On Monday morning, we woke up at 5:30 and our guide and driver picked us up at the hotel at 6:00. We could have done without the driver, because it is illegal to drive to the Taj - Mahal in a normal vehicle, you have to use one of the provided electric vehicles or donkey or camel carts (really!) The pick up point was only about two blocks away.
By the time we bought tickets, missed the first bus, started walking, and got picked up by a second bus - it was about 6:20. We had to stand in line. Men in one line, women in another. Each of the men's and women's lines was further divided into local and non-locals. The local line was mostly tour guides. I was lonely in my line, but only had to stand for about twenty minutes. The security procedures went pretty quickly for me and I waited for the ladies to get through their line. That line took longer because most of the women had purses or bags that had to be inspected. Yulia had to throw out our big bucket of gum that we take with us when we travel (air pressure on airplanes....), but that was our only casualty.
The grounds for the Taj Mahal are very impressive. The building itself even more so. The attention to detail is amazing. The designs on the stones were made by inlaying semi-precious stones into the marble. The marble was brought from another part of India that was over 250 kilometers away - so the labor involved in the entire endeavor was massive. The building itself was built by Turks (the dome) and Arabs (the minarets) and Persians (the marble inlaying) and it took 22 years to build.
Our guide took us to all the places to get good pictures and we enjoyed looking at the whole complex. In the Taj Mahal itself we had to wear feet covers (or go barefoot) to preserve it.
Overall we spent about 2 hours on the grounds. When we were done, we caught the bus back to the beginning of the trail and walked back to our hotel. We packed up, ate breakfast, checked out, and then got back into the van for a long day of travel to Jaipur.
Our trip to Jaipur was just as long as our trip to Agra had been. We actually had to take a detour because there was some sort of pilgrimage going on along the road that we were taking. The farmland was pretty similar to what we had seen up until then, until we got closer to Jaipur and went through the mountains and hills.
We stopped about halfway and it was a real tourist trap. We bought some cookies, crackers, and soda - and paid over $25.00 for just that. It was enough to get us by, though.
We arrived at our hotel in Jaipur at about 5:00 p.m. The hotel was amazing - and had a small pool [which was unheated, so still quite cool] and the girls were excited to swim. After checking in, they swam, and we went to dinner at the rooftop restaurant at about 7:00 p.m. The food at the restaurant was really good. We ordered a bit of everything. I ordered a mutton dish that was the most tender, most delicious mutton I've ever eaten. The exciting part of dinner was that there was live entertainment - music and two women dancing. They invited the girls to come and dance, and they did. It was a fun time for everyone.
After dinner we hit the hay - we had to get ready for a long day of sightseeing in the morning.
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| Waiting at 6:00 am outside of our hotel to be picked up to go see Taj Mahal |
By the time we bought tickets, missed the first bus, started walking, and got picked up by a second bus - it was about 6:20. We had to stand in line. Men in one line, women in another. Each of the men's and women's lines was further divided into local and non-locals. The local line was mostly tour guides. I was lonely in my line, but only had to stand for about twenty minutes. The security procedures went pretty quickly for me and I waited for the ladies to get through their line. That line took longer because most of the women had purses or bags that had to be inspected. Yulia had to throw out our big bucket of gum that we take with us when we travel (air pressure on airplanes....), but that was our only casualty.
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| Waiting in line to go through the entrance. Ladies on the left (a much longer line) and gentlemen on the right. |
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| Waiting in line. |
The grounds for the Taj Mahal are very impressive. The building itself even more so. The attention to detail is amazing. The designs on the stones were made by inlaying semi-precious stones into the marble. The marble was brought from another part of India that was over 250 kilometers away - so the labor involved in the entire endeavor was massive. The building itself was built by Turks (the dome) and Arabs (the minarets) and Persians (the marble inlaying) and it took 22 years to build.
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| Darwaza-i Rauza (the Great Gate) is the main entrance to Taj Mahal. |
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| About to go through. If you look hard, you can see Taj Mahal right through the opened gate. |
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| Here it is! |
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| The view was breathtaking! |
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| One of modern 7 wonders of the world is right behind us! |
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| It is massive and so beautiful! The minaret on the right has scaffolding around because it is currently undergoing cleaning using "mud-pack therapy" to remove yellowness from the white marble. |
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| Gorgeous! Taj Mahal was commissioned by Shah Jahan in 1631 to be built in the memory of his second and wife Mumtaz Mahal (her name translates as "crown of the palace"), a Persian Princess and a love of his life since his childhood who died at age 39 giving birth to their 14th child. Taj Mahal carries her name (Taj is short for Mumtaz) |
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| The Great Gate |
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| Listening to our guide (on the right) |
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| Just can't get enough of it. |
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| World class travelers! |
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| The details of the work are amazing! |
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| Detail of jali inlay, made out of precious and semiprecious gemstones. |
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| A view of the Yamuna River from Taj Mahal. In the distance you can see Agra Fort that we visited the day before. |
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| Nika and her Indian pants :) |
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| Yulia |
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| One of the other gates |
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| Saying goodbye to a beautiful masterpiece! |
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| One last photo. |
Our guide took us to all the places to get good pictures and we enjoyed looking at the whole complex. In the Taj Mahal itself we had to wear feet covers (or go barefoot) to preserve it.
Overall we spent about 2 hours on the grounds. When we were done, we caught the bus back to the beginning of the trail and walked back to our hotel. We packed up, ate breakfast, checked out, and then got back into the van for a long day of travel to Jaipur.
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| A monkey climbing up the Great Gate. We saw a lot more monkeys in Jaipur. |
Our trip to Jaipur was just as long as our trip to Agra had been. We actually had to take a detour because there was some sort of pilgrimage going on along the road that we were taking. The farmland was pretty similar to what we had seen up until then, until we got closer to Jaipur and went through the mountains and hills.
We stopped about halfway and it was a real tourist trap. We bought some cookies, crackers, and soda - and paid over $25.00 for just that. It was enough to get us by, though.
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| Saying goodbye to Aman Homestead, the best B&B in Agra! |
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| Busy, busy roads! |
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| People are going to some sort of event, so we had to take a detour. |
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| And we saw a lot of these on our detour - buffalo chips! We even saw how women were making them! |
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| Water buffalo |
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| Six hour drive will do it to you! |
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| On our way to Jaipur we were going to stop at Fatehpur Sikri, the abandoned city which was founded in 1569 abandoned shortly after in 1585 due the the exhaustion of the lake supplying the city with water. However when we got there we were "attacked" by guides one of which was very persistent and kept rising the price for his services. We finally got tired of arguing with him and decided to continue unto Jaipur. This was our very short 2 minute ride in a tuk-tuk which we had to take to the entrance of the city right before we decided that enough was enough. |
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| Getting closer to Jaipur. Hills! |
We arrived at our hotel in Jaipur at about 5:00 p.m. The hotel was amazing - and had a small pool [which was unheated, so still quite cool] and the girls were excited to swim. After checking in, they swam, and we went to dinner at the rooftop restaurant at about 7:00 p.m. The food at the restaurant was really good. We ordered a bit of everything. I ordered a mutton dish that was the most tender, most delicious mutton I've ever eaten. The exciting part of dinner was that there was live entertainment - music and two women dancing. They invited the girls to come and dance, and they did. It was a fun time for everyone.
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| Girls' room at the Umaid Bhawan - Heritage-Style Hotel. They were in heaven! |
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| They had this net over the pool. We suspected it was protection from birds and ... monkeys. We saw one jumping from one side of the wall to the other over the pool. |
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| A beautiful hotel with a great attention to detail! |
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| Lina watching the life performance at dinner. Little did she know that soon she will be the entertainer herself! |
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| One of the dancers. |
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| And here we go, learning the Indian dance |
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| These guys provided the music and singing. |
After dinner we hit the hay - we had to get ready for a long day of sightseeing in the morning.
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