Entering in via the east gate our first glimpse of the Taj is through the gateway and it does take your breath away. Part of this is due to the familiarity of it’s image, it’s just one of those buildings that you hear about all your life, you’ve seen pictures of it like the one with Lady Diana sitting on the bench on her own at the break up of her marriage to Charles and suddenly you are here. The Taj Mahal a wonder of the world is right in front of you, you can’t blink or turn, it captures you and you know you have just had one of those moments that you know you will cherish. Seldom has a building conjured up such a feeling before, possibly only the Sydney Opera House and The Empire State.

Our guide sets out it’s history and you can only come to the conclusion that the emperor that commissioned the Taj as a mausoleum to his wife must have loved her. Her dying wish was that he would leave something that she would be remembered by......I think he succeeded.

After and hour with the guide we were left to our own devices and couldn't resist joining the hustle and tussle to get the obligatory photo sat on Diana’s bench in front of the Taj. You can’t help but think my bum has sat where your bum has!

So we left the Taj but not without being hassled by all the street traders who proceeded to knock down books on the Taj from an opening gambit of 1000 rps ending on 100 rps, bargains that we left behind due to our luggage restrictions.

It was back to the hotel now for breakfast before getting back in the car with the guide this time headed for Agra Fort.

Agra Fort is another red sandstone monster although I do think that it should be called Agra Fort and Royal Palace as the Fort was only built around the palace to protect it. The Fort is older than the Taj by about 35 years and this where the Emperor and his Queen lived prior to her death and the building of the Taj. Much of the fort still retains it’s military connections as 80% of it is still used by the military so it’s only 20% that you get to actually see.

The Fort itself is finished in red sandstone with the palace buildings being built of white marble, again this a massively impressive set of buildings, beautifully preserved, it  was also huge!

It was interesting to hear that the emperor had a harem of some 4000 other women but still loved his wife enough to want to build the Taj for her.The Fort had groups of monkey’s living around it and these where cute although you felt like you needed to keep your hands in your pockets for fear that they had all be trained to expertly pick pocket!

After the Taj the Fort could not compete, not that it was not stunning in its own way but the Taj was a dream come true and nothing was going to compete.

Reluctantly we found ourselves stopping at another forced shopping trip on the way back to the hotel, we went along with it and some of it was actually quite interesting seeing how they inserted precious stones into marble that decorated all of the facades of the Taj. Once again after a serious sales pitch we made our excuses and left. I think we have to face up to the fact that this forced shopping is something that you just can’t avoid now and again.

Finally back at the hotel is was still only 1030 am and we had seen two impressive pieces of history and still had the whole day!

Jonathan went back to bed for a few hours whilst Trevor headed for the pool and the burningly hot Indian summer heat. A few hours later and there we both were, sat on our respective sun loungers round a pool in the burning sun (cream applied this time) whiling away the day with a cold drink and some fantastic deep fried salt and pepper prawns (these have to be tasted to be believed) to nibble on. What a fantastic day!

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