18th April - Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal - tick!


Up at 5ish to go and see the sunrise at the Taj Mahal. Alan was not feeling well with a bad stomach and so did not join me and Johnnie. The hotel where we were staying has a great view of the Taj from the gardens. We went there first thing to take some photos and then wandered the 5 minute walk to the entrance. It turned out that today is World Heritage Day (or something like that) and entry into all World Heritage Sites today is free! Yippeee. The Taj is the most expensive entry for all of the sites in India. Most places are 100RS or 250RS for foreigners. The Taj should have been 750RS. Johnnie has PIO for India as his Grandma was born here and so should have been able to get in paying Indian rates i.e. 20RS. He was extremely disappointed that it was free entry today and he could not go "Ner Ner Ner Ner Ner". I found it very funny that he was so annoyed :-)

We were wandering round and past security by about 6. The light was great at this time of day. Obviously loads of other people were also aware that this would be the case as it was heaving with white people. I have not seen so many Americans in one place for years.... People were arriving in coach loads.

It is a very beautiful building - even with all of the people. We had fun taking loads of photos. I am getting slightly bored of photo taking now and I was very happy for Johnnie to take loads.

We were laughing at the irony of taking photos at an angle with hands up in the air making it look like were were pushing over the Taj. Everyone was doing the normal photo of fingers in the air looking like they were grabbing the top of the building were as we were doing the shot that everyone does at Pisa. We were laughing to ourselves when an America woman sitting next to us asked us to explain..... She said "You are doing what everyone does at the leaning tower of Pisa rather than what people do at the Taj. Why are you doing this? Why is it funny?" to which Johnnie had to explain the English humor of irony. She replied that she still did not get it.... :-) She then asked where we are from. Johnnie replied that I was from Holyoaks (sorry only English people will get this) and he was from a few hundred miles South of there, a place called Toffdom (I regularly call him a "toff"). It really is cruel to play with Americans...... but soooooo funny.

I know I have been biking round India in sports clothes but I always cover my legs and shoulders when going into towns and wandering round. I was amazed at the level of inappropriate clothing worn but tourists. A see through dress about 1 inch below the crotch really is not appropriate clothing in India...... There were loads of white people wearing Indian clothes. I thought this was cool but they looked very funny when they then had to wear shoe covers to wander round the inside of the building.....

I was quite tired as I had not had much sleep and so we went for breakfast and large coffees at Coffee day (about 1 minutes walk from the entrance to the Taj). Considering how busy the Taj was, Coffee Day was very quiet. We then went back for a nap for an hour or so before we had to check out. Alan was still feeling rubbish and so me and Johnie went off on our own in Johnnie's car (I love having a driver....) to find a place that sold western food. We found a McDonald's and thought as neither of us ever eat there when in the UK it would be funny to do so in India. They do not serve beef burgers as it is a Hindu country and Hindus do not eat beef. They also had a slightly different menu to the UK. Paneer burger and Spicy Chicken burgers. McDonald's but Indian style.... Sorry for eating in McDolnalds Mum - please forgive me ;-)

Johnie left in his taxi and headed back to Delhi. Was interesting to find out how much it is to hire a taxi and a driver - 7.5RS for every km. So for 2 days and about 500km it was £55 plus over night expenses and food for the driver - so about £65! Amazing.

I met up with Alan again in the afternoon and had another short nap. He was still feeling rubbish but we went to see the Taj again in the evening to see it at sunset. Unfortunately we had left it too late and he did not get to see the inside but there was plenty of time for silly photos and to watch the sunset. Beautiful.

In the evening I sat and organised my photos and chatted with some people in the restaurant of the cafe. It was air-conditioned! What a change from normal.....

I did have a good AC class train ticket booked for this evening but I did not come off the waiting list and so I now have to get the train tomorrow instead. Unfortunate as the ticket I have for tomorrow is sleeper class and will be no where near as comfortable or safe!