Ah the Taj!

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We got a really early start to Agra so we could really spend some time at the Taj Mahal.  Nareesh got us a tour guide and we checked into the hotel then headed straight to the Taj Mahal.  You can't park near the Taj because they are working on cutting down on pollution around the building (laugh out loud).  We hopped into an electric mini taxi with our guide and got driven to the gate.  You aren't allowed to take food, bags, videocameras, cell phones etc into the Taj compound.  Locals pay 50 cents to get in and tourists pay $20 each!   They do throw in a free water and booties for over your shoes so you don't have to take them off when you go in.  Our "tour guide" tried to take us into the Taj via the exit and ruin our first glimpse.  I told him I was going through the "princess entrance".  I won.  The first sighting was spectacular.  Its a beautiful building and the sheer amount of marble used was startling.

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The Taj (for those who don't know already) is a mosuleum built by a king for his favorite wife who died birthing their 12th child.  The two of them (the king and his wife) are buried in the basement together.  You can't go down there anymore but they have exact replicas of their coffins upstairs.  It is Muslim so it is closed on Fridays for worship.  The entire compound is symetrical.

The one things my mom asked was that we take lots of pictures of the Taj at varying times of day for her.  Well, we got there at 11 and were so hungry by 2 we had to leave (not much difference in the pictures) but we got some great shots.

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Minutes into our "tour" I told the guide we no longer needed his services and he needed to give us our tickets back, take his tip, and leave.  We were not going to his shop and he wasn't a very good tour guide at all.  He was quite surprised and began to leave then circled back demanding 50 rupies for the taxi.  I told him we would pay the taxi when we left.  He finally left and we were enjoying the peace and quiet.  So we just sat around and enjoyed the gardens and the view.

When we left we just walked back to the parking lot thereby not having to pay the taxi..HA!

The tickets to the Taj state that you get free entrance to the Agra Fort, as well.  So we ate lunch and decided to check out the fort.  We got there and were immediately stopped by several men demanding we buy tickets.  I showed them our tickets and they laughed at us and said "no, you have to pay 250 more".  I involuntarily screamed, OH hell no!  and we left.  Nareesh said, "oh hey, my friend has an internet shop in town...do you want to go?"  We though a little blog updating was in order so we agreed.  He then started driving down the road to the shop where we picked up the terrible guide!  Will the conspiracies never end?!   We weren't having it and went back to the hotel where we ate the minibar and watched Mean Girls.

To remedy the mom photo situation, we got up at 5am and headed to the river across from the backside of the Taj to get some 'Taj at sunrise' pictures.  It was so cold and we stood in the dark for an hour (do you see how hard we worked mom?).  We got some good shots and then headed back to Delhi for our final few days!!!