Taj Visit

Our trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal began at 6:30 am and consisted of a lovely 6 hour bus ride to Agra across the never short to entertain India terrains. I started the day out pretty rough compliments of something I had eaten. I'll spare you the details and needless to say I'm definitely craving some American cuisine. Fogo de Chao anyone when I come back?

Anyways, after 6 hours we were greeted by India's Department of Transportation Minister in Agra and his son was assigned as our tour guide for the day. We finally reached the Taj by roughly 1:30 pm and below are some of the sites. I'll get all my photos up from the trip on my facebook, but here are the highlights.

Absolutely love this photo. Couldn't wait to post it in the proper sequence.

Let me just start that there really isn't much that I can type that can explain visiting and experiencing the Taj Mahal. Now I'm not a changed man, will not be changing my ways, and the heavens didn't open up to me during this visit, but to say it's an amazing achievement in human history would be an understatement. The size and precise nature of the archeticture is something that I still can't comprehend, especially since this was built over 500 years ago. The symmetry of the entire complex from the huge structures down the decorative details is something that again is quite amazing. But enough from me, enjoy the photos!

Main structure from within the walls of the Taj, behind me is the Taj itself.

This is the entrance after walking through the Western Gate and going through security.

The main structure to access the Taj.

And there it is.

Classic tourist pic.Nicely accented by the rando in red and the two others behind me. I almost knocked over the British lady directly behind me into the water. That would have been classic.

Photo from the base of the Taj.

Red booties we had to put on in order to walk onto the Taj itself. They stopped having people take their shoes off thanks to Slumdog Millionaire, or so that's what our guide said. I can't help but notice just how awesome red shoes would be. First goal back home, well maybe second after destroying some form of beef, is to find some red puma or reebok from back in the day.

If you don't currently own a camera that has the panaromic capabilities I highly encourage picking one up. You can take sweet photos like this. Love this photo.

One of the minerets of the Taj. Enger Tower has nothing on this. If you know what Enger Tower is, I'll buy you a beer.

Entry to the inside of the Taj. You aren't supposed to take pictures inside it.

This is inside the Taj, yep I took pictures.



I really like this photo too. I dare say it's beautiful. Maybe if this HR thing doesn't work out for me I might have a career as a photojournalist.

So that was a few of the photos from the Taj. I have plenty more and I need to get more from some of my classmates, but again, those will be up on my facebook when I return to the US. I also took some video at the Taj and I'm hoping to get that up tonight when we land in Bangalore. I'll also have some photos and video of our visit to the Agra Fort. The Agra Fort is sweet and impressive in it's own right, but it's tough to follow the Taj.