Agra: Taj Mahal

Monday 20th March

Train to Agra today – around 4 hours which is perfect. A bit of a nap, homeschool and some food!

Tuesday 21st March

In it to win it today with a 5am start to get to the Taj before it gets too busy. We were not the first there! We took a guide but honestly we probably didn’t need one. It really is amazing and HUGE – it dominates the landscape. We have been lucky, the weather has been quite cool recently, but with it some rain. So we weren’t sure if we’d catch a sunrise or clouds. It didn’t disappoint.

What I did notice was everyone wears REALLY nice clothes to the Taj Mahal – I thought that was kind of strange. Then I realised, it’s all about the money shots! Clearly we scrubbed up with our ONE long sleeved t-shirts!

However, don’t let photos fool you, the guide we booked didn’t show up – he ended up meeting us there! And poor Henry was starving so was really hangry the whole way round. It’s a miracle we got any photos at all!

The Taj Mahal was made for a King’s wife for after she died – so it was all made in the name of love. And would have cost $2 billion to make in today’s money. There are a load of other facts the kids learnt in home school but I can’t remember them! He was going to build himself a black version of the Taj on the other side of the river, but his son fancied being king so arrested him!

This is at 5.45am! 👇

Then we hit up Agra fort which is a UNESCO world heritage site – it was almost as beautiful as the Taj Mahal. If it had been anywhere else in India, it would have been the highlight of that city!

No, you do it like this! 👇

As a side note, our hostel was lovely in Agra – beautiful outside space, and we really loved the city. It has such a different feel to it. Where our hotel was located was next to ‘normal’ India – open sewers, communities living together. It was cool. When we walked through, everyone knew the family with the blonde kids were around and we had lots of hello’s with the local kids. T ventured out for a haircut and the crowd that gathered round to see it was hilarious!

Here☝ T is doing home school with C – we’ve arranged presentations to their classes about each country. So it’s quite cool because they are learning to put together a presentation, and learning how to present it in a digestible format. Clearly that’s what T does for a job so he loves it!

Wednesday 22nd March – Henry’s 7th birthday!

What a day! 6am excited start to the day, he opened his snacks which we bought him for the big day – he did a lucky dip into a big bag! Sara v kindly gave him some story cubes from Arlo & Evie. And we picked up some football cards on Amazon India! It’s the simple things in life.

Our hotel owners (Coral House Homestay) were amazing and got him a piece of cake, a candle and some pancakes for breakfast. And gave him a little magnet of the Taj which was v kind of them.

Train ride to Delhi – very delayed, took 4 hours in the end. It had come from Kerala, 3 days prior so the bogs on this were very special. Contrast to what we did next!

Here is C marvelling at the loos!

So went straight for our fancy afternoon tea at the Imperial hotel. It’s funny because it felt like a slice of home, proper fancy. Such a contrast to the travel we’ve been doing, and how comfortable we are in less fancy places! Hs face says it all! 👇

As if that wasn’t a busy enough day, then it was the Museum of Illusions which was a fab thing to do for kids. And, of course, Maccers.