Taj Mahal, India

I have always wanted to go to Taj Mahal, and this dream was fulfilled recently. Early this October, my boss kindly approved my business travel to India for a partner visit. It was a very short notice and I hesitated for a moment as it coincides with my balik kampong trip. Eventually I decided to go as it will be the last travel approval by my boss. Still very amazed that I managed to put together all the business visa requirements in half a day (there’s a long list of them) and submit the application the next day with a fee of more than RM450 (quite expensive!). My business visa was approved just in time – phew! And on the same day I received an important piece of info from my colleague Stephan that there’s an attraction near Noida, and it’s Taj Mahal! From Noida to Agra (where Taj Mahal is), it used to take 4.5 hours one way. However with the new highway, it only takes about 3 hours one way. Excellent!

We departed immediately after meetings on Day 2 with some packed food from the cafeteria. The whole journey including sightseeing took about 8-9 hours. It was very tiring but it’s all worthwhile. Taj Mahal is indeed very beautiful. The design of Taj Mahal, its surrounding buildings, gardens and gates are symmetrical. Its building architecture leveraged much on optical illusion. There’s no paintings in Taj Mahal – the wordings, the designs all were handcrafted with workmanships and stones. Right behind Taj Mahal is one of the three holy rivers in India, the Yamuna River. Sunset was very beautiful in Taj Mahal as we saw the skyline changing colours during sunset.

Special thanks to my colleague Stephan for all the good advice, my counterpart John for joining me in this brief adventure and last but not least my colleague Anand who assisted us on the transport arrangement.