Wonders of the world – Taj Mahal

The seven wonders of the world is always a fascination for me and whenever I get an opportunity I try to visit these beautiful marvels. One of my best buddy was getting married in Delhi and we thought why not plan a trip with near by places. So we went through a lot of places and finally decided that we will travel from Delhi to Agra and Jaipur for 3 days and be back in Delhi.

We started from Delhi after lunch around 3-4 pm and reached Agra that night and checked into the hotel. We booked car through one of the rental services in Delhi called VolerCars, we picked up a Ford Ecosport since there 4 people travelling (I loved Ecosport so much after this trip, that I bought a Ford Ecosport for my own driving in few months 🙂 We stayed at Ramada in Agra and the stay was perfect with luxurious rooms and good breakfast.

The next day we checked out after breakfast and started our journey towards Taj Mahal. We had lunch in one of the road side dabha’s and reached Taj Mahal around 3 pm. One tip is when you enter Taj Mahal there would lot of tour guides asking if you need their service, I would suggest getting a tour guide mainly they helped with the tickets and we avoided standing in the queue and you would get more details and insights about the place with the guide. You could always read about it if you like but having a local person along with you would def help in many ways. And make sure you visit Taj Mahal before sunset and allow 2-3 hours fully to be in the place to see the marvellous creation.

I was totally awestruck when I entered the main building. The pictures and videos of Taj Mahal doesn’t justify what you actually see in person, the magnificence of the place can be felt only seeing it for real in person. The way it is built and the effort taken to build it was tremendous. It totally justifies why its called wonder of the world. We spent around 2-3 hours soaking in the beauty of Taj Mahal and left from Agra around 7 pm. We had dinner in one of the dhaba’s and reached Jaipur late midnight.

We stayed at Army Officers Guest house, since my friend had some contacts there. We had our own villas and breakfast was served hot in the mornings. After breakfast we planned to visit Amber palace and Jal Mahal.

Amber palace or Amer Fort is one of the huge palaces I have seen across India. Plan for a half day fully at Amber palace to see every nook and corner. Do have a local guide to explain how the palace is built, it is definitely worth it. It was interesting to know how they imported marbles and other precious stones from Italy to adorn this palace. The rooms in the palace are built according to seasons and with natural lighting and cooling effects it could be used for various seasons. It will make you think how luxuriously kings and queens lived in Historical India and celebrate the richness of their living.

We visited few shops nearby to check how the natural dye for clothes are made. Rajasthan is famous for the indigo colour and dyed fabrics which is a must have collection in the wardrobe. We visited Jantar Mantar which is the Jaipur Observatory used for astronomical calculations. You will find various instruments built in the 17th century. I found it really interesting to see all the instruments built and used to measure time, calculate eclipse, predict stars and planet movements etc. If you like astronomy or find it interesting this is a must visit place. Try to spend some time reading about each instrument and how the calculations are observed. Outside the observatory, lot of pigeons fly around and you can try feeding them 🙂

We also visited Jal Mahal but you can only see Jal Mahal from outside since its closed for visitors. Jal Mahal gets its name from Cal which means water and the mahal means palace, the palace is situated in the centre of a lake that’s why its called Jal Mahal. We did some road side shopping and visited Choki Dhani which is a set up of Jaipur with some interactive games and finally good food.

Next day we visited Hawa Mahal, hawa means air and you will find the palace with lots and lots of windows. Its a different architecture from all the other palaces where you find windows everywhere in different sizes and shapes. It is also right in the middle of a busy road. We also visited City palace which is also another big palace in Jaipur.

We reached Delhi late night and immediately went to airport for the flight back to Chennai.

We did a lot of shopping in Jaipur. You can plan at least half day just for shopping since Jaipur is famous for many things like fabrics, slippers, bags, bangles, handicrafts, natural products like Henna and Multani Methi. Jaipur is also famous for the blue pottery and we bought some plates which still hangs in my room. It is also famous for the precious stones like Ruby, emerald, sapphire etc but that might be on the expensive side.

We had only 3-4 days, so we couldn’t plan for Udaipur or Jaisalmer. Usually when people visit Rajasthan they plan for these 3 places together. Maybe next trip i’ll try to cover the entire Rajasthan. When you plan for Jaipur make sure you spend 2-3 days completely in Jaipur to visit all the places and shopping is a must since you get so many unique things which you get only in Jaipur and you can bargain a lot.

Budget was around 15k per person which includes flights to and fro from Delhi, Rental Car, Accommodation, sight seeing, shopping and food.