After 8 days of journey throughout India, we finally came to the climax of our journey, visiting India’s greatest treasure, The Taj Mahal. After spending the day at Fatehpur Sikri, we got back to Agra city and had our rest at the hotel.

Streets nearby the hotel

a view from the hotel’s rooftop

Staying at the Siddhartha Hotel, wasn’t the best experience at all. Apart from its good location which was only a minute walk to the Taj’s west gate, the rooftop view and the tasty homemade fries they have at their cafe, all other things doesn’t seem good to me. A broken fan in the room, tap water was very slow, not so clean toilet and bla bla bla..

At 6.30am the next day, the queue for the ticket line was already like people queuing for free food. Got our tickets after about 45 minutes standing in the line. Tickets were priced at Rs750 (About RM50 or USD15, please check current rate). Locals only need to pay Rs20. We had to queue for another half an hour to get through the security check which was really tight.

the main gate, after we passed the security check

the gate architecture

The Taj was built by emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal. As usual, I’m not gonna talk much about the history, so read it in Wikipedia.

breathtaking view

us with the Taj

me with the Taj

reflection Taj

When we entered the area, the place was already full of people and there are more coming in. We entered the main gate and were greeted by a breathtaking view of the garden, fountains and the Taj itself.

another scenic view

u need to wear shoe covers if u want to get into the main building area

I was really impressed with the full marble structure which has inserts of marble designs in it. How the heck did these guys build this thing in the 16^th century? Nowadays, if you want to have a design insert into the marble, it’s only possible using the waterjet cutting method.

great architecture with marble inserts

close up on the dome

in vintage mode

the garden

This was the 2^nd world wonder that I’ve visited after China’s Great Wall. The Taj is one of the spectacular sites I’ve ever visited. It’s not only a building built in the past but a symbol of wealth, artistry and love.

flying Shakir

Later in the evening, me and Syahid took a tuk-tuk to get us to the back area of the Taj to catch the sunset view of it. There were also few other foreigners seen at the spot that we stopped.

a view from the backyard

another backyard view

sunset view

We waited until the sunset ended before heading back to the hotel.