Taj mahal -visiting experiences. Review on Agra

Hi All,

Happened to visit Taj Mahal in September. I would definitely want to share some of the experiences about this tourist place.

Goodness :1) The history of the taj 2) Architectural symmetry 3) How nature has survived this wonder amidst all the earthquakes and other nature calamities that had hit agra so far 4) A big salute for the moghul emperor who built this master piece. 5) A beauty to be proud of 6) How much caring and loving shah-jahan would have been to have built such a great thing for his wife. 7) One can see the masterpieces of the chajja works even outside Taj Mahal, where you can see people working on beatiful momentos being carved out of marble. Infact there is a UP governments handicraft place, which sells white as well red sandstone statues , chajja's and other handicrafts 8) One thing which we can learn from shah-jahan, that money didnt matter for him when compared to the love for his wife. This we can learn from the majestic look of white marbles at work in Taj Mahal.

We started from our hotel at 8.30 AM and reached to the place where shuttles to Taj Mahal starts,thinking that we will look for a shuttle, which meant to be bus or van that would take us to Taj Mahal. From what we read from the travel book was that it would be free trip for tourists. But to our surprise, when we entered into the place where the shuttle starts, the battery operated auto wallas were raging near to our car looking for a customer ..he said that shuttle no longer operates .Even we could not see any shuttles operating and so we became a prey to pay those cunning auto walla's a 50 Rs. After reaching Taj-mahal by battery operated auto, I went buy the entry tickets, I was suprised ,as the ticket price was only Rs 20 for indian nationals. That is when I understood that the auto rickshaw from the shuttle point which we hired, was a cheat.

Then when we were about to enter into the Taj mahal, we were stopped for regular security check-in's. During the time we were standing for the check-in, couple of Guide kept on nagging us. Though we didn't care them much they were following us till the secured entrance. The guides were nagging us so much that we had to accept one of them ...that too, we had to do it, without our consent, as he came along with us ..I donno how ..I think the securities allow the guides to enter in. Finally we entered into the Taj Mahal. We guys were awed by the marvel.

We visited inside the tomb. Looks like they dont allow photography inside the tomb. But we felt so sad when we came to know that out of anger aurangazeb, the son of shah-jahan placed the body of shah-jahan near to the mumtaz's tomb. Though it was not the suggested place to place his body, but aurangazeb has done it with anger on his father ..this is the only thing which is unsymmetrical in taj-Mahal..

After completing our visit we came out to see those wonderful handicrafts. Among which were the beautiful window work or chajja's ( I don't know the exact name ) but they are being crafted by great artisian ..

Sometimes I feel these artisians should be nutured for they are the ones who create such wonderful masterpieces

On our way back we took the manual auto rickshaw. Infact I thought we should help those people by renting their rickshaws. Definitely the manual auto rickshaw walla was not cunning as the auto rickshaw walla's.

So my suggestion before you visit, decide whether to rent a guide or not. If you decide not to, then please ignore those nagging people around once you are near the entrance. At one point in time ,the guides were so pestering that I felt that I should have visited some other place other than the Taj mahal itself.

And one more thing, looks like there is an entry ticket for the night show of taj Mahal during full moon light. Please don't miss that.