I'm not really very big into these huge tourist places, maybe because I live in one, so I wasn't absolutely thrilled to go to the Taj Mahal. (Is that terrible?) Looking beyond the gate, it was like another heaven. Slowly the Taj appeared, separating itself from the light blue sky behind. We fought our way through the tourists (mostly Indian, surprisingly) taking pictures of holding the top of the building and on through the garden. It felt like I was walking towards a big postcard, instead of a real, 3-dimensional work of art. Up close the marble was cool on our feet and thankfully not as crowded as I thought it would be. After walking around it on three different levels we went inside. To be honest, the inside isn't anything special. Two tombs, that's it. We were given 2 hours here, which was far too much, so our whole group napped in the shade behind the building. It was pretty cool.
Next stop was Delhi where we visited the Quitab Minar which was a tall minaret surrounded by a broken-down temple. Next, we visited the Lotus Temple which looked great from the outside, but resembled a conference hall inside with every sound echoing five times.
Stop #3 was the India Gate which was a monument dedicated to the Indian soldiers fighting with England against Hitler and the Germans in World War II. I had no idea India was involved at all with WWII, so that was an interesting piece of knowledge.
The Akshar Dham temple was one of the most beautiful monuments we had seen on the trip. Outside it looked just like a big temple with carvings all around the outside and a beautiful, well-manicured lawn. Inside, however, was pretty unique. There was one huge gold statue of... an important man surrounded by the most glittery jewels, glass, and mirrors. There were another 8 statues of gods and goddesses around the inside of the temple which each was like their own prism of light. I had to put my sunglasses on this place was sparkling so brightly!
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