Agra

We were excited to enter Agra on its bumpy roads of mayhem, just minutes after exiting the clean open toll roads from New Delhi. The busy city was full of people, rickshaws, traders, cows, pigs, rubbish, carts etc etc..!

After meeting our guide and a short lunch, we headed straight to the main attraction… The Taj Mahal.

The Taj Mahal was fabulous. We had a good idea about what we would see, but it surpassed our expectations. There are so many little details which make it special, such as inlays of precious stones. Afterwards, we visited a craft workshop to see how the work is done. Needless to say, it is hugely time consuming and highly skilled. With additions such as this, it’s no wonder that the Taj was hugely expensive.

Something which surprised us was that, as foreign tourists, we were a minority (very unusual at such a famous monument). Furthermore, the entry cost for Indian nationals was about 3% of ours. We thought that was actually quite fair, but we didn’t expect that we would be treated differently. With our pricier ticket, we effectively got to queue jump, which we felt a little guilty about.

Changing colour

River view at the back

The crowds gather for the first photo

Stone inlay craftsmen

Archway

Shoe queue

Ladies queuing to go inside

Us in front of the Taj Mahal

Just a man we spotted hitching a lift…