Agra — one of the seven wonders of the World… The Taj Mahal!
A bus or a train journey, those were my options from Jaipur to Agra. The travel agent guaranteed me that the train wouldn’t be delayed because that train begun in Jaipur at 7am, and the journey would take 3.5hrs to Agra so that’s what I did and he was correct. It was a pleasant journey as I traveled 2nd class, which is advised if you don’t want to be stacked like sweaty sardines in coach.
Arriving in Agra I took a rickshaw to a travel agent to book my bus to Delhi for the next day so I could get that out the way and then straight to my hostel — Zostel. After checking in I went for a 25 minute walk to the Taj Mahal. This road is full of gift shops and every merchant is onto you trying their best to get you to buy a Taj Mahal ornament for 100 rupees or so. It’s a frustrating walk but after a while you just have to blatantly ignore them because saying “No” repetively is pretty tiring.
I got to the east gate of the Taj but the walls are massive and so your unable to see much from the outside. It was 4:40pm and I was told at my hostel that a boat ride at sunset is something I should think of doing so that’s exactly what I did and for 100 rupees it was a steal. I was able to get my own boat which took me around the back of the Taj Mahal and I was lucky enough to time it as the sun was drifting past the top of the Taj. The view was incredible! Not a drop of wind either, which meant I could see the reflection of the Taj in the water in front of me. This was most definitely the best siting of my trip in India!
That night we all had dinner at the hostel and watched a Bollywood movie then off to bed. My alarm went off at 5:45am and by 6:15am myself and 3 other UK girls were at the ticket booth 8th inline waiting for the office to open at 6:30am. I negotiated a good price for a guide, 300 rupees each, while I had heard other tourists were paying 1,500 rupees each! You need to do your research and ask questions so that you are aware of what the market price for things are in India because there are many peel trying to rip of foreigners. As we entered the Taj our view of it wasn’t clear as the morning was very misty and the sun hadn’t risen above the wall just yet. Our guide showed us around, went inside where the king and queen were buried 10ft below and was shown the beautiful architecture up close and personal — a real work of art! We made our way back to the front and was able to see a much clearer Taj after the sun made an appearance — beautiful!
After a 1.5hr tour I had breakfast back at the hostel and made my way to the bus station for my 4.5hr bus journey to Delhi where I was staying the night before my flight to Phuket the following morning.
