India - the place where things happen in ways you would never imagine. Chaos in the most beautiful way. I still feel like this country has somehow become part of who I am.
The beginning of this trip was quite a story in itself. So we had to find a way to get from Delhi to Agra (Taj Mahal) and then all the way to Jaipur in Rajasthan. The main form of transportation we used was drivers. Yup, that is super affordable in India. And takes a lot of stress off the shoulders because that way the trips become shorter. And you basically don’t need to worry about anything. It’s one of the best ways to get from point A to point B. The distance from Delhi to Agra is around 4-5h and then an additional 4-5h to Jaipur from there. I did reach out to all the people I know in India to ask around for a contact of a driver and believe it or not we did manage to find one who would take us! He did not speak any English tho. We decided to get to the Taj Mahal for sunrise which meant we needed to leave Delhi at 1am just to be on the safe side. The driver called me in the middle of the night and started mumbling about in a language I did not understand a single word of. Me and Alice looked at each other and started laughing our asses off. In the end we did manage to confirm the time and location for him to pick us up. And he did show up right on time! We put our bags in the back, got in and drove off. There is something very pleasant about leaving a place and not knowing when you might come back.
We reached Taj Mahal at around 5.20am and we walked to the entrance right away. We stood there until 6am which is the earliest time you can enter. For those of you who are interested to go there - make sure you get your tickets online in advance (one day beforehand is totally fine!). This will save you some time.
We got ourselves a guide. You don’t have to do that and we did contemplate whether we should do it or not but we did which we were quite happy about! Got to know more about the beautiful Taj Mahal which was build in the memory of Shah Jahan’s favorite wife.
And oh my! going for sunrise was the best decision ever because this place almost looked like something out of this world!
Hope you have enjoyed this visual journey through Taj Mahal! I would love to share even more photos but there is a limit so we’ll have to meet in the next newsletter!
I don’t know how I feel about being back. Part of me hates to sit still in one place. I always need to occupy my mind in some way and my favorite way to do so is by traveling. I have been reflecting a lot about the whole concept of traveling and whether that can even be a goal of mine. What is the purpose of traveling? Why do we crave it so much? Why does it get so exhausting if you are on a long-term trip? Those are some very unsettling questions that have been circulating my mind. Although in some way I crave some sort of stability I can’t sit still. Aren’t those super contradictive? How can one crave both things?
I would love to talk more about this topic with anyone who is interested to dig deeper or if you have any questions please just reply to this email! I can take them in the following one!
Till next time!
Kotryna
❤️