened the internet didn’t really want to work so we had to work out how to make it want to work again. During all this everyone fell asleep (again). I napped for about an hour and Kyle and Alex napped for about 3 hours. In this time Ceaser worked out that he could not get train tickets because the website was down. I read my e-book of Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy to kill time till the boys woke up. Once they woke it was 7pm and Agra Fort had closed for the day so we will go tomorrow instead. I have a funny feeling that no one is going to sleep well tonight.

About 9pm we headed out in search of dinner. Just before we left was asked the hotel if we could have to the room the for the day tomorrow because our train to Varanasi wasn’t till about 11pm. He said that was fine but we might have to change rooms and check out about 9pm. There was going to be another train load of people about then. That was a much better idea then leaving our stuff with the hotel and hoping our bags and stuff were still there when we got back.

The place we chose for dinner was another roof top restaurant sort of overlooking the Taj. The restaurant at lunch had a much better view, this one had another roof top restaurant in the way and you could only see the Taj from 1 part of the roof. Dinner was interesting. I tried their version of butter chicken; the boys had a few curries and things again and Ceaser tried macaroni with egg. My butter chicken was a swampy green with tomato chunks and the chicken was still on the bone. Ceasers macaroni was better than I thought. It was macaroni with a few veggies and a cheese sauce with scrambled eggs on top. It was wired looking but tasted much better than the ‘chicken’ burger at lunch. The boy’s assortment of curries tasted good. Only the mutton curry had too much spice that I only ate one spoonful but the boys claimed they couldn’t taste the spice. The naan bread at this restaurant was the best we have tried so far. For desert was tied the Indian desert and what looked like fairy bread covered in something orange with coconut. They both were interesting but the fairy bread thing was not that nice to taste. The Indian desert was these sweet pastry type balls covered in syrup. They are quite nice but everyone found then on the sickly sweet side. At this stage of the day the night was on the cool side. We guessed about 25 degrees but still very humid.

After dinner we slowly made our way back to the hotel. They boys picked up some soft drink so they could mix it and entertain themselves because they slepted the day away. On our way back we have to dodge bikes, motorbikes, cars, rickshores, dogs, cows and people. When people say that the cows sleep anywhere they like and do what they like they are not kidding. Just out the front of the hotel there were 2 cows just sitting in the middle of the road fast asleep while everyone around them played dodge the cow. It’s a bit sad to see the dog’s skin and bone just roaming the streets. You want to pat and feed them but you really don’t know what diseases they have. Back at the hotel I crawled into bed to sleep and the boys stayed up drinking to about 5am. The power went off during the night because I woke up at one point very hot and sweaty. The power outages don’t seem to last that long about an hour at most so a bit later everything came back on and I was cool again to sleep.