The first impulse is to get off the wall, cross the thread of thorns and throw yourself into the river to reach its perfection. But well, considering that we would lose a leg, we would get tangled up in irons and after the first few meters swimming a three-eyed fish would bite us ... we decided to stay where we were, enjoying the eternal figure of the Taj Mahal, on our first afternoon in Agra.
What is considered one of the seven wonders of the world is a hymn to LOVE. Sha Yahan built the Taj in memory of Mumtaz Mahal, his third wife who died to give birth to his son's bastard. The Taj took over 40 years to build and it is an architectural challenge, we really run out of words. Sha Yahan could not enjoy it as he had wanted since his son Aurangzed dethroned him and locked him in the fort of the city, from where only from afar he could see the grave of his great love. At his death, his son finally had a gesture of consideration and buried him next to Mumtaz.
In front of such works, the same question always arises: "How can man have done something so beautiful?" More successful and practical was the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore who defined the Taj Mahal, without many detours, as "a tear on the cheek of eternity."
As we told you, the sunset was magnificent, but it is during dawn when the Taj and is seen in his best suit, between mist and the first rays of the sun (Lety by God, how cheesy !!). The majority of visitors remained agglomerated in the first entrance, but we were running towards the west gate, from where you find the best views of the sunrise. At that moment, when you are in front of the Taj Mahal and with the sun on the horizon, you understand that the 16 hours of train, the cold and the heat passed, the horns, the cows and all the traffic of India together, it is worth it to Live this moment We're so lucky!
We would have stayed to live there, but our budget and the Indian security guards would not be very happy, so mounted on the tukerc of Saker (not Sucker) we headed to the Agra fort. Built for war purposes it was gradually transformed into a palace. We found it beautiful. At times we felt we were in Cordoba or Granada, but the incredible views of the Taj Mahal brought us back to our Indian reality.
Tip: nothing better to get to know Agra than to take a local hand tour? This is free (although it is always good to leave a tip).
These days we also visited the Itimad-ud-Daulah, or colloquially called "Baby Taj", which would surely have been a star monument anywhere in the world, but here it remains inexorably in the shadow of his older brother.
Of course, the squirrels here are very nice, and the monkeys ... well in their line, less orthodox.
Next stop, Fatehpur Sikri ... but how nice the Taj Mahal!
USEFUL INFO
Visit Taj Mahal. Although the ticket offices open at 6:00 p.m., the gateway to the Taj is beyond sunrise. We entered through the East Gate, and at 6.20 we would be like 20 people. There are free electric buses that take you to the door of the Taj (about 600 meters beyond). The ticket is 1100 INR, and they give you a bottle of water and shoe covers. If you catch there directly the entrance of the Fort costs you 250 INR instead of 300 INR, but you have to visit it the same day. In the fort both tickets control you, so if you had thought to discard the Taj, do not even think about it.
Knock Knock: From our hotel making a stop at the Taj, another at the Fort, and return to the hotel (in total about 4 hours) we have paid INR 300 The day before we caught the same tuctuc to go to the Baby Taj (entrance of 110 INR) and the Mehtab Bagh (entrance of 100 INR), from where there are beautiful sunsets, and return to the hotel (about 4 hours) for 300 INR too.
Where to sleep: We slept in the Pyrenees, you can see the article we wrote here. It is in a residential area with several hostels, quite close to the east entrance of the Taj Mahal.
Where to eat: We spent some extraordinary moments with Yusuf and Bilhal, and his whole family, at the Bob Marley restaurant, of his Homestay “Friends paying Guesthouse”. Super recommended !! The food delicious but the best was the family, they are all lovely, friendly and fun !! Thank you very much for everything and it was a pleasure to meet you, family! We wait for you in Spain / Italy! In our Homestay we also ate fabulous.
How to get to Agra: We arrived from Amritsar, where we caught a 16-hour sleeper class train for about 330 INR. Upon arrival at the station there is a prepaid autorickshaw ticket office. It would have cost us 150 INR to the hostel area, but in the end it was 120 INR. We believe it is best to go out to the main street where there are several parked tuctucs and negotiate.
