120 miles didn't seem that far...

Ok this was actually ages ago, long before andyfied started demanding travel stories from everyone he’s even been the proximity of for a minute to contribute to his ‘website’.

Well over a year ago I found myself in India on a business trip with a few days to spare between meetings. I asked my boss what productive things he could suggest for this period of time, he simply replied ‘I’m not staying in Calcutta for two days for anyone, lets go to see the Taj Mahal’. (Note: I have actually done some real back packing, though these are distant drunken memories).

Either way we asked our usually reliable travel agent for recommendations on how to travel to the Taj Mahal (like Machu Picchu on the somewhat discredited list of the New 7 Wonders of the world). He recommended flying to Delhi and taking a taxi to the Taj Mahal. On the face of it this seemed like a sensible idea as the Taj Mahal was only 120 miles from Delhi, India’s mighty capital city, and the airline connections were pretty rubbish. They may have only been rubbish that weekend, I am reliably informed that the airport at Agra (the nearest city to the ‘Taj) are good with international connections.

So it was with very little trepidation that we set off at 7am from our hotel in Delhi towards the Agra. 120 miles does not sound like a long journey at all, does it? That is London – Birmingham, which using logic from a friend of mine (who is known only by his facial hair) at 120 mph it would only take an hour. I was not expecting our honest taxi driver to do those kind of speeds, however an average of 60 mph would have got us there in a mere two hours.

Sadly this was way, way too much to expect of the Indian road system. Some 4.5 hours after setting off from the hotel in Delhi we arrived in the vicinity of the Taj Mahal, having negotiated countless rickshaws, lorries, pickup trucks carrying way too many people, oxen, elephants and a camel. We also had to stop at a number of checkpoints where our driver paid a stern looking police man some money. Once we got near the Taj Mahal we picked up our tour guide. The geezer did a fairly good job of explaining the history of the place to us as we approached.

The first thing that struck me as we approached the place was the sheer number of people that were there. I had somewhat naively hoped I could get a photo of myself on the bench in a Princess Diana pose. Unfortunately it was not to be. When we got through the main gates there was a queue of literally hundreds, if not thousands of people waiting to sit on that bench. (I have provided a mock-up of what the image would have looked like had I had the opportunity).

Seriously, the place is amazing, the intricacy of the stonework, with precious gems inlaid into the symmetrical patterns is stunning. Sadly I appear to have lost all of the photos I took, so you’ll have to do some google-ing.