The Taj Mahal

Immense, beautiful, magnificent ~ seriously not enough adjectives to describe this place. I was not sure what my reaction would be seeing the Taj Mahal. Not one of my expectations prepared me for this most incredible place. 

The Taj Mahal was built in the 16 century and it took approximately 16 years to build. It was built by the  5th emperor of India, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan for his third wife who died during the birth of the couples 14th child. This was a love marriage for them. The emperor had 2 other wives but neither bore him children. His 3rd wife, Mumtaz Mahal was pregnant 17 times and only delivered 14.  I think she deserved something magnificent just for being pregnant that many times. :)  A love marriage in India is not common now and especially during this time period. 

The Taj Mahal means "crown of all palaces". It is a mausoleum of white marble. It houses the tomb of Mumtaz and the emperor. It is universally admired as one the of masterpieces of the historic heritage. 

Quite frankly you can't even image it's size and beauty until you are up close and to think the entire building was built by hand. The site averages about 10000 visitors a day. Mostly are Indians, we did not see to many westerners. Yes it is a tourist attraction but not how I have encountered tourist sites. The Taj Mahal has 2 building flanking each side. One is a mosque and the other is a guest house. The guest house has never been used it was purely built for balance. The emperor wanted a mosque to pray at but thought the Taj Mahal needed to be balanced with another matching building on the other side hence the building of the guest house. The mosque to this day is active therefore the Taj Mahal is closed on Fridays to the public so the worshipers can attend services. 

India still follows a very strict class system. Entering the Taj Mahal we were put into the line of high value western women line. It was a very strange feeling of being rushed to the front of the line with all these Indian faces looking at us. An Indian woman held back the line for us westerners to go through the metal detector first. Now let me tell you our tickets cost somewhere in the 7$ US dollar range. For me rather cheap but for them that's 420 rupees, not so cheap. 

This is the lines to get into the Taj. The value of your ticket and whether you are a man or woman determines which line your in. The one that was empty was our line.  As we walked through the line all these people turned and stared at us. The feeling of walking to the very front was very strange and not a good feeling. 

The grounds of the TM are exquisite and so well maintained. Woman walk around picking up sticks men are constantly pulling weeds and trimming trees and shrubs. We have our own path to walk up to the TM. We don't walk with the commoners (their words) not mine. We are given shoe covers or you can walk barefoot. You can't imagine the amount of people pouring into the building to see the tombs. The inside is dim and dark. As you can see from the picture above our day is very foggy. At one point when we get close to the entrance it begins to feel like cattle being shoved into a small doorway. We are shoulder to shoulder, back to back, if I was claustrophobic I would not have made it in. No special entrance for us now. We are all one but it is so worth it and you don't even mind being pressed against one another. It was awesome. 

This photo was taken on purpose so you can see the hand carving into the marble. The actual thickness of the entire piece of marble is out to the flowers. The marble was one giant piece carved down to reveal the flowers. You can't imagine the detail. Remember this has been standing since 1648 and it still looks the same. The hardest marble in the world was used. The entire Taj Mahal is made of marble from the steps to the floor to everything. 

Precious gems are used for the flowers. A family that specialized in this form of marble carving was commissioned to do all the inlay work. To this day this family still specializes in this craft and sells very rare and expensive marble carvings in the town of Agra. 

We were also a bit of a tourist attraction as well. These were just some of the children that followed us around. I think we got our pictures taken as much as the Taj Mahal. 

This woman was a new bride and had been getting her bridal pictures taken on the grounds of the Taj Mahal. When traditional Indian woman become married they wear an arm full of bracelets and their saris are very bright and typically red. She was very beautiful and her husband was very proud. 

In the area where you buy tickets for entrance is pure chaos. Men are everywhere trying to sell you anything and everything. Our tour guide Azim had asked us to not buy anything. He strongly urged us to keep our purses close and not show any money. Children, teenage boys, and men swarmed us trying to sell us tacky Taj Mahal memorabilia. These people are desperate. It was a very uncomfortable feeling. 

Of course being at the Taj Mahal we all kind of wanted the tacky souvenirs. Come on how often can you come home with a snow globe of the Taj or a refridgerator magnet from the actual Taj Mahal. Secretly we all wanted the tacky souvenirs. How are we going to tell Azim we want these things. Being grown woman we fess up to our wants. He laughs and says he will figure something out. After lunch we climb into our van (what I have begun to call our bubble) and Azim says we have a stop to make for our souvenirs. Thinking we will getting out of the van we don't get to comfortable as the van pulls to the side of the road. A man approaches the window where Azim is and proceeds to start pulling out boxes out of his bag. Azim brings them into our van and starts revealing all the tacky souvenirs our hearts desire. It begins to look like a cross between an auction and an episode of the home Shopping Network but in a van. He is pulling them out one after another and we all comfy in our seats start yelling out what we want and how much. We start with the figures of the fake marble tiny Taj Mahal, then the snow globes and finally the fridge magnets. It was absolutely hysterical. While this man outside the window of the van is showcasing his wares the other vendors catch on to what is going down and now our entire van is surrounded by men trying to sell us anything and everything. It got completely out of hand for poor Azim but we sat safe and secure inside our bubble just handing out the cash and Azim trying to handle all the transactions made through the window of the van. This man earned every penny of his tip that day. Poor guy having to handle 7 over 40 women wanting tacky souvenirs.

Unfortunately the photo opportunity was missed we were WAY to busy shopping. Lol

The town of Agra is where the Taj Mahl is located. Don't visit for the town. Wow talk about poor, approx 3 million people in 73 square miles. It actually is the 3rd most literate city in India. Cows, monkeys, dogs, goats, pigs and people everywhere. Filthy too. 

We also visited the Red Fort of Agra. It was really beautiful. It was built before the Taj Mahal. 

Entire thing is carved out of sandstone. 

Overall this trip was a once in a lifetime experience. I am so grateful that I was given the opportunity to see something so magnificent. 8 months ago I never in my wildest dreams would have thought that I would travel with 6 women that hadn't known that long, we all would get along fabulously and I would see one the the seven wonders of the world.  

Cheers from the other side

😘 M

India (part 2)

After lunch we headed over to a memorial about Ghandi. This place was where he lived the last 144 days of his life. They have the actual footsteps of his last walk before he was shot and killed. 

Ghandi's bedroom 

The famous footsteps from his last walk. 

His only possessions. 

It was quite incredible to read about this man and his life work. 

The grounds were beautiful with well maintained gardens. 

The weather had turned on us and it was raining and cold. (Well cold for my thin Thailand blood 72*). Unfortunately we rushed through some of the sites just because of us being cold. We did take off our shoes and strolled around the sacred gardens  (ok we didn't stroll we walked very quickly. It was cold and I was not dressed properly). 😀. Where are the damn women selling Indian scarves who usually follow you around now when one is needed. 

What I found so strange was inside his house. Upstairs in this very large building was a museum. This museum was all about Ghandi and his life works. What he preached and how he lead his life. It was the most modern museum with giant pictures of his face with the eyes cut out and lights replacing his eyes. Kind of creepy. Each room was very simple but with an extreme modern twist to show you what he believed. The thing I find so funny is he was all about simplicity. He only owned 6 things but this museum was so fancy and high tech almost the opposite of what Ghandi was about. 

A very modern light and fountain displaying Be True. 

The day was ending and it was time to go home. We were all exhausted and no shopping had been done. 

Our tour guide dropped us at the hotel and we headed out on foot. We had been told by the concierge about an awesome factory emporium for shopping that was walking distance. The daylight was quickly coming to an end so now we are on a mission. 

The emporium was a dream. 5 floors of pure shopping to meet every women tourist dreams. Moving from floor to floor casually thinking we had all the time in the world a bell is rung and we start noticing other shoppers quickly making their way to the bottom floor. Surely it can't be closing?  If you ever want to make a woman make a fast decision on what she has been contemplating buying for the last 30 minutes tell her the store is closing. You have never seen 7 women put it into high gear and make decisions on things to buy immediately. We had only just begun and now it was closing. To be honest it was probably a good thing, Walter and my bank account thank the store for closing. Lol

We safely made it back to our hotel in the dark again. 

Dinner was at The Spice Route. Little did we know that this restaurant in our hotel was one of the top 20 restaurants in Asia. Wow it did not disappoint and neither did the decor. 

One of the ceilings

The entrance

We thought it was funny, the restaurant brought us this cake. 

Cheers from the other side

😘 M

India (resent again. 1st email got cut off)

6 years ago Walter, the kids and I were suppose to move to India. Walter had been given a new project to build a plant outside of Mumbai. 4 days before Walter and I were to get on a plane to India to find our house and finalize our school plans his company called it off and that was the end of our India trip, instead we moved to Pennsylvania.   Disappointment isn't a strong enough word to describe how I felt when that trip was canceled. Walter has been to India many times since. Unfortunately his are always for work and never about site seeing. This past weekend I finally got my turn to go to India. 

This trip was born back in November with one girl expressing a desire to see the Taj Mahal before her expat life came to an end this year and my response was - I'll go with you ( this seems to be my mantra, a willingness and eagerness to do or try anything new without any details involved, you don't have to ask me twice :)   From this small statement a girls weekend plan was hatched. We started to spread the word around and low and behold 5 others quickly jumped at the chance to see the Taj Mahal too.  Funny as the word spread that we were actually going on this trip and plans were laid more and more women expressed a desire to go.  

Most of our correspondence with each other was through email. Dates were chosen, visas acquired, hotel accommodations were argued over, a tour guide company was found, airline reservations were made, yogurt with probiotics was eaten (hey Dehli belly is real ask my girlfriend, you'll do anything to keep it away, it worked for me ) and boom we were going to India. Now mind you this group of 7 women were not all close friends. 2 women didn't even know one another until they met at the airport the day of departure. Even myself I can say I really only knew 2 of them well. The other 5 I either knew of or sort of knew. We were a mixture of nationalities which can make things interesting. Countries represented by us were Australian, American, Sweden and Britian. This shows you all sevens strong desire to go to India. 

Giddy like school girls we arrived at the airport and off we went flying away to India. All was good on the flight until toward the end when the flight attendant says something over the loud speaker that I don't quite catch except cover your mouth and nose. What?  Turns out they spray a sort of Lysol through the plane for germs. Weird and gross. Okay well at least now I'm germ free. Lol!  It worked because I'm the only one that didn't get the cold that all my girlfriends got. 😊 nor did I get Delhi belly. Though I doubt the spray had anything to do with that. ☺️ 

A few things I learned is that not all toilets flush the same way after completely soaking my friends feet in the next stall in the Delhi airport when I mistook the wrong knob as the flusher. Oops!  Luckily it was just clean water I sprayed her with. The bathroom attendant was not happy with me. 

Somehow after this incident we were ALL mistaken for Americans because we were being loud. What is it with bashing the Americans, are we really that loud of a culture. 🎉🎉🎉🎉. Not me of course 😜 

Speeding through immigration (ok maybe not speeding more like crawling through quick sand, but nothing was going to ruin our excitement ), checking out Duty free (a favorite store amoung expats, you never know what a new country will have), finding our little Indian man the tour guide with the sign that had Ali's name on it. Away we went on our adventure. We really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. 

Driving through New Delhi was not what I was expecting. It was quite lovely. Very green with lots of trees and grass, traffic was not bad, monkeys everywhere, an occasional cow on the side of the road. Almost seemed civilized, almost being the key word. When we got to one intersection we did have several children hawking giant planes. It was a little disconcerting when they were climbing on our van so we could see them better. Some just came right up to the van with their hands out looking for anything. It was funny because the driver and tour guide said absolutely nothing and acted like they weren't even there. When the light turned green we just drove off. 

Arriving at our hotel was so exciting. My girlfriend made all the arrangements but there had been some issues with her choice from a few of the other women. It was a 5 star hotel and I can't say it was the cheapest place. I was just along for the adventure so for me I was up for anything ( *remember my mantra). The Imperial Hotel was beyond any expectations that I had. It was a British colonial style hotel. Wow!  The service, the rooms, the food, the artwork I'm beginning to sound like a tripadvisor review or my mother. The women in beautiful saris with a British twist, the men in very smart British coats. Everyone soooo friendly. They even said welcome home when we entered the building. We loved this place. 

It will be a huge reality slap when I go back to staying at the Townhome Suites by Marriott in the US. 😊

This guy was like the head doorman at the hotel. He had like 6 other guys standing with him but he was dressed the fanciest. He always was so happy to see us. 

First afternoon, high tea. I have been to high tea in NYC but never like this. Though I got chastised by the Aussie and Brit for eating my scone the wrong way. Geez who knew. I need different country eating lessons before I go on these kind of trips with other women. Lol. We had quite a few laughs and more food and tea than I could imagine. Never thought those words would come out of my mouth. 

It was completely different from the beer and bar food I'm use to. 😜. 

Much advice was given to us about safety. Women like us from other countries, traveling at night, not walking alone, keeping an eye on our purses were all reiterated over the days we were there. Fortunately we were very smart, had a tour guide and driver with us most of the time and we knew our boundaries. We always looked out for one another and therefore I am happy to say did not have one problem. Never did I feel unsafe, a few times uncomfortable, but never unsafe. 

Shopping was a major desire we all had. We tried to fit it in everywhere and anywhere. To the left of our protected hotel gates there was a small Tibetian market. Ooh so much stuff to look at and touch, well of course buy too. We were like fresh meat off the market, these small shop owners looked at us like dollar signs. I have never been hounded so much to purchase something or just anything in my life. It was fun but by the end exhausting. Plus we were still getting our Indian feet and trying to get use to our surroundings. Besides bartering on everything, I would have to convert rupees into US dollars to figure out how much something costs. It's like 62 to 1. Do that in your head. Thank god for my handy dandy conversion app on my phone.  Plus we were rushing because it was getting dark and first rule of safety from the hotel was be back before dark. First rule broken!  

I could not wait to get back to our hotel and by then was really wanting a cold beer.  

Women selling bedding/ linens on the street

Trying out sing bowls before we purchased. The sound had to fit our aura. Had to bring one of these home for Jack. After his trip to Nepal he knows all about Sing Bowls. 

This is the Tibetain Market where we shopped. All these garage doors opened and little stalls are inside. This picture was taken in the morning it's only open in the afternoon and evening. In the evening people are all around and they display many of their items outside their stores. 

Made it to the bar and it was soooo good. Cold beer served in a silver freezing stein. So classy the bartender loved us. Indian beer called Kingfisher was my choice. I'm a cheap date 400 rupees (like 6$) compared to my gin drinking girlfriends with their 1379 rupees (25$) GTs. 

Again the argument of our 5 star hotel was revisited. Lol. I didn't complain. 😊

In my mind there was nothing wrong with this 5 star hotel. 😄

Next morning site seeing is on the list. Our tour company shows up after I went to the most fantastic buffet breakfast at the hotel I've ever had. It even had a "buffet guide" seriously I'm not kidding. He would show you around and even carry your plate. Food and tea, delish!!

First stop was Humayan's Tomb. It is a mosoleum built by the senior wife (they had multiple wives) of the 2nd emperor or India in 1570. It took 16 years to build. It is the first garden-tomb on the Indian subcontinent. 

Bright green parrots are everywhere

Loved seeing all the school children here on their field trips. 

Now off to Delhi, you ask is there a difference between New Delhi and Delhi! YES a gigantic one. Going from ND to D was wow. Delhi was what I was expecting India to be like.  Chaos pure chaos!!  Cannot emphasize the word chaos enough. More people and cars and filth and trash and slums than I have ever seen in my life. This was the India that soooooo many people had told and warned me about. I have always heard you haven't seen poverty until you see India poverty. Were they so ever right and I live in Thailand where there are some poor people. Poor is not a strong enough word to describe some of these peoples situation. More like desperate and destitute.  Men laying all over with barely any clothes and filthy.  These people live in the dirt and mud. It was like entering into a time capsule and being spit out into another world. 

How is it that we all live on the same earth and can be similar in shape and size but be oh so different and have such different lives? Amazing and eye opening. 

This picture was taken before we took the ride of our lives and experience a very small taste of what living in Delhi is really like. This picture was taken in front of the Red Fort of Dehli. We were like an attraction ourselves. More pictures were taken of us and not with our cameras. People were just following us around taking our picture. Men and Children were trying to sell us everything and anything. People and more people were everywhere.  I guess this is what it's like being famous and having the paparazzi follow you around. Lol. Weird!  

Our tour guide asked us if we would like to take a tuk tuk ride into the spice market. Of course was our answer, why not. So glad we said yes but so glad I had no idea what were about to embark on because I probably would have said HELL NO!  

Up until this point we had been pretty well protected and shielded from regular Indian life. We rode around in what I nicknamed "The Bubble" our van with an English speaking guide. Oh how was I ever so excited to see the bubble after this journey. 

We were split up into two tuk tuks with the driver not being able to speak a word of English. Our tour guide happened to ride in the tuk tuk I was not in. It didn't bother me until the return trip back from the spice market and we got separated. This was a 10 minute moment of extreme uncomfortableness. 

All got happy again when the other tuk tuk showed up and we were back in the bubble. 

They are smiling now!  Lol

Mayhem, absolute mayhem. So close you can reach out and touch someone. You have to keep your knees, hands and toes in or they will get whacked. The cars, motorbikes, tuk tuks, ricksaws all touch at some point. People crossing the street are everywhere. Traffic was like a very carefully choreographed dance but no laws are followed or at least any laws that I have to follow when driving. Shockingly I never saw an accident or someone get hurt. 

Primary school in the background. More men than I have ever seen in my life. We even asked our tour guide where are all the women. 

As many pictures as we took of others someone was always taking a picture of us. 

Ooh some women

My girlfriends playing real life extreme "frogger".  I saw my life pass before my eyes as I made it across the street and looked up to see a motorbike barreling down on me. My girlfriend actually screamed out SLOW DoWN at the guy.  He missed me by inches. 

Flowers were so vibrant amongst the filth and dirt. 

Spice and nut shop we went into. The owner gave us a demonstration of all the spices they sell and how their used in Indian cooking. Showed us teas from different regions and lots of different nuts. 

Of course you get caught up in the moment and I bought all sorts of spices. Now I just need one of those lovely Indian women to come to my house to cook it. I have no idea, what I was thinking. 😊

Now you might be thinking after reading above what was the smell like. Those who know me well. I'm a smeller. I smell everything and am very affected by smells. Walter tends to think I'm crazy with what I can smell. After seeing the street photos with all the cars and people that the smell was as my kids would say rank!  It wasn't. It smelled wonderful which really was quite confusing for my brain. The streets were so disgusting but if you saw the amount of spice shops in this area you would understand. Have you ever had Indian food or walked into an Indian restaurant?  The spice smells were so powerful that this particular area smelled wonderful. Close your eyes and it was sitting in a beautiful restaurant waiting for amazing food, open your eyes and it was like walking through a garage dump. 

Now as soon as we drove out of this area the smell hit you hard and fast in the face and it was not pleasant. Think of a bathroom at the end of a hard rock concert that 10000 people attended. Yeah that bad. 

What an incredible experience this tuk tuk ride was. I really wouldn't trade it for anything. This ride gave us an authentic opportunity even for just a short hour what it is like to drive through the streets of Delhi. To see the life of how these people live.

As we rode around you see people everywhere. Have I mentioned the amount of men. 😉 They would just stare at us more like bore into your soul. Rarely did you see women. If you did they were so happy to see us and usually smiled or stopped for a picture. 

These women were so kind. I guess tourists themselves from a different region of India. They stopped said hello or what we thought was hello ( didn't speak English) held our hands and were genuinely interested in us. They were beautifully dressed. 

What an adventure it has been and it's only just begun........

India to be continued......

Cheers from the other side

😘 M