The Taj Mahal

We have a had a few early mornings in our trip, but mainly due to the need to travel to our next destination. But this time we were getting up at 5:45am to go and see one of the most amazing things in the world…the Taj Mahal.

I am fortunate enough to have been to the Taj once before and I was certainly OK to go back for a second look. So at just after 6:00am me and James walked through the dirty little side streets on the way down to the Taj. There didn’t seem to be many touts and tourists traps along the way which we found abnormal for such a massive tourist attraction. We queued up to get our ticket and waited in line with everyone else. The idea was to be inside and witness the sun rise and the changing colours on the white marble, but there were so many security checks in place that we only just about made in time.

Waiting....waiting....waiting....

There are few things in this world that compare to seeing the Taj at sunrise. Especially in winter when there doesn’t seem to be as many tourists around. Grabbing some pictures on “Diana’s Bench” whilst the white marble changes colour from orange through blue to white is just an amazing experience. The only problem that we could come up with was that the black Taj Mahal was never built on the opposite side of the river. It would have been mind-blowing!

At the Taj

We made it back to the hotel and showered and ate before walking down to Agra Fort. Agra Fort is similar to the Red Fort in Delhi, but I think that it tops it. There’s way more monkeys there too, and even one that decided to have a swipe at my leg as I got a little bit too close for comfort for it. Whilst we also managed to find some hidden bats hanging out in one of the archways and I fed some of the chinchillas. The sun was blazing down on us and it reminded us that we will be having a bit of a shock when we get back home and it is minus 5…

Entering Agra Fort

After the Agra Fort we had lunch at the hotel and prepared for our next train journey; Agra to Jaipur. We tuk-tuk’d our way down to the train station, found our platform and then waited. When the train showed we clambered on and found our rather nice looking seats – we could get used to these. But then came the other passengers. Once again we were lumbered with the kids – kicking the back of my chair and screaming blue murder every so often. But we had our music and that managed to make the journey just about bearable. We even got a “meal” on the train, but I only ate the peanuts and the juice box.

We were getting picked up by the hotel when we arrived so that was one less thing to worry about. But after 45 minutes of waiting for him we decided we should get a tuk-tuk and claim it back from the hotel. But that proved tricky. There weren’t any in the immediate area and when James came back from a scouting mission yet another local had sidled up to me and was trying to have a chat. James said that the drivers up the way could get us there for 60 rupees and the guy in orange talking to me claimed that he could do it for 50, so we followed him to his vehicle. Or so we thought…

When we arrived we stood outside what he claimed to be his tuk-tuk, but there were 3 old geezers in the back boozing away. They were babbling incoherently so we asked him where his tuk-tuk was again, to which he told us just to hang on a moment. At that point another chap came wandering up to us in the dimly-lit area of the car park and began asking us the usual questions – where were we from, how long were we in India, etc, etc. The guy in orange was reasonably dressed which is always a bit strange for a tuk-tuk driver, and in addition to the 3 guys burbling something like “ah, so sad, they haven’t come to pick you up” our spidey senses weren’t just tingling, they were ringing loud and clear.

It was at this point that I turned a 180 and stormed off to find another driver, we didn’t need this. James quickly followed and we stopped at the pre-paid booth to arrange for the short trip to our hotel. Guy-in-orange came running up to us claiming that he had his vehicle and we would be on our way but he had already lost our custom. The pink slip had been written and we climbing into a different tuk-tuk with a young lad called Irfan who, hopefully, wouldn’t be trying to take us to a dark alley to try and rob us blind.

We got to the hotel no problem and checked into the rather nice looking place. It was already late so we just hit the restaurant downstairs. That evening we just settled in to the room and checked out what delights Jaipur had to offer us.