The train and the Taj

The Taj Mahal was never at my top of the list must see places in India. For me, it's a country of experiences, not necessarily monuments. And maybe I've become a little jaded from too many "must see" buildings during my European travels (Cathedral overload anyone?). But Mum and Dad had both been before, and insisted the Taj was worth the effort, we had to go to Agra! And I'm so glad we did, it was breathtaking!

And lucky for us, we got to see the epic "monument" of the Taj Mahal AND we got the "experience" of a freezing 19 hour sleep class carriage on the train journey to Agra. Win win really.

So let me first start with the experience, because the story gets much better from there. Train travel in India is the main form of long-distance transport, and the tickets sell out months in advance. The government has a small quota of tickets reserved for foreign tourists, but even then getting the seat you want on the train you want can be tough. We managed to get tourist quota tickets for our 12 hour overnight train from Varanasi to Agra, but not in 1st, 2nd or even 3rd AC class, but in sleeper class. Which dear internet, is effectively 4th class. On an Indian train. I was confident, Mum was a little nervous.

The train was 3 hours late to arrive, but once aboard armed with newly purchased polar-fleece blankets we found out we were sharing our little section of the carriage with three other tourist quota ticket holders, a girl from Australia and  two guys from Japan. They were lovely and we all chatted. The windows in our carriage are wedged open for most of the year because of the stifling heat, however our day of travel just happened to be the coldest day in the region in 40 years. Max of 7 degrees and bitter fog. And the windows wouldn't close. 

After surviving the freezing night by jamming newspaper into the windows gaps (and re-jamming whenever a fast train sped by us and caused the newspaper to fall out!) we were consoled with the fact that we were 11 hours into the trip, so not long until a hot shower and a heater to warm our toes. But as with every "experience" 'not long' turned into 8 more hours! The heavy fog caused us major delays, so the only thing to do was snuggle together with our new train buddies and eat fruit cake that Dad thankfully had stashed in his suitcase! The Agra train station felt like a mirage as we finally pulled in at 4pm,10 hours after our expected arrival time - warm toes and the Taj finally within our grasp! But would the thick fog clear by the next day so that we could actually see the Taj Mahal?!?!

We had had the travel "experience" now we wanted the monument!

The next day we woke up to clear skies! Unfortunately Dad wasn't feeling well, so it was just Mum and I, but I saw the Taj Mahal and everyone was right. Totally worth the effort! One monument that does actually exceed all expectations!

So when we finally made it into the Taj Mahl, in honour of surviving the adventure to get there (and because I know how much you all appreciate a good photo shoot!) here are the photos of mother and daughter at the Taj Mahal. They're not quite to the same standard as the glamour shots, but considering the thousands of people who were jumping in front of our shots and nudging us off seats/ ground space to get their perfect Taj tourist picture, I think they turned out pretty well! Mum even attempted a jump shot! Woo! 

I'm pretty sure Indian Tourism are going to snap these up!

 It was totally worth the 19 hours of freezing toes! Amaze!