Agra, Day 1

The Taj Mahal Express arrived in due time in Agra. The first thing we did, was to get a rikshaw, which was of course again related with doing some bargaining. After having arranged a good prize we drove to the main city. Karolina and I decided to stay in a hotel close to the Taj Mahal, in a area called Taj Ghat. It was pretty obvious by the first view that Agra was completely different from how I imagined it to be. Anyhow, it is the city of the Taj Mahal. It was very polluted and all summed up, a very messy city. One the way to our hotel, we were stopped by the police. I was so excited to see the Taj Mahal that I got angry because of this stop. What on hell could the driver had done to be fined by the police I asked myself. I was very startled as the driver told me the reason for the stop. It was all because of the Taj Mahal. Due to acid rain the Taj Mahal loses it beauty and pureness of the white marble. Therefore, only rickshaws those engines accord to a certain standard are allowed in the area around the Taj Mahal. When we arrived at Hotel Kamal, I could bear to see the Taj Mahal. The hotel’s roof top is to have a great view to the Taj Mahal. Hence, after having checked in, we climbed up to the roof top immediately. I still remember what I thought, when I climbed up the last steps to the roof top. As I reached the top, I was looking around, to the east, to the west, in each direction, but couldn’t find the Taj Mahal. It was like a desperate search for something you have missed for so many years, for example. The reason, why I couldn’t find it was because of a tree standing in front of the house and constraining me to see the Taj Mahal. After taking some steps forward, I finally saw it. It was awesome and breathtaking. To be honest, I can’t describe it in words. It is definitely the most beautiful building I have ever seen. And I don’t think that any building in the world is more beautiful than the Taj Mahal. After so many years of simply hearing that there is supposed to be a building called Taj Mahal which is supposed to be so beautiful, now it was me standing approximately 500 meters away from it. I mean, this building is what India famous for. And all Indians are proud of it, and they are right to be. We had a breakfast at the roof top and kept on staring on it all the time. We decided to visit the Taj Mahal the next day in the morning as it would be less crowded then.
Thus, the first day we took a bus to Fatehpur Sikri. Before the bus left Agra, a man entered the bus delivering a speech. At least, that’s what I thought at the beginning. But actually, he tried to sell some stuff. Fatehpur Sikri is a city close to Agra, those monuments have become a World heritage. Mogul Akbar ruled from here in 16th century before he moved to Lahore. We have seen monuments like the Jama Masjid or the Diwan-i-Am, the main palace. It was all very impressive, especially because the monuments were carved elaborately. We took some pics and went back to the bus stop were we waited for the departure of the bus. As it was already dusk when we reached Agra again, we simply decided to have dinner on another hotel’s roof top while again starting to stare at the Taj Mahal.