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Other entries in Tāj Mahal

sorry you missed the wedding

this time on our way into town we only got slightly swindled by the richshaw driver (hurrah!), but also officially confirmed the taj is closed on fridays (doh!) so decided to stay an extra day. it's the frickin taj afterall.... 

to make the most of the unexpected time off we bought too many beers (turns out we're both cheap dates now that we've been dry for so long), turned on cricket, and pissed the day away - it was fantastic! 

(a word on this cricket thing - I'm watching loads these days 'cause the ICC championships are in india right now (basically the world cup of cricket). south africa, australia and india are all in so of course there are plenty of teams to root for. and peds is teaching me the rules so I've gone from knowing nothing (what's a wicket? an LBW? how can it be a sport if they wear track suits and funny hats and break for tea?...) to actually seeing some of the strategy and maybe finding it exciting every now and then (tho the beer really helps). and I spose since I'm missing american football so much, this is better than nothing. still, on the continum of excitement in sports, my ranking is now: baseball (most boring) - cricket - american football (hate to say it. it's just that there are so many commercial breaks) - soccer - rugby (non-stop action).

aaaanywhoooo.....back to the taj. finally got in the next day. as soon as we pushed through the crowds and the entrance gate, I could tell this was going to be something amazing!!! without a doubt, add this to the short list of the most amazing things I've ever seen (which, thinking of it, has been: amazon - peru, machu picchu - peru, iguazu falls- argentina, futulafeu river - chile, perito moreno glacier - argentina, fitz roy - argentina, angkor wat - cambodia, halong bay - vietnam, great barrier reef - australia. and not on this trip, but from others: grand canyon - USA, rockies - USA, canyonlands - USA, eifel tower - france, mont blanc - france. soooo not complaining about this list :)

just like everyone goes on and on about, the construction of this mahal is pure perfection. the most beautiful building I've ever seen. every rupee we paid to get in was completely worth it. every rupee the dude paid to build it was thoroughly appreciated.

the main temple is raised above ground to feel like it's floating, the towers really are perfectly proportioned, the all-marble exterior glows in the sun. we shared the moment with like 10,000 other (mostly indian) tourists and honestly, it didn't bother me - the building was that stunning.

we slipped on these shoe protectors to get inside the main temple. this was a monument to the dead mogul's wife in the center surrounded by a marble 'wall'. the wall was full of these floral vines made from inlayed stone - each flower was made of 30+ pieces of individual stone and there were jillions of these flowers. the wall was made of marble screens that took 5 years to carve (each one) and there were too many of these to count too. honestly, there was no place of this major monument that the craftsmanship wasn't absolutely perfect.

but what made the day a freekin riot was the fan club we had walking around. basically everywhere we stopped, within minutes it'd start with a group of young guys coming up to me: "mees, can we get your peekture?"... to make it feel less creepy, there were loads of families stopping too (made the family in pushkar seem mild in comparison) - even making me hold their crying babies. 

I bet I was in 80+ pics by the end of the day. I got a few on my camera too and the best were the guys hanging on me with peds barely in the shot. it was getting a little out of hand so we've started telling the world we're married just to get the guys to back off a little (as in "dude, back off. that's my wife..."). it actually seems to be working.

the whole thing was hilarious more than frustrating but maybe I know a little why famous people get tired of paparazzi now. by the time we had to go, we were pushing people away to get them to stop taking pics. brad and anjolina eat your heart out....

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