Where did I leave off? Oh right..we danced all night at the wedding! Except eventually kids did need to go to sleep and I had to stay up packing our suitcases till 2 am.
After our nice hotel breakfast the next morning, we were all dressed up and ready to go on our private bus back to Taj Mahal for more pictures. My sister and her new husband were swept away by paparazzi our photographers, so they could take a million of pictures on their own all around Taj Mahal. Meanwhile, our Ukrainian group got a super quick tour of Taj Mahal with a private guide who spoke Russian (I remember 3% of what he told us).
We took a lot of pictures as well. These are just pictures from our personal camera. Professional photographers took a bunch more.
Oh, it was so nice and sunny.
We allowed our kids to show their goofy side for a moment.
Sunny indeed. I love this picture-haha. Kids are having such a hard time looking at the camera.
We got to see this majestic building up close. It was so much bigger in real life than I ever imagined.
And it’s definitely a popular destination for Indian visitors and foreign tourists alike.
Although if you are a foreigner, you are given these special shoe covers (I didn’t notice it then, but apparently Indian people took their shoes off inside the building).
The building itself was amazing! Inside was a bit underwhelming as the tomb that was inside was merely a replica of the original anyway (that is stored in the basement). We were short on time, so our whole guided tour was very rushed.
Mark was antsy from lack of sleep and walking and walking and walking.
But since you don’t get to go to Taj Mahal every day, we had to persevere. Mark, you are tough! Common!
Oh good, we’ve got one good picture of Robert at Taj Mahal.
This is a building next to Taj.
At the end of our tour, we caught up with the newlyweds and were able to take a few more family pictures.
When we all gathered together, we headed to the place where we were going to eat lunch. This restaurant, a walking distance from Taj Mahal, was in a stunning location with a beautiful view.
This is its decorated entrance.
A stage and our tables were set up on a hill with Taj Mahal in the background.
Boys’ new friends.
This is Mokshada, Saumya’s sister, and her friend with all the children attending.
“Oh look, it’s Taj Mahal over there! Lets play TAG!”.
So this nice plan of a lunch with a beautiful view did not work out after all. While dancers were dancing, pictures of us were being printed (and taken right there and then), and food was being prepared, electricity went out.
Basically, with a few misunderstandings and unfortunate events, we left this location without our lunch served to us. Instead, we had it packed for us so we could eat it on our bus, since we had to hurry to drive back to Delhi to catch our evening flight. It was quite disappointing and frustrating for both—our hosts and us. I was stressed because I was afraid we’d miss our flight to Kolkata if we waited any longer in Agra. Although, our whole Indian family was flying with us on the same flight (and apparently they have extra powers to make the plane wait for them if they are late), I still couldn’t even imagine getting to the airport with less than an hour to spare-haha.
But it all worked out at the end and we got some yummy curry (although still too spicy for my European family) on the bus.
Our bus ride to the airport was quite uneventful. Traffic was heavy in Delhi again, but we still made it to the airport check-in desk on time (25 minutes before it closed). What happened next will have to wait till my next post. For now, good bye, Agra!
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