We had a good sleep and got up pretty early as we wanted to visit Tajmahal for Sunrise. Taj Mahal is 15 mins walk from our homestay but otherwise there are battery operated shuttles available from parking till main gate. We reached the main gate (East gate) by 6.30 a.m. We already did the online booking which is a mandatory thing and you can do it untill 6pm on ASI site. Like any tourist places guides, small vendors would start approaching you as soon as you see those souvenir shops near main gate. I wasn't very keen on taking a guide as I have already read a lot about this monument but we still hired one guide because he offered to click our photos , knowing my husband's "wonderful photography skill" I could not reject this offer :). We paid him Rs. 200
Our plan was to see Sunrise from Taj but it was too smoggy (AQI was 400+) we could not see it.It takes about 2-3 hours for the entire visit, offcourse you can complete it in 15 mins too.
Couple of things which I really liked :-
1. Online booking which is hassel free and ticket rates are very reasonable. If you want to visit
Mousoulium then charges are 200 otherwise ticket is merely 35 rupees.
2. Cleanliness : A world Heritage like this where lakhs of people visit every day , maintaining cleanliness is real difficult task. Authorities are doing very good job.
having said that security is loosely managed and be aware of pocket pickers too.
Best time to visit is early morning when rush is pretty manageable.
We were back to Coral Houes (our homestay) by 9.30 and had tasty homely breakfast. They served us cut fruits, eggs, toast,poha and tea/coffee.
Post breakfast we had good gupshup with owner Mr. Talan and read some books. Kids played in varanda so basically we were just relaxing. Now there are around 7 to 8 places you can visit in and around Agra. We were not very keen to visit all but one place which I would've missed no matter what was "Agra Fort". Since childhood we have been hearing stories about miraculous escape of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj from Agra hence I always wanted to see this place. We hired local Auto to commute within Agra as driving in Agra is a hell of a task. Booking of Agra Fort is done online. Again do take a guide otherwise it would be as good as visiting a empty building and come back. Guide charges are in the range of 200-300 rupees.
30% of Agra fort is open for visitors and rest is under Army but even to see that 30% it takes about hour or more. I'm not going to write about history , google is best for that but you will admire the fact that how beautiful this city and place must have been. It's on a bank of River Yamuna and Yamuna must have not been polluted in that era like today. After 400 years also you can feel richness of this place and makes you wonder in unknown city, unknown people , 1000 miles away from home how Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Sambhaji Maharaj must have managed their escape.
post Agra fort, we headed straight to the Rambabu Paratha Bhandar (check my separate post on it)
After heavy lunch it was time for siesta. Because of smogg ,we didn't feel like going out so we decided to stay indoor and relax. Friend of ours suggested us to try "Pinch of Spice" for mughlai food. We had our dinner there , it wasn't authentic for sure but it was definitely good. We met few Maharashtra tourist there.
After dinner when we reached home , surprise was waiting for us. It was our birthday and home stay owner arranged cake for us.
and with that sweet note we called it for a day.
P.s. You'd find 1000 of shops selling Petha and daalmoth (Namkeen) but we were told by many almost all of them are fake. There are only handful of shops in the city where you would get authentic Petha.Gopaldas on Tejganj road is one of them.
I wanted to buy leather purse but again you'd get lot of fake things so cancelled it. Apperently real leather is exported and what we get is synthetic leather.
Also be aware while buying marble souvenirs too. Lot of them are fake ,made with pop. It's better to take localite advise.
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