Saturday 9.7.2011
Agra, India
Time to visit one of the world wonders: Taj Mahal.
Our taxi driver has arranged a guide for us. Yikes… not a good start. I was still traumatized about the guide I had last time when I visited Taj Mahal. That guy practically run around the whole place and tour was over before it even started. Lesson learned, I would say. The guide can come with us, but we are going to see that place with our own terms and no-one is going to hurry us...
Taj Mahal
Okay, I will take my words back. We had an excellent guide, who let us roam the place with the speed we wanted and who told to us the story about the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan and his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. He pointed out details about the artwork and building itself, which are not written to any tourist guide. He showed how the stones reacted with the light. Especially the orange stone was set on fire when light touched it.
It feels so unrealistic that we really were there and saw this amazing building. There are no words to tell, not enough photos to show. You just can’t describe it to anyone who hasn’t visited Taj Mahal him/herself. From experience I know that the reality what we have seen will hit much later and it is overwhelming.
I have seen it now twice and I have a feeling I’m going to visit there again, some day. And that next time I want to take my girls with me, they need to see the most beautiful building with their own eyes.
One thing what I regretted from my last visit was that I didn’t buy a little tourist souvenir: little white ‘marble’ Taj Mahal. Now I have one…
View to our hotel garden.
The proof that I have seen Taj Mahal in my own eyes.
Our guide took secretly a photo of me, where reflection of the Taj Mahal is visible in my sunglasses.
They were taking photos of us... so I took photos of them :D
Details of the semi-precious stone decorations and marble carvings from the Taj Mahal facade.
Those decorations are handwork. We saw some samples how those are done.
