Saturday morning, up early, train to catch, you know – the one that took 2 hours to get a ticket for! Tuktuk to the station, ignoring the hassle from porters, went to go through a luggage scanner , “where’s your tickets please?” David looks at me, I look at him. Don’t you have it? No, don’t you? So backtracking to 24 hours ago, I do remember putting the printed ticket “safely” inside a zipped pocket so we search two rucksacks, in plain sight of 20 people queueing behind us, no ticket. FFS, (David mutters) I’m gonna have to empty the suitcases to find it…..10 minutes later, still no ticket, we learn that our train has been delayed by 6 hours anyway! The security man recommends a travel agency not so far away, it’s the only one open as today is a bank holiday, and he chucks us into another tuktuk, telling us to buy a ticket for the next train out, in 2 hours, maybe…. we just about manage to wedge 2 big suitcases, 2 rucksacks and 2 bodies into a tuktuk, my legs are hanging out the side, and off we go.
So the Official Government Travel Agency is blessed with a friendly man called Iffy ?. After listening to David bemoaning his secretary whilst trying to rifle through the suitcase again , spilling toiletries all over the office floor, Iffy offers us a cup of coffee, bottle of water and a seat and says “let me help you.”
Two hours later, after confirming that he cannot reprint our tickets (office closed) and the day’s next 4 trains are full, and we are MAD to try to “wing it” with our travel bookings, we plot out an itinerary with him that involves hiring a driver and guides in Rajasthan (the busiest and most complicated area) then trains and flights down the west coast, we pay him and are bundled into a car with Raj and begin our 3 hour journey to Agra.
David struggled with this plan but it proved that we are wet behind the ears simple tourists in a manic foreign country who know nothing, yet! Iffy is convinced that after 6 weeks with Raj we will be much wiser, ha ha ha…….
Our planned itinerary is for 12 weeks where we end up in Goa in time to meet with some friends Carol and Steve, who we met in Jamaica a few years ago! It was our original plan to head south to Goa and Iffy gently suggested a few more stops en route.
6.30am Walkway to the Taj 
An image of the Taj in 1959 
Sunrise over the gardens. 
Misty morning
Raj dropped us at our hotel about 5pm and said to our horror, “see you at 6.30am, best time to visit the Taj Mahal!!” That evening, after unpacking our bags, guess what we find in an actual handbag, zipped internal pocket, our train ticket!!! It’s been assigned to the “lets not mention this” pocket of our suitcase!!
As you may have gathered, we are not morning people but understood the importance of avoiding the crowds so at 6.45am we were in the queue, purchasing entry tickets to the most beautiful and famous building in the world. The mist was rising from the River, the full moon was still out as the sun was rising, the monkeys were out playing and the birds were whistling around us. No noisy street vendors, just loud Americans and pushy Japanese, but our guide Yogi was great at noting where we were in the queue for the photographic “hot spots” and made sure that we had plenty of poses taken!
The building is stunning, there is no doubt about that. Perfectly symmetrical, pristine marble with inlaid colour of ebony, ruby, amethyst and amber, every carving is symmetrical, every stone in the footpaths and walls cut by hand. As the sun rose, the colours shone and the marble becomes almost translucent. You can understand why the Emperor Shah Jehan created such a beautiful building in memory of his wife, married at 17, who died giving birth to their 14th child, he must have loved her very much to honour her wish (to be buried in a beautiful shrine) and then eventually be buried there himself. It wasn’t all easy going for him, one of his own sons imprisoned him for 8 years in his own Fort nearby, whilst the finishing touches were made to the building so he could only watch it being completed. A grateful daughter ensured he was buried next to his wife and 18 years after the wife’s death, they were finally moved to a mausoleum within the main building and laid to rest. The gardens and buildings are simply stunning, there are no other words to describe it. Peaceful and calm, even the sound of the train nearby resembled a Buddhist chant, calming and warming.
We left the Taj Mahal 3 hours later for a much needed breakfast!
WARNING – WE ARE NOT AT OUR BEST PHOTOGENICALLY, AT 7AM. ?
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