The Taj Mahal

The next day we went to the Taj Mahal. We wanted to get their for sunrise and Mimi was told that it was a nice place to spend the day and read so I brought my kindle. Once we got our tickets and waited in line I got to security and they told me that electronic reading devices were not allowed. I then had to walk about a mile to the "locker room" and pay to keep my kindle there. By the time I got back the sun had risen. The Taj Mahal was still beautiful and it was early enough that there weren't that many people there and we got some good pictures. We dressed in our "saris" that day and wore colorful bindis and looked very festive. Throughout the day I think more people took pictures of us than the Taj Mahal and we got many comments on how nice my sari was. It was especially nice to hear it from the older Indian women because I find them the most judgmental and it seemed to validate what I was wearing. We left for 10 minutes for lunch and decided to buy playing cards. Security almost didn't let us in, but finally told us we could bring them in if we didn't open them. We got away with playing cards on a bench for about an hour until 2 men told us it was not allowed. I asked them why and they just pointed at the Taj Mahal. Apparently because its a mausoleum you are not allowed to do anything fun there. It was nice to watch the light change on the building which, from a distance seemed small and far away, but with the feeling that it would be huge when you got up closer. It was very big, but once inside it seemed like it should have been even bigger. The inside of the building was intricately designed, with semi precious stones, but not nearly as impressive as the exterior view. We ended up spending 6 hours there which seemed to fly by. If I don't see anything else in India, my trip here was worth it for that.