Agra, home of the Taj Mahal

Met two Brits on the train, Warren and Joel, and chatted about our travels, bad air and asthma, filth and food. Restless night with an incredibly noisy family who moved in after dark to occupy all the lower level bunks and floor space.

After finding a place to stay in Taj Ganj with wi-fi we had our first view of the Taj Mahal from a rooftop restaurant. Note the bed in the foreground.



We decided to avoid the Sunday crowds at the Taj Mahal and visit Agra fort instead. A big red sandstone fort with a mess of halls, mosques and fortifications to explore. The mini-mosque made from pure marble for the harem was quite pretty. There was said to be a thick gold chain that stretched from the battlements to the street, made for any petitioner to rattle and guarantee the king's attention.

 Above: The harem mosque

Below: Can you see the Taj Mahal?

Camels crossing! The shifty-eyed fellow in the foreground is the rickshaw wallah who was supposed to take us back to Taj Ganj, but dropped us off in some car park and tried to foist us off onto another rickshaw wallah who presumably had permission to approach the Taj Mahal. Since we hadn't asked to be taken there and all our protests fell on deaf ears we gave him 1/3 of the fare and walked back.

No electricity or wi-fi in town all day, which made our choice of hotel pretty pointless.

The next day, as we approached the Taj Mahal we were confused by the fact that no-one tried to sell tickets, check tickets or stop us. Even when through the gates we were uneasy with the feeling we had somehow slipped in, and would get held up for baksheesh when someone eventually asked us to show a valid ticket. Only after we left did we discover that we had chanced to visit on one of three days a year that India's World Heritage Sites were free to enter. Lucky! Not only that, but compared to the previous day it wasn't crowded at all.

The morning sun gave a nice glow to the marble. Our initial impression was that it wasn't as large as we had expected, which seems silly now looking at the scale in the photos.

The calligraphy around the entrance arch made quite an impression and isn't something I'd noticed about the building from all the photos I'd seen previously.

Supposedly built by Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, her tomb is centrally located but you may notice his is considerably larger.

The flanking buildings would be quite impressive in their own right if they weren't overshadowed by the Taj Mahal itself.

The sun came out for our final views of the place in all its pearly whiteness.

The very same day we said goodbye to Agra and got on a train to Delhi to meet Sidd, our friend from Malaysia.