Besides "How's the curry?," the most common question we get is, "How's the Taj Mahal?" The curry's fine. The Taj Mahal? Divine. We finally did the pilgrimage (3-hour plane ride, trek across Delhi to a 4-hour train ride to Agra) this spring and the Taj is exactly as advertised. Bad because there wasn't really any surprise. Good because the monument is so amazing that even after seeing 10,000 pictures of it, experiencing it in person doesn't fail to impress. You can't help but be blown away by what 20,000 men can accomplish in 21 years with all the marble they can gather.
It's coming, be patient, wait for it!
A view of the Taj from the Yamuna River, otherwise known as the back of the place. Perhaps the best backyard view in the world?
It takes people to give you a good idea of the Taj's scale. Dwarfs comes to mind. The place is one big marble advertisement, as if the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, who built the Taj as a masoleum to his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal, hired a vinyl siding company, gave it marble instead and it went crazy.
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Little known fact: there are other attractions at the site. Sarah, soaking in the divine light inside the mausoleum.
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