Don & Kully's World Cruise on Viking Neptune

This morning, we departed the hotel at 5:30 AM to view sunrise on the grounds of the Taj Mahal. This breath-taking structure and surrounding gardens were built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in the mid 1600’s in tribute to his wife empress Mumtaz Mahal ‘the Lady of the Taj’, who died in 1631, as a testament to his eternal love for her. The emperor sought designs from all over the world for the empress’s memorial and final resting place, the design of Turkish, Ustan Isa Afandi was selected. The main building material was a top-quality marble cut from a Quarry nearly 200 miles from the building site. Elephants were used to transport the heavy marble blocks and panels to the building site.

Victorian Viceroy Lord Curzon called the Taj Mahal the “gem of man’s handiwork…the most perfect structure in the world; those words remain true today. The building is an example of perfect symmetry all four sides are dimensionally identical, so all four sides appear to be the front. The majesty of the Taj Mahal from a distance is beautiful and continuously changes as the angle of the sun and light changes. Yet, as you get closer to the structure the intricate detail of the inlayed marble takes your breath away. Pictures simply don’t do justice to the pure majesty of this place.

After watching the spectacular sunrise over the Taj Mahal, we returned to our hotel for breakfast after which we, once again, loaded out tour van for the five-hour Journey to the “Pink City” of Jaipur, but we had one more stop in Agra at the Kalakriti Marble Inlay Studio. This is a Handicraft studio that makes inlaid marble handicrafts using the same tools and techniques that were used to produce the inlaid marble panels at the Taj Mahal. Watching these incredible craftsmen at work making these beautiful works of art was amazing. Each piece is handmade and unique.

We arrived in Jaipur, at 6:30 PM and checked into the lovely Jaipur Hilton, the nicest hotel so far. We decided to stay in and have a light dinner with friends from another tour group from our ship. It was great to tell stories and compare notes of our journey through India.

Here are more pictures from our travels today.

Tomorrow we’ll be in Jaipur, India