The Crown of Palaces - a literal translation for the term that the Brits gave to the monument that they called the Taj Mahal (easier to say and remember than the original long and hard to pronounce Hindi name). We scored a hotel spitting distance from the east gate to the Taj, and Cat was bouncing around like a kid on Christmas morning in anticipation for our visit... but that would have to wait for sunrise the next day.
Firsty we took one of the many electric tuk tuks - the local authorities token effort at curbing acid rain which is staining the Taj yellow - to the Baby Taj. Despite the fact that this is supposed to be what the Taj Mahal was modelled on, you have to use a fair chunk of imagination to tell. The Marble inlay work was cool though as well as the monkeys eating all the flowers. Next a quick spot of backyard cricket with the locals on the banks of the river directly behind the Taj. Nice backdrop, but with the dodgey bowling action that was displayed by the home team it wasn't hard to see why they had just lost to Bangladesh in the World Cup.
Dinner on the roof top 'Shanti' restaurant that night was a blow out as despite charging like a wounded bull for entry to the Taj, they don't light it at night. The food was great though and cheap.
Up early the next morning to bypass the throngs of Korean tour groups getting into the Taj for sunrise. We weren't dissapointed, and I finally got what all the fuss and the wonder of the world status was all about. 20,000 workers, world wide search for a design, tonnes of semi precious stones inlaid in pure white marble, symetry on a massive scale, the biggest ever statement of I love you in history...priceless (US$700,000,000 in todays dollars actually, but whose counting) And there were plans for an identical one on the other side of the river in black marble (vetoed by the Raj's son who usurped his old man and locked him in the Red Fort for the rest of his days.
Speaking of the Red Fort that was our next stop although after being spoilt for choice earlier on our tour, it was same same, but different. The difference was in a sifty bribe to get access to an unlit and locked section of the fort. These sauna rooms came alive with two candles as the ceilings were covered in thousands of curved mirrors which gave a dancing sparkling display as the candles moved. Magic!
The trip back to our hotel involved a bit of a haul up a hill which was a bit too much for our cycle rickshaw drivers. When they jumped off to push I jumped in the saddle and, much to the entertainment of passing motorists and busloads of locals, peddled us up the hill! The driver suggested that he sound be paying us the tip, but we settled on an impromptu palm reading. So for what it is worth, Lyn, Alan, Kate and Phil, you can expect 3 grandchildren from us (2 boys and girl) and apparently Catherine is going to come into a lot of money in the next month!
What Catherine did come into later in the day was daylight robbery. After buying some oranges, we were heading along on of the street near the Taj when the bag of oranges was snatched out of her hand. Having just passed a group of cheeky local boys she turned to give chash, only to discover it was a cheeky monkey that was the culprit. He was up the wall in a flash followed by a score of his mates who proceeded to fight over the spoils for the next few minutes with bits of orange going in all directions... the novelty of monkeys is over.
