The Taj Mahal

I am just going to come out and say it. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would see this 7th Wonder of the World. All of the others, yes I had an interest in going to but I never saw myself going to India to see this. I am so glad I did and I want to go back already. It was very moving and highly suggest all of you make it a point to see in your lifetime.

So how did our journey go? We took a 5:30am trip from Pune to Delhi on Vistara – a great Indian airline but it recently got bought by Air India. We landed in Delhi, got some Starbucks coffee, tea, and breakfast sandwiches and headed to Agra in our super van.

The drive from the Delhi airport to Agra (the city the Taj is in) was a little over 3 hours. There is a new, multi lane, highway that is about an hour from the airport that connects Delhi to Agra and it was a beautiful drive. Once you get out of the city it reminded me alot of the American Midwest – lots of farms, fields, and wide open spaces….something you don’t see much of in India. We stopped at a rest stop where we loaded up on KFC, Subway, and Dominos (they get alot of US visitors obviously). We even met a US tour group from Chicago there!

After lunch we arrived at our hotel — the ITC Mughal Agra. It is a Marriott hotel but it was very beautiful. I highly recommend it and it is probably the best hotel in town. Most people that come to see the Taj stay in Delhi and just do a very early morning trip out and come back in the evening. I highly suggest you all stay in Agra. It is a small tourist town and I will admit has a very small restaurant scene. We decided to spend two nights there. The ITC was great. Very modern and had some nice restaurants. Each night had a happy hour that with my status was included in the room. We got two suites next to each other for something like $200 a night. They had great restaurants there which we enjoyed.

We ate a bunch of meat our first night.

We loved our happy hours. Every evening from 5-7 the hotel would host suite guests and Marriott Platinum members with a free cocktail hour with snacks. It gave us a great opportunity to catch up, talk, and review our days. We had a great time. Also with our rooms came a free all you can eat breakfast which had all sort of Indian and Continental (read European) type of food. So if you stay at the ITC it is worth buying up to the club level or a suite.

Anyway we had a wonderful guide that Tami booked through an agency – his name is Daniyul. He found out we came in early on Day 1 and asked if we wanted to see some sites not included in our tour. We said yes and he took us to the baby Taj that late afternoon.

The baby Taj is in Agra and not far from the hotel. The King that built the Taj made it as a tomb for his in laws. How many of us would do that? It is a lesser known attraction and was not as crowded. We spent probably an hour there and it was a good appetizer for seeing the Taj the next day as a lot of the intricate and detailed work that was in the Taj was present here. After that Daniyul took us to a lesser known view of the Taj which is in the back of the property. It is contained in a large park and fields. We got some great pictures but watch out you will be surrounded by merchants.

I can only describe my first view of the Taj as breathtaking. I literally got goosebumps and that feeling you get when you are about to cry. It was beautiful and so different than anything I ever have seen that I was just overwhelmed. I was so grateful that God gave me the opportunity to see this. We took a ton of pictures, the above was just one. After we left we went back to the hotel for happy hour, a great non veg dinner in the Indian restaurant in the hotel, and then to bed for our early morning.

So tip #1 for visiting the Taj – go as early as you can. We met our tour guide at 5:30am and got there around 6:15am and there was already a crowd building but not enough to be stuck in a herd. We could still get some great pictures. It gets crowded very quickly so much so that you can forget getting a picture on your own or somewhere private. Plus, seeing the sunrise over the Taj made it even more beautiful. The sunrise adds a different dimension to the sparkle and color of the building. Just breathtaking! Other tips: bring water as they have no concessions inside the property and it gets hot fast. Use the bathroom at your hotel and if possible just don’t go until you are done with the tour – the restrooms at the Taj are some of the most disgustingly dirty squatters (look that up if you don’t know what it is) that we have ever seen. Both Tami and Nathan got sick just going in to the restroom and poor Nate got someone’s you know what on his leg because it was so dirty. Bring snacks as you will get hungry!

The Taj was built by a King whose wife of 20 years (and 14 kids) died after the birth of her last kid. As she was dying she made the King promise her 3 things: 1) he would never remarry 2) he would look after the children and 3) he would make something for her that would show his love for her — and boy did he do that! All I can say is its beautiful. In pictures it always looks a little fake but that is because it was built to give somewhat of a mirage. As we were told, just like a bride with a veil, you cant see the face until you get up to the bride and then the veil comes up and there is the beautiful bride. The Taj somewhat replicates that…for awhile you are getting closer and it actually seems like it is getting further away.

This second picture was at least 50 yards closer and yet as you can tell it looks further away. But once you get up close, BOOM, there she is!

Here are some shots we took around the Taj Palace.

There is a famous picture of Princess Diana sitting on this bench in the early 1990s so getting a picture here had a long line.

We got there at 6:15 and probably left around 10:30am. Going in to the Taj you are not allowed to take photos but it is a circular building and you can go around it in about 5-7 minutes. Its actually fairly small inside…at least the areas they let tourists go. When you get up close to the building you can see the sparkles of different gems in it that give it that fuzzy far away look. So many hands did such delicate work in the marble to make this happen. The craftmanship was out of this world. I think they said it took over 20 years to build the Taj. I saw why. By 10:30am it was hot and we were thirsty and tired so we made our way back to the hotel for breakfast and naps.

Once we rested and ate, we went to a nearby marble store. Honestly the guide probably got a kickback for taking us there but it was amazing to see how the generations of the people that made the Taj are still practicing the same craft. Tenley was amused by it and this man was so sweet with her.

By the way that elephant above there is pure marble. It weighed at least 100lbs and was worth $5000 plus USD. Expensive stuff! We ended up buying a marble chess set and table that we can use at home for the coming year.

The next stop was Agra Fort. We got there at about 1pm and it was already 100 degrees. We did go through the whole fort but honestly I was so tired and hot that I didn’t pay attention to most of it. However it was a very interesting estate which had a ton of history (including the jail of the King that built the Taj).

Approaching Agra Fort.

Inside the Fort

Look at the detail in the above carvings. This was all over the palace and they even had crews still working on it. All by hand. Just amazing.

Honestly we all thought the Fort was more interesting than the Taj. The Taj definitely had beauty on its side but the Fort had the “brains”. I just wished we werent so hungry and tired. We left after about 90 minutes and went to a buffet breakfast nearby that was pretty good….and yes Indian food.

We spent the rest of the day at the hotel using the pool and hanging out. Of course there was happy hour again and we ate dinner at a nearby restaurant that had “Continental” food. It was decent.

The next day we slept in and had breakfast. There was a guy in the lobby doing self portraits so I had each of the kids do one.

We left for Delhi around 2pm and made it to the airport about 6pm (lots of traffic). There was a Krispy Kreme next to our gate so we bought a dozen for the flight home!

It was a fun and exhausting weekend. Overall, if you ever go to the Taj Mahal in Agra I suggest you stay there. In fact do what we did and stay there 2 nights and 2.5 days. Going to see all of that in long road trip day is not worth it. But I wouldn’t do the Fort and the Taj in the same day. Its just too much to learn and it gets hot too early. If we were to do it again I would suggest either the Taj or Fort in the morning on Day 1 and the other the morning of Day 2. Once it gets back 11am or so its too hot and you cant really spend time enjoying the sightseeing. Agra is a small town so there are not alot of food options so ask your hotel or driver about good restaurants in the city.

Seeing the Taj was an incredible experience and I do want to go again. It was the topping of the boy’s Spring 2023 Introductory Trip to India. I hope you have enjoyed this series and that it may help you on your own planning or day dreaming. Standby for next week as we dive back in to Pune India!