When it's about love ,it's about visiting Agra .

Cherine Huesseni & The Old Monker -The most imp reason why I visited Agra was because my travel mate Cherine Huesseni from Morocco had a wish to visit The Taj Mahal before she goes back to her country

Whom did I travel to Agra with ?

⁃ Hey folks , ever have you imagine when you travel and you meet someone during your journey and that person becomes your travel partner .

⁃ When I was in goa , I hosted 2 girls on Couchsurfing , Yulia semenova from Russia & Cherine Huesseni from Morocco . They both were in India for a student exchange program and were faculty's. at Sigma institute , Vadodara .

⁃ Destiny sometimes plays an imp role and I do agree world is round and everything goes round and round . When I hosted them in goa , they came to know even I was from Vadodara , And then we had some good travellers time in Goa and became good friends .

Me , Cherine & Yulia with our other friends in Goa

⁃ Then , we decided to travel to some amazing destinations like Jaipur, Agra , Sassan Gir , Udaipur & Agra which was indeed a Road trip .

⁃ So it was me and Cherine whol travelled together and explored different cities by a road trip from Vadodara to Agra .

⁃ Two travellers with two different thought process and two different countries and also different perspectives in life , decided to travel together and it has amazing fun ahead .

Where did we stay in Agra ?

⁃ The most difficult thing in Agra was to decide where to stay , whether to stay in hostel or a hotel

⁃ As it was a budget trip, we decided to stay at Rhine hostel Agra which was just 1km from the Taj Mahal .

When we Visited the TAJ MAHAL :-

⁃ Taj Mahal , the symbol of love built by the Mughal ruler Shahjahan for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal and also an house to the tomb of Shah Jahān himself .

⁃ The visit to Taj Mahal had the craziest mishaps and also some good memories .

⁃ Cherine has a dream to visit the Taj Mahal , but dreams don't get fulfilled to easily . There are always barriers and you have to overcome those barriers .

The Travel Hack during the visit to Taj Mahal :- We had to make 2 attempts to visit the Taj Mahal .

When we visited the Taj on the 2nd day of our trip at early morning at 6 am , there were entry fees to be paid at the Taj Mahal .

⁃ If you are an Indian you have to pay a ticket price of ₹ 10 whereas if you are not an Indian , you need to pay a ticket price of ₹ 1000 .

⁃ As it was out budget trip , we didn't wanted to pay 1000 as a entry fee for Cherine as she was not an Indian and even after a lot of request to the authorities they didn't allow us and sent us back and we then decided to visit the Jama Masjid.

Some soothing voice of the nature

⁃ We came back the 2nd time , next morning but this time we bought a ticket for just 10 rs for both of us . Making an Indian id Of cherine wasn't difficult as we are in the era of photoshop and we made a adhar card of her and got an entry for just 10 rs. Some travel hacks are necessary .

The magnificient Taj Mahal :-

⁃ When you enter the premises of the Taj Mahal , the first thing which irritates you is the number of guides who continuously keep on telling you to hire you so they tell you about the history of the taj and the whole premises . We hired one of them as it was necessity to know the history of the place .

⁃ As it always said and believed in the Muslim religion , they always keep all the beautiful things behind a parda (curtain ) , in a similar way , Shahjahan decided to built a grand Gate in front of the Taj Mahal , so no one could directly see the beauty of It . .

⁃ After crossing the Gate you see the Magnifient Taj Mahal , with 4 courtyards in front of it and a walkway besides the pool use to water the gardens besides it .

⁃ The reason why a water body was built in front was to see the reflection of the taj in water .

⁃ Both of us , were mesemerized by the beauty of the taj and the inscriptions in the white marble .

⁃ When you enter taj you feel the presence of love everywhere and it was so beauitfuly built and constructed .

The visit to Taj Mahal was a Dream come true . Indeed it was a beginning of a new story altogether .

The visit to JAMA MASJID :-

We had a checklist to visit the Jama Masjid , so we decided to put the car in gear to visit and witness the largest mosque in India commissioned by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan .

⁃ But on the way , when we reached near Agra fort , we were told by the locals to park the car near the fort and move there in a cycle rickshaw /tuktuk as going in the car wasn't possible because of the market and the crowd near the mosque .

⁃ Cherine , she being Muslim had a great knowledge about why was the mosque imp and I was so keen to know about her religion as well . Sometimes while travelling , all the barriers of religion differences disaapears and what we do is just know about all the cultures and all religions .

⁃ We both, could spot the historical mosque from a long way distance as it was so clearly visible from a great distance . The red sandstones out of which it was built could be spotted from a long distance .

⁃ I wouldn't lie but I went in a mosque for the first time ever in my life and that too such a significant one .

Me and Cherine at the Jama Masjid , Agra

⁃ When we entered the mosque ,the first thing what I could see was a beautiful painting in the courtyard of the mosque and a Chajja on the roof .

⁃ The domes of the mosque were built in the shape on inverted lotus & Kalash on the top of it.

⁃ It had so much on inscriptions on the pillars and it had some great carvings and decorations in the interior .

⁃ Then me and Cherine both offered Prayers in the mosque and we moved in the courtyard .

What Amazed us in the courtyard of the mosque ???

⁃ When we moved out to the courtyard , to the left we saw a group of children's. studying and helping each other to learn and right .

⁃ We moved towards them to have a conversation and had some photo sessions with them . It was such a fun .