Taj Mahal Trip and Photos

For anyone that has been keeping up with my blog, sorry for not posting in a while, I know at least my parents were eagerly awaiting photos from last weekends trip. I do have to leave for work shortly, so I won't be writing as much today though.

Last weekend we did take the trip to Agra, the site of the Taj Mahal. Two associates from the Gurgaon office went with, Sohenjeet and Sueshmita, as well as Matt from the Lincolnshire office. The car ride was pretty long, about 4 hours, but comfortable (the train ended up being overbooked, so they gave us a car).

We did have a pretty uneventful ride up there, but I did snap a few shots along the way. The guy with the Cobra offered to let us take a photo with the snake around our neck, but neither Matt nor myself would get out of the car near a venomous snake, so Sohenjeet was the brave one that took the picture. At basically every stop where tourists might shop or eat, there was someone with monkeys that wanted to charge a fee for photos.

So we eventually made it to the Taj Mahal, and it was absolutely amazing, even though it was crazy hot outside, almost 95 degrees and very humid, enough so that the local people were complaining. But it was definitely a sight to see one of the seven wonders of the world, the amount of work that went into the design and construction were just incredible, all of the marble blocks had hand carved engravings of various flowers or religious texts. They say it took 20,000 workers 22 years to build. So anyway, take a look at the pictures.

Still missing everyone at home, especially my little guy, but I have just over two weeks to go. This weekend we are going to the old fort in Delhi to ride the elephants up the hill. I wanted to do at least one activity I could not do at home, and riding an elephant is certainly not possible in Illinois. Also going to get in a round of golf with Matt, I will try not to embarrass myself too much. Anyway, other than the pictures, that's about all for now.

One of the guys with pet monkeys for tourists to take pictures of. Tried to charge us a fee for it, but Sohenjeet said I shouldn't pay because we never even got out of the car.

Our group at the gate of the Taj Mahal. The guide told us that this massive building serves no other purpose than as an entrance to the main grounds, pretty impressive for a gate.

The world famous Taj Mahal from just inside the main gate. Amazing!

Me looking like a goofball tourist outside of the Taj Mahal.

Some of the amazing carving work just inside the mausoleum.

So Matt and I had to pay nearly 20 dollars US to get into the Taj, and Indians only pay about 50 cents, but at least we got some of it back. Bathrooms are free for tourists, but the locals have to pay, ha!

A massive herd of cattle passed us on the road on the way back, had to be at least 100 cows just trudging down the highway.

The snake charmer with the Cobra. Pretty cool. So that's about all for now, more to come later!

C ya!

Brian-