The Magnificent Taj

Today, we awoke early to a power breakfast of croissant and mosambi (sweet lime) juice. We then climbed into our rented Toyota Innova and drove to Agra, home to the Taj Mahal.

The ride was about 3 hours long, but it went by fairly quickly as we saw rice paddy fields and "toy" monkeys along the way.

As we got close to the Taj, our driver asked if we would want a tour guide for the Taj. Naturally, we are all pretty skeptical when it comes to tour guides. Paul and I had an awful tour guide at Mayan ruins once, so we like to fly solo. However, it was "free" (of course, the tip was not included), so we caved and thought we would try a guide, and "Raj at the Taj" showed us around the Taj. He actually was able to point out a lot of architectural details on the building that we would have taken for granted, so it was ok that he was there. He was also our appointed photographer for the day.

Here is the Taj . . .

Now here are some silly photos, that Raj insisted on taking . . .

Molly and I are trying to stay dry as it begins to gently rain . . .

This photo gives you a true sense of the size of the building . . .

Another lovely perspective of the Taj . . .

We then went to grab lunch at Indiana. We all decided to try thali style food. Basically, our food arrived on a metal tray. The food included dal (lentils), naan (unleavened white bread), rice, cucumber and tomato salad, raita (yogurt), and some curries. It was surprisingly quite good. I also discovered this is the same exact lunch Paul eats at the plant every day.

Here you will see the pickle and mint chutney commonly served with Indian meals. The pickle adds heat and can be made from mango, lime, or carrot--to name a few. The mint chutney cools the meal and is a nice side with spicy food.

After lunch, we head over to the Red Fort of Agra. Also, built by Shah Jahan, this building is a smaller version of the Red Fort of Delhi. Once inside the Fort you can see the Taj from a distance.

As we learned amongst our travels in India, we are quite the attraction. We cannot even begin to count the number of photos that we were asked to pose in with random families, small children, women and men. Here are some funny photos of me below. . .

Note, the posture--it was suggested by the young man that I shake his hand and then look into the camera as we were two presidential candidates meeting in front of constituents.

And, yes, in this photo two men asked me and a random fellow Westerner to pose with them. Of course, Paul felt a little left out.

Next on our list was Akbar's Tomb. This was one of our favorite monuments during our trip. It was the sheer simplicity of the monument that made it very moving.

This photo was taken inside the tomb. The room was completely dark except for this light that hung above him, and the light streaming in from a tiny window 20 feet above the ground level.

We left Akbar's tomb to drive back to Delhi. On our drive we passed by a statue of Lord Shiva.

Of course, Paul was able to catch a few zzz's on the trip home . . .

We arrived home late and got ready for our trip to Amritsar the next day.