13.10.11
We woke up in time to walk the km o the ticket office and back to queue up and get in to the Taj when it opened it's gates at sunrise. The queue wasn't very long but it was a real palava to get in and it kind of took the excitement and anticipation away. men and women had to queue separately. Each person had to go through a metal detector and be frisked. They also had a list of things that you weren't allowed to take in, including food, torches etc. The signs said they provided lockers for these things but of course they didn't and they just confiscated them. There were bag checks taking place. I seemed to have got in the wrong queue as I watched for 20 minutes as a 20 people behind me but had to joined the parallel queue went through. Its seems our queue had the novice security guard who was taking every single thing out of each bag to check. She was rooting through my tissues, looking in my lipbalm, it
was worse than airport security!
Anyway we go through the East gate and then you work towards the north to enter another gate and thats when you get your first sighting of the Taj itself (over the heads of a hundred other people!). That's when you reach the boulevard lined by trees and the long thin ponds with the Taj on a raised rectangular platform at the end with a tall tower at each corner and then on either side is a red stone mosque/palace and the river Yamuna behind.
We headed straight to thr Taj and inside to the actual mauseleum where Mumtaz Mahal and her husband tombs are, they are actually buried further below. We were lucky because it was still very quiet and we could walk around in peace. I was a amazed to see that inside there was the odd bit of grafitti-what sacrilege. It's really difficult to grasp how big and how perfect the Taj is unless you have been. It's incredible to look up inside the large arched entrance and see the contours of the marble. The inscriptions have been painted so that they appear to be exactly the same size whether at the bottom or top which must have quite a feat.
We sat in awe for quite along time on the steps of the mosque adjacent and watched the light change throughout the morning. The shadows created by the arches of the Taj are so soft and gentle. Throughout the morning the marble began to appear brighter and brighter. We were really lucky because there was still alot of the time when you could frame a photo of the Taj without a single person in it. However when we were leaving at 10.30 it was much much busier, with hundred of people walking up the avenue to the monument.
After a fantastic morning we went back to Shila for a yummy omelette breakfast and then walked to the Radisson. By the time we rocked up our 5 star hotel, having walked 2km with out packs in midday heat, we were not looking the part. Nonetheless we were greeted with a fruit cocktail and a cold flannel. The we were taken to our 'Taj' view room! It was very plush. We were so happy to be somewhere so clean and comfortable. We had a lovely afternoon snoozing and then relaxing by the pool, sat in the jacuzzi part drinking a fosters from a can and eating peanuts! We finished off the day with a meal and a few glasses of wine (big treat!).
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