The trip to Agra didn't take long and there was a prepaid tuk tuk stand at the station so it was nice and cheap to our hotel. We managed to check in and then went straight upstairs to the roof top restaurant to glimpse a view of the taj mahal that we had paid a whole 30p per night more for.
The view was very good if a little smoggy from all the pollution in Agra now. I read in the guidebook that the taj mahal was turning yellow from the pollution and that it was ruining it, which is a shame really. We then decided to do a little half day tour of Agra fort and what our tuk tuk driver called baby taj.
Agra fort was really impressive, apparently the guy who lived here had two wives that both lived in the fort but one was Muslim and one was Hindu so the architecture is conflicting. I don't know if this is true or if the tuk tuk driver made it up but it was a nice story. There are loads of doors that lead to sprawling courtyards that you wouldn't even tell were there and apparently only 70% is open to the public. After when we drove to baby taj, the tuk tuk driver pointed out from the broad the place where the guy who built the taj was imprisoned by one of his sons and later died. He would have had a view from the taj from his cell but you could barely see it this far away what with all the smog.
Next was baby taj, which was built as a practice of the real thing, I can't actually find what its called in the guidebook so I don't know it's official name. It is really small though and there were also graves of people in this one.
After this our driver took us to view the actual taj mahal from behind down this little country road. It was really cool here as the taj is practically symmetrical and this side has no tourists. In front of us was a young boy just tending to his cows and you can imagine that that has been the scene here since it was built before all the tourists roamed in. The guy who built the taj did it to honour his favourite wife who died in childbirth after the 14th child, and apparently he had planned to make another directly across the river entirely of black stone for his tomb to lay. But he was imprisoned so it didn't happen it was would've been really cool though.
Because there was so much traffic in Agra the sun was nearly setting we went back to the rooftop restaurant to see the sunset but again the pollution didn't make it very impressive. We were told to go to Agra for sunrise to get in as soon as it opened so that it wouldn't be so crowded so we headed to bed early.
It was extremely hard to get up at 5:30am again after doing it yesterday as well! So we were a little late and didn't head out till around 6:00am. We headed to the south gate which was closet to us but we got lost as in India people can literally build next to the wall of the taj so its hard to find the entrances. After finding the entrance eventually it was still shut, it was 6:30 by now we headed to the west gate and joined the queue people still weren't allowed in yet. A tour guide for some other people told us we had to get tickets from the ticket place which was over 1km away?!?! We were pissed off and setted off to the ticket counter. After walking 1km there and back it was past 7:00 so we had some crisps and a coke before going in to line our stomachs as you cannot buy anything in there.
We went through security and Dan had left his fold away cutlery in his bag so his bag got opened and she also said a torch, the gorillapod, and a notebook and pen were also not allowed inside good news theres a cloakroom- bad news its 1km away by the ticket office?! India is such a struggle sometimes because of its inefficiencies!! The guard said we could leave it with a shop and take a business card which we did as there were conveniently located next to the taj entrance rather where you would expect the ticket office to locate itself...
Anyway back to the taj, after the fiasco of a morning we were finally there and luckily it wasn't too busy. We could see the south entrance still wasn't open which meant it was good we hadn't just sat and waited for it to open.
The first view of the taj is truly awesome, it is a very pretty building and a lot bigger then you expect it to be, which makes it better obviously. We took some photos but there were annoying 'professional' Indian photographers who took pictures for people who hogged all the space and pushed you out of the way. They also said that you were only allowed one photo from that viewpoint even though they took about 50 each time they got a client. Really stupid poses as well that I would not want to have immortalised in a photo of the time I saw the taj mahal. We headed further down and saw Diana's famous bench but the same crowd was there so we didn't go near it. There is another bench directly in front of that one that no one was fussed about so we say there awhile watching everyone and also just looking at the taj. I should point out that there was hardly anybody there compared to other photos we've seen or even yesterday when we could only saee the back the numbers of people were massive. I hate to imagine what it must be like with even more people pushing and shoving.
We watched this one girl who must've hired an Indian man to take photos of her and she kept doing this one yoga pose of her stood on one leg with her arm out in front of her, the guy must've taken like 30 photos of this pose because she kept falling, and then when he asked if she would like to do a different pose she couldn't think of one and just kept doing that. We even saw her after we went through the taj in the doorway doing the same pose?! Literally all of her photos will look the same.
Anyway we headed to the taj and followed the sign for the high pay visitor rather then general admission. So we followed it and put our shoe coverings on that were included in our ticket prices- the Indian people don't get these they just go bare feet but a lot of people in India don't bother wearing shoes most of the time so their feet are as dirty as outside. Also they put their shoes on a rack then have to walk to the taj and then they have to walk all the way around the taj before they just go in the same entrance as us. My point is there really isn't much need for the shoe coverings. Anyway we headed up and from here your can see all the inlaid patterns of the different precious stones that must've taken ages to do. Inside the room is the two graves of the guy and his wife (I should really bother trying to find the names of these) there's no photography allowed in here and your not allowed to stop for very long because the guards shout and blow their whistles even though there's a big sign that says no noise allowed. After this you head out the back door of the taj and we sat on it for a while in the shade as it was getting hot.
After we headed to the general entrance as you get some really nice views of the taj and the two buildings either side of it that VIP visitors don't get, walking around beside it also made it felt absolutely huge a really amazing building to say it was built so long ago.
After this we headed back to the hotel to get something to eat, we were deliberating about whether or not to go to a place called fatephur sikri which is like an abandoned old city but it would have been over an hours drive away and an hours drive back. But the best price we could get was 800 rupees and that was with a guy that was blind in one eye. So we decided not to. Its hard choosing what to go into and what not to because a lot of the architecture is quite similar, so your paying into things and not appreciating them as much.
We had a TV in the room though! So we watched a movie that night and went to sleep early yet again because we had to be up at 5:45am the next day!!!