I had "see Taj Mahal" on my List of things to accomplish in the coming years.
It was damn hot the day we went. The car readout hovered between 46 and 47 all throughout our drive and stayed put once we arrived into the city of Agra.
Keep in mind, it was 10:15 in the morning when we arrived. Yep. Damn hot.
We chose a camel cart to get us from the parking lot to the booking office. It was hysterical to try and interact with the camel wallahs since we speak no Hindi and they spoke very little English.
It was crowded. There were people EVERYWHERE ... and I think I'm fairly accurate to say that we encountered maybe 6 other non-Indians? It was neat to see.
(and how cool is this display of drinks?)
Even though I was hot, crowded and frustrated because of the admission prices not being easily explained AND r.e.a.l.l.y crabby since I didn't have my backpack with me (containing the water that I'd so carefully frozen the night before) ....
It was still beautiful.
It was really amazing to see Terran ... who was working on his final photography project for 9th grade ... composing images in his mind.
He would tilt his head to the right ... squint his eyes, and bring the old Minolta up to his face and click away.
He's developing all of his own film, so photography isn't quite as forgiving as it is when you carry a digital camera.
As we walked past the mirror pool, I had a brief thought. I stopped, looked up and wondered what the Taj would look like at sunrise or sunset. As quickly as the question was pondered, sweat rolled into my eye, I got pushed from behind, nudged from the left, shoved from the right and both of my feet stepped on at the same time.
Sigh.
I looked at Terran (who had the look of complete frustration on his face) and we pressed ahead to go inside the main building, take some pictures and get the heck outta dodge.
I will say though that there is little better than seeing the stark white of the building compared to the colorful women coming to see the Taj! Gorgeous!
I said it in my first post about the Taj, and will say it again. Take advantage of the free "shoe covers" they offer with your admission ticket. If you go when it's hot and you forget the shoe covers, you'll be hootin' and hollerin' while you run across the marble floors in your bare feet!
I do want to read the stories again .... refresh my memory on the history of the structure. Fall in love again with the reason it was built.
Would I go again? Nope.
I had a superbly amazing day with Terran ... (especially these moments as I tried (in vain) to explain to non-English speaking guys how to operate my camera as I asked them to make sure we got the Taj in the background instead of just our faces ....)
and wouldn't trade that for the world
(secretly, I'm glad that one more item on my To Do List is crossed off!)
I know that this post title inferred that there would be mention of the Red Fort of Agra, but frankly, I was too hot. We walked in, took photos of monkeys ... and turned around to head home. I will explore the Red Fort of Delhi in the months to come ... and will post about that in detail ... promise.
