2 am and we’re already on the road. After much discussion, we decided that the best option was to go early and come back early since our train to Varanasi was at 6pm that day. Plus, prospect of less crowds and sunrise at Taj Mahal was too good to ignore.
With a constant reminder that I’m on the roads of India for the next 3.5 hours with a driver who might not have had enough sleep, it was hard to get much sleep in the car. Thankfully, we arrived at Taj Mahal around 5:30 in the morning and first things first, we have a nice warm chai.
After warming ourselves up, we head over to the ticket counter to try and get some tickets. Me, Amana, Ainthu (Amana’s sis in law) and Ian (cutie pie nephew) decide to stay back whilst Amana’s brother (Nammu/Thithibey) and mom go take the tickets as they speak Hindi more fluently.
As usual, a local guide came and started asking if we wanted him to be our guide. We initially decided that we don’t want a guide and ignored his requests. At the same time, at the queue Thithibey and mom was in a heated discussion with a lady behind them.
So what happened was… they were in the foreign queue (rightly so.. we are foreigners in India!), but the lady behind them assumed they were Indian (because brown skin and all) and told them quite rudely to move to the local queue. It’s quite normal for people to assume that we’re Indian and for the most part we ignore these types of comments. After giving her a good telling off we decide to move on.
The Magnificent Taj Mahal
We proceed to the queue to get into Taj Mahal next and went to the separate male and female queues. This is because females go into a covered screened area for security check before getting in. Whilst in the queue, the very persistent guide came up to us boys and decided to pitch himself once more. We hear him out and decide that we will accept his offer as it was our first time (except for Thithibey and mom) in Taj Mahal.
It turned out to be a good decision indeed as he explained the history of the different places well plus he showed us nice locations to take photos. He also ended up being defacto photographer for us, which meant that the other photographers there did not ask us if we wanted our photos taken. Well they couldn’t as our guide kept shoo-ing them away. Great work pal!
I never realised just how big the Taj Mahal is until I went up to it and saw it in its magnificent glory. Because almost all the photos of Taj Mahal are from quite far away. The white marbled structure was so grand it’s no wonder it is one of the seven modern wonders of the world. The golden hue on the marbled structure at sunrise made it especially glorious. So glad we decided to do the early morning ride there.
Important Information
Taxi – We booked our taxi through an app called Ola. You would need a local number to use this app. It cost us 6,000 rupees (~MVR1,500, $95, £70, €80) for the return trip from South Delhi to Taj Mahal. Duration was 3.5 hours to go and around 4.5 hours to come back. Plus however long we spent at Taj Mahal. We think the price is fair considering the duration of the trip and the time we left.
Taj Mahal tickets – The Taj Mahal website mentions that SAARC countries rate is rp.530 (Rf.130, $8, £6) but we remember paying rp.150 (Rf.40, $2, £2) per person (don’t quote us on this). The Foreigners rate on the website says rp.1000 (Rf.240, $15, £12) but some other forums have said that it is 750 rupees. From our experience even the rp.1000 is a very decent price to get into a tourist attraction, let alone one of the seven modern wonders of the world.
Additionally, the tour guide asked us to pay rp.300, which is the local rate. He said that since we were his first customers of the day it was good omen for the rest of the day for him to quote a lower price. We ended up paying him extra as we felt he was very good and helpful throughout.
Thanks a lot for taking the time to read this post! Hope it has been helpful and informative. Please share and let us know if you have any more suggestions and tips in the comments below. Plus check out the post about the Sights of Varanasi from this link.
Thanks again for visiting!
Happy Travels!