24th
with our tour nearly over we are saving the best for last. The Taj Mahal. The drive from Jaipur to Agra is long, about 6 hours to do 220ks. It seems that as soon as we get within 20ks of the hotel in the city, these 20ks can take about an hour or more. The congestion is bad and slow going. After we check in at the hotel and have some lunch its 3pm. Our dirver has picked up our guide to take us to the Taj.

This guide seems really good, and explains stuff to us on the very short drive to the car park. Cars are not allowed within 1.5ks of the Taj, so our guide being very well known gets us a electric golf cart to take us to the Taj. There are plenty of soldiers present, probably due to the Obama visit, which was cancelled yesterday.

Now our guide walks us close to the main entrance to the Taj, but stops us just before we enter. He wants us to look at the ground as we walk in, just follow his shoes, and when we are in a certain position he will tell us to look at the Taj. Well i dont think i have ever been so emotionally impressed at such a beautiful building. It is absolutely stunning. It is hard to take your eyes off it as we continue our walk towards it. The guide stops us along the way so he can take picture of us with the Taj in the back ground.

We see inside and the guide has some wonderful insights about the building and its history. Stuff that other guides are not telling their groups. We spend nearly 2 hours in the grounds, and i did not really want to leave. It hard to describe the feelings you get in the presence of this building, it really captivates you.
So now we head back to the hotel for the night. Tomorrow we see the Agra Fort before driving to Delhi