Rob and Anna's travel adventure: Taj Mahal, Agra India

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Taj Mahal, Agra India

Anna's entry:

They say you can not go to India and leave without being in Agra. Of course, they are referring to the world famous Taj Mahal. So, we headed out there solely for that person, plus Agra was on our way to explore India further East.

Do you know the history behind the Taj Mahal, the monument of love? It goes something like this...The Taj was built by Emperor Shah Jahan as a memorial for his second wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died giving birth to their 14th child in 1631. The death of Mumtaz left the emperor so heartbroken that his hair is said to have turned grey overnight. So, as a memorial to his beloved wife, he ordered to erect the Taj Mahal. The sad part is that not long after the Taj was finished, Shah Jahan was overthrown by his son and imprisoned in the Agra Fort (a lesson to parents - be careful how you raise your kids!). For the rest of his days, poor ex-emperor could only gaze at his creation from his prison window...

Going back to Taj Mahal. We decided to head out there early, and watch the sun rise over this magnificent monument of love, we got there by 6:00 a.m.. Unfortunately, that morning it was very foggy, so it took good three hours for the fog to disappear, but it also gave that mysterious mist... We spent about eleven hours at the Taj (partly it was because we wanted to justify the entrance fees which is around $19 per person). In addition to excellent photo opportunity, we spent a good share of time people watching.

Well, actually, to be exact, people were watching us. For some reason, Rob and I are getting an extremely high attention from the locals. Dozens and dozens of them would approach us, and ask if they can take a picture of us, or with us, or sometimes they just walk by and snap a shot with their cameras, not even asking us. We have tried to be very patient with their request, and hundreds of pictures with us are currently circulating around India. Oh boy, I'll tell you - I always wondered what it is like to be a celebrity, I don't any more... We have been paparazzied for hours, some people want to touch us, or shake our hands, and so many photo requests... We think the main reason is because we are the foreigners, or the "white people" as we put it, so it is somewhat exotic for a lot of locals here. However, once we attempted to get an explanation why so many people want our photo, and a local young guy looked straight at Rob and said "because you are attractive". We burst out laughing at such a direct matter-of-fact answer, and I told Rob, this was really good for his self esteem.

While at Taj Mahal, and accepting requests from the locals for a photo, at one point I ended up with a baby of a complete stranger in my hands, and next thing I know the entire family wanted to take a photo of this event. Oh boy, as I mentioned so many times, India is very unpredictable. We laugh a lot here, because you have to have a sense of humor to accept all the craziness happening around 24 hours a day, or you will go nuts yourself! :)

At 8:00 a.m. at Taj Mahal