The Taj Mahal - the actual one!

After Khajurao we planned to head to Agra by train, to do this we arranged transport to Jhansi where we had pre booked a train to Agra, at Jhansi station i was joking to Preet how bad the service of the train used to be when I was last visited India. So what happened?? the train which every single official confirmed comes to platform 4, without fail, everyday on platform 4! This meant only one thing, that the day we were catching the train it would come on platform 5, ahead of schedule to no announcement!! And how did we find out, we looked at the train on platform 5 and said to each other how nice it would be if ours was like that, guess what it was ours!

If you can travel by the Stapdi train, do so, its great, comfortable and quick, you also get fed too, with regular and timely tea and complementry mineral water when you board.

Agra, lots to see here but a dirty, smelly city thats over run by package holiday makers and locals trying everything in the book to rip off the poor holiday maker.

With that a side, the best time to see the Taj is at sunrise or sunset, as our guest house was 5 miute walk away we decided to walk it for sunrise. As mentioned earlier we were in traveller mode and had decided to get in all places of interest at local prices, as a comparison it is about £10 per person to get in to the Taj for foreigners and about 50p for locals. So we went in our Indian best and managed without any issue to get in for the local price.

Once inside you are in awe of how breath takingly amazing the Taj Mahal is, even after seeing some inspiring architecture in South East Asia and other parts of the world we have been to, you have to agree with all the books, documenteries and travel programs that this place is to be seen to be believed. Thats not what the British thought, the Taj Mahal, once the Moghul empire had crumbled wanted to auction of the Taj for its weight in marble! Brits on holiday eh?

Even at 6 in the morning the place get quite busy, being a landmark tourist destination for India thats going to happen! but its still worth the early morning as the morning light changes with almost every picture taken. The colour of the marble goes from cool blues to oranges and pinks to bright white.

The complex is quite large with a still used Mosque flanking one side of the Taj and another near identical building on the other side.

The symmetry of the structure is striking and makes you wonder how they managed to get everything so perfect in the days before modern precision instruments, power tools and heavy machinery. But they did!

It must be remembered that the whole thing is a tomb for the wife of Shah Jahan, so that the king can look at it and remember his favorite wife. Its ironic that Shah Jahan commisioned the building to be semetrical and now the only thing breaking the semetry is his own coffin, placed alongside Mumtaz's afterwards.

Some advice, do a day trip to Agra, which can be arranged from Delhi to see all the sites but try to avoid staying in Agra itself as there is nothing to be inspired about in that place.

Our hotel was not very far from the Taj. So we managed to get there just before sunrise.