Described as the most extravagant monument ever built for love, a sublime Mughal mausoleum, India's most ogled icon, a teardrop on the face of eternity, the embodiment of all things pure, tourists are drawn to the Taj Mahal like moths to a flame.
In the midst of our travel plans a couple of weeks ago, we were toying with blowing off a visit to the Taj. We were keen to maximise our time in Rajasthan and to get to the holy city of Varanasi and wondered how we were going to fit it all in. But then again, it's the Taj! It'd be rude not to.
Friends had advised us, though, that Agra is polluted, full of touts and generally draining. So, the advice was: don't waste your time in Agra; go and see the Taj and then get the hell out of there.
Thankfully the trusty Lonely Plant had the answer we needed ... 'many tourists choose to visit Agra on a whistle-stop day trip - made possible by the excellent train service from Delhi. The daily express leaves Delhi at 6.15 am and departs from Agra for the return trip at 8.30 pm the same day'. Perfect! That was our solution. So, we went ahead and booked our ticket, very pleased with ourselves for being organised two weeks in advance.
After a feral early morning but brisk train trip, we arrived in Agra Friday last week and were instantly surprised at how quiet it was (relatively speaking). It seems we've grown accustomed to the touts and vendors and constant rickshaw requests.
We asked our autorickshaw driver to drop us at Shanti Lodge, which has a rooftop cafe with a great view of the Taj (albeit buried in smog on this day) where we were planning to settle in and hatch our Taj plan over breakfast.
In usual fashion, the rickshaw driver tried to talk us into a deal whereby we hired him for the day to show him the sites of Agra because, 'Taj closed Friday'.
Closed. The Taj is closed on a Friday. The Taj! The world heritage site. The magnificent white marble beacon for love. The picture beaming at the top of our blog. Closed on Fridays. Who woulda thunk it?
As it turned out, we had a great day in Agra (there are actually other sites to see) and we managed to view the Taj from various spots and got some great pics.
We're writing to Lonely Planet, requesting a simple addition to their otherwise excellent Taj advice. 'Just don't go on Friday, when the Taj is closed.'
It's all an adventure. Namaste. xox
2 comments:
You know if you let LP know they'll write you up as a contributor in the next edition - from memory you also get a free copy.
Yeah, we'll send a few updates. The guide has been a terrific companion. xo
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