"It's no Taj."

That was my comment at another monument in India, but I lacked some credibility at the time when I was reminded that I hadn’t even seen it myself. Well, this past weekend I finally made my way to Agra. And it’s true. There is nothing like the Taj Mahal.

Starting with Friday night, my colleague, Sana, invited a few of us over to the (beautiful) house of someone in his Baha’i community for an evening of multi-faith prayer and singing. It was such a lovely night – I met wonderfully nice people and had one of the most delicious meals I’ve had in Delhi this summer! After that, we attempted to take a little nap (in vain) because a car was coming to pick us up at 2 am to head to Agra for sunrise – “us” being me and my colleagues, Sana and Micah (incidentally both Canadian – I would have it no other way). After a four hour drive – mostly consisting of us telling our most beloved dinosaur, elephant, and other jokes – we arrived in Agra, picked up our arranged guide, and went straight to the Taj Mahal. We (mainly Micah) made a stink for a while at the ticket office about our rights as registered Indian residents to pay the Indian citizen entry fee (20 rupees/$0.50) instead of the foreigner fee (750 rupees/$16). Ah yes, the Taj Mahal business is highly lucrative. Persistence wins! They finally got sick of us (Micah) arguing with them, and this ended up also saving us money at the other monuments we would visit that day.

It was cloudy so we didn’t get any “sunrise” but the Taj Mahal is still spectacularly jaw-dropping. It just looks so unreal – soft white and perfectly symmetrical, massive, surrounded by a lovely garden. We spent two hours exploring and taking a hundred pictures (and just in my case, watching the tadpoles dart around in the pool). The Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, had the Taj built in the 17^th century to house the tomb of his favorite wife, and made sure that his every extravagant demand was met in its construction. Aside from the Taj’s commanding exterior, the interior reveals intricately carved marble walls with detailed flowers sculpted from various gemstones.

It was so nice to be at the Taj Mahal so early and beat the mid-day crowds (though there were still a good amount of people there even at dawn), but I think I could just sit there all day and just stare at it. Once we finally left the Taj, we grabbed breakfast and then drove a little around Agra, passing by Agra Fort – a red stone fortress similar to the one in Delhi. I convinced the others of the attractiveness of taking a detour to Fatehpur Sikri, 40 km west of Agra, a “ghost city” of stone palaces and mosques, only inhabited by Mughal Empire for 15 years until they mysteriously all abandoned it. We arrived just as it started pouring but had a great time sloshing around in the rain, exploring the grounds and taking a hundred more pictures. Micah and I had found a strategy earlier on in the day where we would speak in French if we didn’t want our driver, guide, or marble vendor to understand what we were talking about (e.g. how much to tip, what price to bargain for). However, when we were debating how much to offer to a vendor in Fatehpur Sikri selling carvings from his village, we were surprised when he chimed in with pretty fluent French!

After leaving Fatehpur Sikri, we grabbed some meaty Mughlai lunch and then headed north to Sikandra, which is another striking mausoleum and mosque commemorating the Mughal emperor, Akbar. This brought us all the way to 6:30 pm when we finally hit the road to return to Delhi (and finally got in a good nap). We made it home to Delhi a little after 11 pm – I haven’t felt that exhausted in a long time!

Sunday, I slept in and then – for my last weekend day in Delhi before I leave – went to visit another striking monument - the Baha’i Lotus Temple. Surrounded by pools and a big garden, it is a giant lotus housing one large prayer room. I expected this to be a quiet temple and thought I might be disturbing a bit as a tourist, but quickly found the huge line of hundreds of locals waiting to drop off their shoes and enter the temple. It is really quite an attraction for Delhiites as well. After the visit, I went to Khan Market – a shopping area I was advised to go to – for some window shopping and pastries!

I have just two weeks left now in Asia. Tonight I leave for a 5-day trip to THAILAND!

:)