Delhi to Agra and the Taj Mahal

I arrived safely in Delhi at 8 am to find (luckily) another lost Brit looking for our airport transfer. Have faith in the fact that wherever you are, there will be another lost English person.

After a quick refresh, we decided to go exploring before we met our new group. New cities are always daunting, especially after 15+ hours of travel and if that city has a population of 18 million or so… We were adopted at the hotel by some other travellers and attempted to navigate the subway. Brave? Imagine the London Underground but with twice as many people, but in all fairness, it was surprisingly easy to navigate, so 1 point to Delhi.

Delhi is hot - obviously. And densely populated - obviously. And just pretty intense. If you've been to Khao San Road in Bangkok, that's nearly Delhi level. It's a hot sea of people, mopeds and beeping horns. The driving is something else. The majority of cars are covered in dents and scratches, if that tells you anything about the style of driving - actually as I wrote this the bus we were on braked so hard our tour guide nearly went through the windscreen. I tell no lies, imagine the nightmare the rest of the tour would have been without the guide. It's just about organised chaos, everyone beeps for everything, "hello", "I'm behind you", "I'm over taking, I'm about to hit you" etc etc.

We then travelled to Agra by train after a 4 am start. We saw the Baby Taj, which was like a tiny beautiful cupcake, small and perfectly formed and decorated. I can't quite believe I just described a historic building like a cake either - sorry! I probably just wanted to talk about the Taj Mahal.

Now, the Taj Mahal is truly stunning. Like, breathtaking. I went with an open mind, for what is meant to be one of the worlds most photographed locations. I also went with a slightly sentimental mind. I remember pouring over pictures of it from my parent's photo albums. It also turns out my Granddad was born in Agra, so it felt like a bit of a pilgrimage.

When I saw that huge white structure through the crowd I actually felt a little emotional, that takes some effort! I was finally staring at this iconic building that I'd seen so much of. For some reason I never really thought I would visit India, even though it feels like such a sentimental place. It just always looked a bit daunting, as if for the intermediate traveller, or a place to go with a tall male companion.

It's incredibly peaceful if you can ignore people wanting to take the odd photo of you! More on that later. We all said we could have happily stayed there for hours just looking at this building while the sun slowly descended behind it. I would describe it, but there are enough photos which we agreed don't quite do it justice, so you will just have to look at the pictures and imagine the grandeur while being incredibly hot and sweaty.

I'm now in Pushkar which is lovely! Pictures are pending, Wifi is obviously a struggle, but I'll carry on attempting to upload as I go and get some pretty things up asap 💛

With love

Naomi