Taj Mahal At Last!

Well folks, we’ve been living in India for about 10 months so it’s about time for us to finally visit the Taj Mahal.  I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for the classic Taj photo of us laying across a bench or jumping in the air in front of the Taj or me trying to penetrate Isaac’s chest with my bare hands in front of the Taj, you know, the usual.

Here’s the blog post you’ve all been waiting for......at least for a few days since Isaac posted that great Indian wedding blog.  He took all of those pictures btw AND also 98% of the photos for this blog.  The other ones were taken by our amazing tour guide/photographer, Ali.  He really did a great job at taking us around and pretending not to be bored while explaining things that he’s probably explained over a thousand times.  Seriously.  


Here’s a bit of the back story of the Taj for those of you who want to know, or don’t feel like scrolling down right away to more pictures.  It was made by a Mughal emperor named Shah Jahan (or really it was made by Persian/Indian workers who really are amazing) in honor of his dead wife who was his third attempt and first successful baby maker for him.  Don’t worry, he made some other monuments for his other wives, they just aren’t as big or famous.  Fun fact, he started to try to build a monument for himself (his own man cave after death, if you will) but he died/ran out of money before it was complete and people were pretty upset about how much money he was spending on all these giant monuments while they didn’t have food to eat.  Go figure.  


Ok so enough history.  Words don’t really do the Taj justice so I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. So here is 22 years of labor by 20,000 workers...


These are pictures of the Red Fort where Shah Jahan was imprisoned by his loving son, but don't worry, he still had a view of his Taj, through teeny tiny holes.  

This man was feeding chipmunks and I decided I wanted to give it a try too.  I love touching wild animals, especially Isaac.  I think about 20 people came to take a picture of this happening, including one kid who stepped right in front of Isaac as he was taking pictures.

Isaac doing his best Daniel Tosh impression

sooo sunny!  I totally forgot my sunglasses for this trip.

These are pics of the baby Taj which really looks nothing like the Taj but it was cool. Fun fact, it was built BEFORE the Taj by a dif King for his wife.

6 on a bike!  New record! The sixth is a baby in white that the mom is hold on the back

You’ll notice that in the pictures we have a new victim, er I mean travel buddy.  This is Katrina and she’s the cat’s pajamas.  Seriously awesome gal who was willing to put up with me and Isaac all by herself without other sources of entertainment for 2 whole days.  Bless her heart!  I really learned to respect Katrina as she has yet to use the “toilet” on an Indian train, EVER!  It’s pretty amazing.  Also, she continued to play cribbage with us over and over again, even after Isaac exhibited his victory dance AND pointed out how unlucky we were and how he was doing so well throughout the game.  Thanks honey.  Isaac really is a great game player.  Don’t tell him I said that.  

All in all t’was a fantastic trip with aplenty of photo opps.  One thing I was a bit disappointed about was the lack of people asking us to take pictures with them. I mean, we were only asked seven different occasions, including walking up the stairs at the train station.  The best part about being a foreigner is feeling like a celebrity when people want to take your picture.  This time I had a women hold my hand for a solid 5 minutes (ok like 15 seconds but it felt like 5 minutes because she was staring into my soul the whole time).  Any way I didn’t get to enjoy the delusion of being important as much as I wanted BUT this weekend we’re headed to Amritsar so maybe more people will harrass us then!  I’ll keep my fingers crossed!
 

From Isaac: The Taj is supposedly the most photographed building in the world. When there in person, it is obvious why. No picture though could ever do this building justice. Sometimes things live up to the hype - Angkor Wat, The Road to Hana, Tower of London - and other times not so much (although still great) - Stonehenge, the 15th Thai temple in a day of temple touring. Then there is the Taj Mahal. There is a reason people use it to describe grand structures, i.e. “The Taj Mahal of football stadiums” (Kyle Field by the way). There is no paint anywhere on the building. Everything is marble and marble inlay. Words and pictures cannot do it justice. It is absolutely one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. I agree-Becky


Here's a slide show for you to enjoy!