Day 10 - May 14, 2018 Agra, India

Agra is the main city on our India itinerary.  It is where Taj Mahal is located.  In fact, our driver told us that many of his clients just fly in to Delhi, drive to Agra for Taj Mahal, then leave India!  The new expressway joining Delhi and Agra has made this possible.  It reduced the driving time from 8h to less than 4h.

Our Radisson hotel is located about 1.5 km from Taj's East Gate and this allows us to walk there early in the morning.  They also graciously upgraded our room to a deluxe suite with a view of Taj Mahal, albeit it appeared quite small from the distance.  On top of the hotel terrace, they have an infinity pool facing Taj Mahal, making it a very romantic setting for love birds like us!!

Our day started very early at 4:30a trying to be there to see sunrise at 5:30a.  It took us about 20 mins to reach Taj's East Gate.  We were surprised to see so many local people already walking the street.  Many young men were jogging in their jeans, and not fancy shorts or tight yoga pants.  I guess it makes sense to do all these activities in 26C rather than 45C later in the day.  We were also surprised to see so few foreign independent tourists like us.  Most tourists come with big tour groups.  Each year, there are 8-10 MM visitors who come to see this magnificent site.

At the first sight of it, we can appreciate why people say Taj Mahal is the most beautiful building in the world!  It's bigger and grander than I had expected.  The warm glow of first light casting on the "white" marble dome creates that dream-like magical scene.  We were lucky to beat most people to take pictures at the various must do spots, including the famous marble chair in front of the pond catching the reflection of the building.  Just for contrast, we took another picture at the same spot to show the mad crowds.

Taj Mahal was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jalan in 1631 for his most favorite and beloved third wife Mumtaz Mahal after she died during child birth.  It took 23 years and USD 827MM equivalent in 2015 dollars to complete.  It was said that his wife, before she passed away, had asked him to take on this massive project as a diversion because she knew he would have lost the will to continue living without her!  The second half of the tragic love story started when the emperor lost his power to his son (from a different wife) who promptly imprisoned him at Agra Fort two km away.  Everyday, he could only take a glimpse of his beloved wife's tomb from afar.  He died broken-hearted 5 yrs later but his son allowed him to be buried together in Taj Mahal without fanfare.  It's also interesting to note that had Shah Jalan continued to rule, he would have build a second identical Taj Mahal in black marble!

We visited Agra Fort after having a leisurely breakfast in the second largest restaurant in Northern India in our hotel and enjoyed the infinity pool on the terrace.  There are so many different palaces inside Agra Fort that we lost count.  Everyone was trying to get a view of the spot where the imprisoned Shah Jalan stayed and to recreate his view of Taj.

We drove back to Delhi afterwards and I was very pleased that by chance our itinerary was arranged in such a way that we have ended our short India trip with its most important highlight, Taj Mahal!