The list of items that you are not allowed to take into the Taj Mahal seemed limitless but we had been warned of this and so only took cameras. X-rayed and frisked we entered the outer compound and the South Entrance to the Taj and I know you have seen this already but this was the view through the gate and the first sight of this truly magical and ‘ Wonder of the World’.
It 11.00 am and we are about to enter Dubai and I a waiting for my tour today which is ‘Modern Dubai and High Tea at the Burj’ – high tea on in the 2nd tallest building in Dubai!
I had a great day in Bahrain yesterday and we now have 2 days in Dubai since we are ate the end of Sector where we are told 500 guests are leaving and 520 boarding so the ship will be packed full for the last leg back to Southampton on 31st March.
Sandra, the Tours Manager has just phoned me to say that for my balloon trip tomorrow I am to meet her and another lady with whom I shared my Galapagos trip last year at 4.15 am!!! Whilst in the Gym last night I had seen on the TV that there had been fatalities in a balloon crash at Luxor but Sandra bless her has phoned head office and the port agent in Dubai and has been told that it was a different type of balloon so reassured whilst you are all asleep I shall be drifting across the sand dunes!! Hopefully we will get to see the ‘Palm Tree Islands’ and ‘the map of the world’ that have been created out of the sea as we ascend.
So I’m afraid you will have to wait a little longer for full pictures of the Taj and whilst I decide how much I should tell you of tis history and construction.
Along the last stretch that we walked to the entrance were hundreds of hawkers – they were not as bad as I remember in St Petersburg but still hard to shake –off if you as much uttered a word or made eye contact.
I turned round to find Ken escorting not fellow members of our group but a group of buffalo who had appeared from a side street!
Dried cow dung for fuel!!
Breakfast over we took to the bus for the short trip to the ‘battery bus”. Diesel busses are not allowed within a kilometre or so of the Taj Mahal to cut down the pollution so electric vehicles are required to convey tourists to within 300 metres of the entrance gate. As you can imagine it was a very busy approach road with camel carts, horse drawn carriages, bicycle rickshaws to name but a few of the other conveyances all-plying for trade.
Our driver set of at break neck speed down the centre of this road, horn blazing and he did not lift his foot off the pedal for one second. Susie and Hugh – a couple I got to know – were sitting next to the driver and were both shaking by the time we got to the entrance!! Dorrinder told us that this is why most Indians are Hindus since they all can have their personal gods to look after them in this mayhem.
We had been warned that the train only stops for 5 minutes at Aggra so Dorrinder our Guide made sure we were ready to disembark, not easy with other tourists, backpacks, cases and sleeping children in arms but we all managed it safely on to the platform but getting out of the station was a real scrum with hundreds of taxi drivers thronging around the door fighting for custom – literally in some cases – and reducing the exit to single file. The last time I had been such a scrum was in Buenos Aries in December 2011 whilst trying to get into the Boca Juniors Stadium for a cup final match – my ticket didn’t work in the turnstiles and I was stranded outside amongst thousands of passionate and chanting Boca fans!! Luckily I was rescued!!
Well I made it through this throng and 25 years of commuting skills came in very useful!! We emerged to hundreds of tuk-tuks, rickshaws and taxis and thank goodness an air-conditioned bus and were soon on our way to the Jaycee Palace Hotel for our second breakfast of the day before leaving for the Taj Mahal.
Photo is of a rickshaw!
