We have just returned from our whirlwind trip to see a little monument you might have heard of here in India - the Taj Mahal. Today I have a bit of what I am calling a "Taj hangover"... it is a small price to pay, I must say!! Bear with me on the blog side of this - there is sooooo much to talk about. I will devote this blog to the trip from Bangalore to the Taj and follow up tonight with an information and photo packed blog of the Taj/Agra Fort tours as well as the link to our Picasa site, where all 400+ (no, that is not a typo) photos from the trip will be!!
So, we were up by 4am, departing our villa at 4:45am for the Bangalore Airport. The ride to the airport is 50 kilometers (30 miles), which takes just under an hour with NO traffic... but can easily take 2 hours or more - so you always need to leave very early and hope or the best.
We arrived in plenty of time for Lauren to catch up with some of the security guards who adore her. Imagine what this conversation is about...
Next, it was onto what I like to call the runway bus, which carts us across runways and to our waiting plane. Next stop... Delhi - which is a 2.5 hour flight from Bangalore - straight north. It is the US equivalent of flying from Florida to NY. Notice the backpacks... continuing my art of light travel, we were able to pack everything we needed for a 3 day trip for 6 people into 3 backpacks!
The arrival in Delhi was smooth... with no bags to collect at baggage claim, we were found our waiting driver and it was off to Agra.
Lauren was asleep 5 minutes into the drive...
Agra is about 185 kilometers from Delhi (114 miles), HOWEVER - yes, that is a big however... it is a 4 - 5 hour drive!!! They don't just plop the
Taj Mahal down in an easy to get to place, you know. A few pics from the Delhi to Agra journey...h
Yes... those are chickens - can you say, "fresh poultry"?
We arrived at our hotel in Agra at 3pm. Our tour guide was there waiting and said we had about 15 minutes to get checked in and changed, or we couldn't fit in the tour with the day's sunlight. No problem! 15 minutes later we were back in the car. Our hotel was just 1.5 kilometers from the Taj Mahal... and gas powered vehicles are not allowed within a 1 kilometer radius of the monument (to prevent emissions from harming the marble), so in typical India style, we jammed ourselves inside of this battery powered car for the last kilometer...
Hawkers and beggars fill the street in the last few hundred meters before the Taj Mahal entrance. It is absolute pandemonium!!!!!! While we are used to it, to some extent, living in Bangalore... this is honestly times 1000. It is surely my record for saying "no" the highest number of times in 5 minutes - and that is saying a lot since I have 3 kids!!!!
So there we were... at the Taj entrance. A camera and a bottle of water. That is all they allow you to bring in. Our guide was Faizel... and he was great... Here he is leading Taylor and Andrew to the gate...
On the way, I caught a glimpse of the the
Taj, peeking over the top of the wall...
Taylor's first glimpse was through the arch... here she is pointing it out to Pat...
Once you enter the main archway... the view is the one we have all seen so many times...
So we made it! We were
at the
Taj Mahal!!
No comments:
Post a Comment