Ok, so today was going to be the…Taj Mahal day!

I had to be ready to leave at 6AM from the hotel for my pick up, so I woke up at around 4:00AM, did a slight Y&M just to get something in, and then made my way downstairs to breakfast.

Even though the buffet didn’t start until 6:00AM, they were super accommodating and made my some dishes so I had a good foundation before heading out.

I went downstairs and waited in the lobby for Ashok, my driver, to pick me up and be on our way.

So I waited…and waited…and waited. I called him, I called Raj his supervisor, and was wondering what was going on.

Ashok arrived at 7:15AM. There was an error on the part of the cab company that the tour operator uses to ship guests around. They had given Ashok the address for the next day’s pick up, not mine.

Oh well, nothing you can do about it!

So we got in the car and headed off towards the Taj Mahal!

We stopped about 45 minutes into the drive for a bathroom and food break. I had another vada and some upma (starch dish with vegetables), and a quick coffee, and then we continued on our way.The journey is about 3.5 hours to get to Agra. We had the A/C on blast as we cruised to the site. I tried to sleep during certain portions, but the seat wasn’t necessarily comfortable enough to facilitate the sleeps.

We arrived to Agra, and picked up Vipul, my tour guide for the day. I thought there would be other people joining, but it was just me! After scooping Vipul, we made our way to the Taj.

We got dropped off, and began our walk into the area. Vipul told me to wait on the side as he got us our entry tickets. I went through security and we made our way in!

So for the uninitiated, the Taj Mahal is a big old fancy tomb, commissioned by Shah Jahan, a former Mughal emperor. It has been deemed a UNESCO world heritage site, as well as part of the New7Wonders of the World initiative.

In either case, where you buy the tickets is where Shah Jahan’s first wife, Princess Kandarahi Begum is buried. The idea of the structure was partially from his first wife’s idea (please correct me if I am wrong, this is what I’m remembering), but he wasn’t feeling her like that, so he didn’t do it for her.

His second wife, Mumtaz Mahal, was his favorite wife, so he designed this mausoleum for her.

Vipul made sure to point out how the Koran verses actually increased in size going up the various facades of the structure in order to give the illusion of one size all around. Additionally, this building was allllllll about symmetry. The only unsymmetrical piece was where Shah Jahan was buried. His brother didn’t want to wait in line to be in power, so he killed his other brothers and then imprisoned Shah in the fort at Agra. Once he died, he placed his body next to that of Mumtaz, but in this super unsymmetrical way. The only imperfection.

Also, this structure took 20K laborers around 22 years to complete. They were all skilled laborers too, as they used precious stones on the inlay. Now, the Taj was built using a special kind of marble, from Mukrana. It is not porous and water will not be absorbed, it is translucent, and it is SUPER strong. In fact, when walking inside, a person put a light to the marble. It is done in such a way that it lights up! Really beautiful. So, that’s why it took so long with all those laborers to build it. If facing the Taj from the front with the fountain, on the left is a mosque that holds service every Friday, and the right is a guest house that was never used. It was just kept there for symmetry. So I’m just going to put all these photos here for y’all.

OK, so we got wrapped up here and then went to Agra Fort, probably a 8 minute drive away. This was essentially a walled city, and Vipul told me that most of the fort is closed off to visitors.

This fort was created in defense of the Mughal empire, and was previously the capital of India. It is made of red sandstone, and it was made in a fraction of the time of the Taj, around 4,000 workers for 8 years. Crazy!

We walked around and Vipul told me that this place was the ‘summer home’ and was usually empty. It was AMAZING, especially in the layout and how the emperors was LIVIN’.

You walked and saw where they would be welcomed by music and flowers.

We moved around and saw the great ‘hall’ where disputes would be heard and settled.

Then we saw where the emperor would chill and be greeted by music and all types of entertained. Vipul even pointed out where all the concubines would sit. There were a lot of windows.

We then saw where Shah Jahan was imprisoned, and he had a view of the Taj Mahal. His brother also imprisoned him because Shah’s plan was to create another mausoleum for himself, on the opposite side of the river, in all black. Dude was like you’re bonkers its gonna cost way too much money. So at least he saw one of his creations.

Right after we saw where they slept. Super ornate with gold everywhere as well. They lived the life!

They had this portion ‘air conditioned’ using animals and humans to constantly pour water that would flow through the walls. The water would collect on top, flow through the channel, then collect in the large bin to be recirculated once again.

We even saw where the emperor bathed (once in a blue moon). It was not located outside, but they moved it here to make viewing easier.

After we wrapped up we made a stop at the marble work shop so I could see the techniques for how they made the Taj Mahal and the inlay of precious stones. Now they use semi-precious because precious would be too expensive. They had some really nice pieces as well! Lots of table tops. After looking around we left.

We had our buffett lunch, I said goodbye and thank you to Vipul, and then Ashok and I made the arduous 3.5 hour journey back home.

I ended up getting back to the hotel at around 7:00PM. Did another Y&M that had me feeling energized and ‘normal’ after the day, and then went back to dinner. Had the exact same food! And then came back upstairs and promptly went to sleep!