Visiting an Icon
The Taj Mahal.
Undoubtedly the most recognisable symbol of India.
The one place that every visitor to the country must see.
Its is also very high on the list of destinations for domestic
travellers. I don’t know what the attendance numbers are,
but imagine, if one in every thousand Indian citizens visited
the Taj Mahal once, in any given year. That’s almost one and
a half million visitors, not counting foreign tourists.
In a single year.
In short, it is a place that is never not crowded.
We arrived at about 8am on Sunday morning.
The large local crowd is partly due to an upcoming Hindu holiday that
attracts many people to the region.
But is it really worth a visit?
No-one I have known who’s been there has ever said “No”,
and those that have the opportunity are highly likely to go for
a second look.
My first experience of the Taj Mahal
(I will probably go back at some point) was not in any way
mind-blowing.
There are plenty of pictures of the place and they do it justice.
Unless you manage to be there when the weather and
celestial circumstances are favourable, when the translucent
white marble really shows its beauty,
the professional photos will always be better than your own.
Some Tips for Doin’ the Taj.
All in all, if the Taj Mahal
(#1 man made wonder of the world, they tell me) is on your list of
things to see, you won’t be disappointed. You also get the added
bonus of visiting India, which lives up to and exceeds its every
reputation as a destination country.
Here are the hot tips to make your trip manageable.
There are plenty of high quality, as well as low cost hotels in Agra,
of course, but if the Taj is your only real point of interest, it can easily
be done in a day trip on the Gatimaan Express from New Delhi.
Arrive around 10am and return at 6 the same evening.
If you are staying for a night or two, there are plenty of other
fascinating history surrounding the builders of the Taj Mahal.
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| View across the river from Fort Agra, where Emperor Shah Jahan spent his final years after burying his favourite wife under the Taj Mahal. |
Local Guides are a must.
From the moment you arrive in the city of Agra, local people will be in
your face. Their entire economy depends on your money and they are
unashamed in their efforts to extract it from your wallet.
A local guide will keep the worst of them from blowing out your blood
pressure.
Your guide should cost you between 5 and 10 thousand Rupee for a
visit to the Taj and they’re worth every cent.
They’ll purchase your tickets (and shoe covers!!!), ensure that you know the rules and aren’t carrying any contraband
items, assist you, not only to swiftly navigate the masses queued ahead of
you, but also through the mandatory security checks.
Tourists pay heaps more (up to 20 times as much) to visit national
monuments than local people, so we do get some preferential
treatment. Without a guide, especially at busy times, you might find
yourself lining up amongst the hoi polloi for hours.
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| Not hoi polloi. |
Photographers are expensive, video is not allowed.
There are also licensed photographers who wait in the Taj grounds and offer their services to anyone who comes along. They’ll use all the
usual tricks to coerce you into engaging them and your guide will
probably get a kick back if they do eventually hook you (so don’t rely
on him to chase them all off).
My best tip: if you don’t want to pay
(70-100$US) for professional pictures, DON’T LET THEM TAKE YOUR
PICTURE.
Once they snap you and your travelling companions, you will never get
rid of them.
If you don’t mind forking out, though, the pictures are actually very
good. Our paparazzo took about 50 shots of the family in all usual
poses, printed us a handful of 8x6 prints and gave us the lot on a DVD
- with bonus pictures of the landmark looking spectacular from a
number of perspectives
(I’ve used a couple for this post, they’re unlicensed, whoop!).
The best time to view is morning or evening on clear days,
and of course full moons when they occur in the right place and time.
A fickle tormentor is our Moon.
Finally
I think that a lot of peoples’ opinions / impressions of India,
as a country, as a place to visit, reflect the experience of
visiting the Taj Mahal.
You get the cows walking, eating, sleeping in the middle of
major roads.
You get the begging children - and their extended families.
The crushing poverty alongside the immaculate wealth.
The decades old, crumbling infrastructure and pot-holed, unsealed roads.
All in the shadow of a structure made of the finest stone,
massive, beautiful and virtually unscathed in over 350 years of
existence.
M.
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