Taking in the Taj Mahal

As we left Jaipur for Agra I could barely contain my excitement as we were heading to the home of the Taj Mahal. One of the worlds most iconic buildings and Indias tourist hotspot was something I couldn’t wait to see.  

The drive from Jaipur to Agra took about seven hours which was longer than expected. The delay was made up for when we stopped at the “Monkey Temple”, at Galta. It is called the monkey temple due to the hundreds of monkeys that run around the grounds. As we walked in we saw many cheeky critters with their babies eating nuts and bananas (that you can feed them for a small price) but as we continued up to the temple we realised there was much more to the temple than monkeys. The temple is the final stop for many Indians at the end of a religious pilgrammage and we found many of them bathing in the waters and praying at the statues in the grounds. It was a pit stop worth making us late for.  

When we finally got to Agra it was a bit too late to see the Taj Mahal so we decided to get up and visit it at sunrise the next day. Not to be deterred from seeing it, we decided to visit the Taj Ganj area which is home to tiny weaving backstreets filled with shops, food stalls but most importantly for us restaurants with Taj views. We found a cute little place and head up the stairs where we got our first glimpse of the famous building. As they don’t light it up at night all we could see was the outline against the black sky. It still took my breath away!  

The next morning we were up at 5am to see the sunrise over the Taj Mahal as it is famous for its pink glow, however unfortunately for us it was a hazy morning so it wasn’t as spectacular as we had hoped. That said, the Taj Mahal is truly incredible. No picture I have ever seen has done it justice and I was so happy finally being able to see it. After many obligatory touristy photos – including one of me touching the top and James jumping – while fighting the crowds of tourists doing the same, we made our way inside the monument.

To get inside you had to wear little booties over your shoes, this protects the white marble stone and also saves our shoes from getting stolen. Inside  you can see a replica of the tomb the mausoleum was built for. Its romantic to think one man built such a beautiful place because he loved his wife so much. I kind of felt bad for his other two wives that were buried in red brick buildings on the outskirts of the grounds. There is nothing behind the Taj Mahal except for a river and fields full of buffalo, which makes the area pretty untouched by the rest of the city.

After we had our fill of the Taj, we headed over to Agras other main tourist attraction – Agra Fort. To be honest, by this stage we were a little over forts so we weren’t exactly rushing to see it but once we got there and had a look around we realized it was probably one of the best we had seen. It had plenty to look at with many different terraces, rooms, gardens and walkways. With views of the river and the Taj in the distance we spent a good hour or so wandering around. We spent a lot of time people watching and it seemed that just as many people were watching us. We sat on a ledge in the shade for a few minutes and had requests from three different groups for photos. One family even made their son sit between us and hold our hands. It wasn’t the first time we had been papped as we had seen many people photographing us before – I now feel kind of famous.

Apart from a quick wander through the local bazaar and bartering over some bracelets (my bartering skills are rubbish but I’m getting better with practice) we were finished with Agra and its stifiling heat. I was sure there was much more to see, but after a week in three busy cities I was looking forward to visiting a smaller place as we were heading to Khaljarho. We just had to survive our first overnight train experience!

The Pink City

As we headed out of Delhi in our car on the way to Jaipur my eyes were glued to the car window. The craziness of Delhi traffic was nothing compared to the highways. We not only had to stop for cows, but also camels, goats and horses. We saw busses loaded with people including some sitting on top and hanging on to the side. One guy was such an expert he was hanging on with one hand and texting with the other. It made for an interesting 7 hour car ride.

Before we hit Jaipur we visited the Amber Fort which lays on the outskirts of the city. The fort was built up into the hills and has stunning views of Jaipur. We had a guide included and it was good to hear about the history while we wandered around looking at all the different sections of the fort. Due to the heavy rains of the monsoon much of it had been damaged but some of the carved entrance was were luckily still standing. The highlight for me though were the cheeky monkeys running around.  

We then drove through the pink walls that give the city its nickname into the heart of Jaipur which is as crazy and busy as Delhi. Our evening was spent checking out the hustle and bustle of Jaipur streets from the roof top terrace of our hotel. We stood for ages watching the cars and rickshaws rush through a crowded street while four cows sat in the middle of the road. It was a great way to see the city while escaping from the overwhelming scenes.

The next day we went to visit the rest of the tourist attractions Jaipur is famous for. The Jantar Mantar observatory next to the City Palace was pretty interesting as they had ornaments and structures used to measure the sun and moon dating back to 1728. Inside the City Palace was my favourite attraction so far. There was so much to see and this time it wasn’t just a building. The also had museums of historical Indian dress which was great to read about as I now understand a bit more about the traditional sari’s and turbans. The most interesting thing we stumbled upon just outside the gates was a snake charmer with two cobras. For a small price you could sit down next to him, play a kazoo and even touch the snake. I gave it a miss but James got close enough to snap some good pictures and have a feel of its skin.

On our last evening in Jaipur we hit the Raj Mandir Cinema, Indias first ever cinema, for a bollywood movie. And I loved it! We saw Ek Tha Tiger and the movie was everything you would expect in a bollywood movie – action, romance, comedy and best of all the singing and dancing. Most of it was in Hindi but parts here and there were in English so we got the gist of what was happening. It went for two and a half hours with an interval in the middle but we stuck it out until the end. The cinema itself is really pretty and the crowds really got into the whole experience. Every time the main characters came on screen, said something witty, escaped the bad guys or kissed the whole crowd would scream, clap and cheer. It was so much fun and a big highlight of my trip so far.