Taj Mahal

The night before we went the Taj Mahal, we stayed at a place near Agra called Bharatpur because our taxi driver, Mhabar (who we had been with for the past few days as this saved time compared to busing it, and wasn't too expensive) had invited us to his home for dinner. We had discussed and very much liked the sound of a moonlight view of the Taj from a hostel in Agra, but after a bit of thought, and a toss of the coin which made us realise which we'd actually prefer...we ended up going to his house. Did not regret it because his family were so lovely and welcoming, treated us like royalty as they cooked authentic indian dal for us, we drank the niceset masala chai and they watched us eat (despite the fact that the mother and daughter were fasting). Afterwards we managed to get a demonstration of Hindi dancing (only after we danced for them lol). Was an amazing experience to get a glimpse of Mhabar's life (Becks got the photos).

Despite being a great guy though, Mhabar turned up 15 mins late to pick us up the next morning, so we saw the sunrise on our way to the Taj as opposed to at the Taj. Therefore, we missed the changing colour from red to orange etc which was a shame but it was still a lot less touristy when we got there. I dunno how to descride it cos i'm crap with words but it was stunning/beautiful and you've just got to be in awe of how it was built when you know the romantic story and see how the semi-precious stones are embedded in the marble (we went to a craft museum after it which showed us how it would have been made)

Took so many pics, i couldnt decide which to put up!!

=)

Typical shot of Taj

After a couple of peaceful hours there we were pretty hungry due to a severe lack of breakfast, and it began to get busy so we went to a place nearby where you sit on the floor to eat, and a monkey was constantly dropping mushy fruit on us from the trees above! Love it!

Cheeky monkey

Saw the Agra fort from the road but had to get back to Delhi so didn't bother going in, and the Red fort in Delhi is meant to be better which we planned to visit. Stopped at another tomb on the drive back, so overall it was a day of seeing amazing craftsmanship in the form of buildings and a long drive back to Delhi.

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written by  H on October 30, 2007 from Agra, India
from the travel blog: H - Seeing the world...
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