The Day I Visited the Taj Mahal

You know how something as famous as the Taj Mahal would always put you in a dilemma. Thinking that we only had like one night in Agra – or probably two if we really really had to – we had to choose between viewing the Taj Mahal during the sunset or waiting until the next morning and view it at the sunrise. Skipping the sunset and opting for the sunrise might be quite risky because there was no way of telling how the weather was going to be like the next morning.

But then, there is a saying that the Taj Mahal is like a beautiful girl whose beauty is one that cannot be cheated. It doesn’t matter what time of the day will you see her – she will always be beautiful. We decided to see her during the sunset. 🙂Taj Mahal might be one of the most expensive places to visit in India. The normal entrance fee to most UNESCO World Heritage Sites in India is 250 rupees (RM16.70/USD5.60) but being SO famous as it is, Taj Mahal requires you to fish some 750 rupees (RM50/USD16.70) out of your tight pocket just for a SINGLE entry. Once you’re out, the ticket is considered invalid and you have to purchase a new one if you wish to go in there again at another time of the day.Of course, being the most treasured building in India, you’d have to expect some tight security at the entrance. They’d do you a body-scan and body search and they even check your bags out just in case you’ve had enough of life and decided to blow yourself up inside the Taj Mahal. He.Taj Mahal really knows how to put its visitors into a momentary state of suspense. It wouldn’t let you see it right away but you gotta go through another gate – which is already so beautiful itself – before you can see IT ALL.It is right after you go through this gate when you see the stunning beauty of the Taj Mahal. I remember how I thought I was looking at a picture postcard or something when I first saw it. The view of Taj Mahal was so unbelievable that for a moment I just stood there gazing and trying to convince myself that it was real and most importantly I was there for real! LOLz.You know… they’ve been a lot of arguments about the perfect list for the Seven Wonders of the World and it has been changed time and time again but one thing for sure is that – the list would never be complete without the Taj Mahal in it.

I actually tried to think of a perfect word to describe the Taj Mahal or at least the view of it from where I was standing but there was none. In the end, I came up with ‘unwavering’. Yeah, I think that was my perfect word for it.It was so geometrically perfect, and it was the verticality of the whole structure that made me awed in deep amazement. I could almost the fine lines – so horizontal and so vertical – which made the Taj Mahal look almost like a painting or something. It was so surreal and yet so real – whatever that means. LOLz.Taj Mahal for sure is a tourist magnet. You can’t expect it to be deserted with people so that you can have the whole building and its surroundings to yourself at least in a picture – unless, of course, you were once married to the Prince of Wales. I went there almost choked to death with the presence of so many people although a majority of them were actually Indian citizen (since ‘locals’ doesn’t sound right for a country as big as India).But then, they sure deserve to come here and see for themselves how insensitive (there gotta be a stronger word) their emperors had been in the past for splashing so much money over a damn stupid mausoleum when people were suffering and hungry and so stricken with poverty just on the other side of the walls. And they still are actually – most of them. Huhu. Coming from all corners of India, who knows if some might have come from as far as the Himalayan part of the country, it is quite understandable that many of the Indian visitors to Taj Mahal might never had seen anything white and yellow and probably brown for a human skin. Right from the beginning, we were already getting rare attention from the people and although it was quite uncomfortable at first, I have to admit that I was actually beginning to enjoy it after awhile. 😛I mean, seriously. The attention was too obvious to ignore. Imagine the stares and the curious looks and the giggles the whispers. Some of them would even pretend like taking photos of the view with their hand phones when they were actually aiming to get our yellow mugs in the pictures.

Of course some of them couldn’t contain the excitement of getting somebody with an alien color in their pictures – probably to be shown and become the laughing stock to their friends and relatives back in their kampongs. They’d come to us and ask to be photographed with us and of course, being the fairer half of the pair, it was Audrey who got more of the attention right from the beginning. 😀So people, if you’re white or yellow or probably brown and you want to know how it feels like to be an instant celebrity, go to Taj Mahal. If ATTENTION was the keyword, you’d probably get more of it than you had hoped for. 😀People have varied perspectives and reactions about the Taj Mahal. Some people look at is as something of a symbol to a great love based on the story of how it was created. Some people use it as a reason to convert to Muslim and marry a rich man and if they are lucky, people might stop calling them bitch. <Idontbuyit>If I were born in the Munghal era, I would have seen it as something deem unnecessary. But then the emperor is at least giving something back to its people by bringing in millions of tourists to Taj Mahal every year – although we can’t tell for sure if the money garnered through them would in any way reach the people.Getting into the veranda and beyond requires you to take your shoes off so bringing a bag and probably a pair of socks might be a good idea.It was already 5pm when we went there and the marble floor was still burning under my feet so I could only imagine how stupid it is for anybody to go there in the middle of the day.Of course, just as it is with any other iconic building in the world, Taj Mahal might have been built to be visualized as a whole and viewed from a distance and not quite up close when you are beginning to see less of the beauty and more of the ugliness defects and all. I wouldn’t say that the carvings (if they are even called carvings) at the Taj Mahal are the most fantastic at least amongst the ones that I’ve seen so far because I’m pretty sure I’ve seen more beautiful, more intricate ones somewhere else before.I think the architectural superiority of the Taj Mahal lies mostly on the fact that it is made out of white marble that glows and glistens in reflection of the sun (and probably the moon at night). The calligraphy and plant motifs that dominate most of the outer walls had certainly required extraordinary sculpturing skills when they were made although I’m pretty sure they can easily be copied by many modern sculptors nowadays.Most people are curious more about what it is INSIDE the Taj Mahal than anything else. Oh well, curious no more. Inside the Taj Mahal lie the tombs of Shah Jahan and his wife. Of course, it was Shah Jahan who commissioned the construction of the Taj Mahal and it was his wife whom he had commissioned the construction for. Please don’t ask me who died first.  Grrrrr. Hehe. Since photography is not allowed inside the mausoleum, I’m afraid I’ve got no pictures to show to you. We came in through the front entrance and came out through the rear exit. The rear part of the building faces down to the Yamuna River.Of course, a mausoleum no matter how beautiful it is doesn’t offer much to you apart from the opportunity to gaze at it for as long as you want. The gate closes at 7pm so you’ve got plenty of time to do just that.You’ve more than enough time to camwhore and see for yourself how big your nostrils are with the Taj Mahal somewhere in the background. LOL. Do not believe with all the stories about watching the Taj Mahal at night because they don’t switch the lights on (at night) so there’s no point of staying back and watch it in the dark. We had at least one last mission before we could offer a good bye to the great Taj Mahal and believe me, it wasn’t an easy one.We had to compete with the so-called ‘licensed photographers’ who seemed to grab just about everybody that comes their way and get them pictured on this seat right here so that they can sell it (the picture) to them later.I had to admire Audrey for her patience and persistence in getting a slot of taking our pictures here despite the sneering looks from those photographers. But then, it was paid off pretty much dearly. It turned out to be one of my favorite pictures in Agra. 🙂

The sky was darkening over Agra when we made our way out into the streets again.

There were a lot of shops selling all sorts of marble-made stuff but thinking that I already had more than enough KGs in my backpack, I had to refrain from buying any of them.But of course, there’s always room for some fridge magnets. 🙂The vendors might be closing shops but business seemed to continue for this group of pigs. They seemed to scavenge every bit of the large pile of trash as if it was going to be gone anytime soon.  You should then see by now why they are called najis by  the Muslim. Holy shit – I’ve been eating shit all my life. LOLz. WE spent our only night in Agra by walking around town and of course – interacting with the friendly locals a bit. It was the best time to get curious.I gotta say, there really is nothing much to do in Agra at night. The best you can do is to take a seat at any of the rooftop restaurants and drink the hours away until you are sleepy enough to get back to your room and immerse yourself in the pillow til the next morning. And if you’re lucky, you might see the lights of the whole area go off – all of them – and you’ll find yourself sitting in the dark for quite a long while before the lights come back to life again. If there was something that Agra could teach you with, it would be to eat and drink in the dark. LOLz. So – We returned to our hotel expecting more adventures waiting for us in our next destination in India. Tomorrow, we would be heading to Jaipur – a place that I had only heard about when Audrey first came up with the idea of covering the so-called Golden Triangle in our trip. And – who would have thought that this city called Jaipur was going to be my favorite among all the places that I went to in India?