One Taj, two Taj, three Taj, floor
The touts are terribly aggressive. We've been struggling with finding the best method to get rid of them quickly and the only method that really seems to work is to simply ignore them. And even then, the more annoying ones stay very persistent. up to a point where planting a fist on their face almost feels like the preferred solution. The most annoying is that even when you think you're safe from harm, they still manage to show up. You're inside Chahar Bagh, the sealed off garden across from the Taj, and a kid crawls under the barbed wire fence to offer you postcards . You're in the mosque next to the Taj and some guy almost forces you to take pictures of the Taj from certain places and then expects you to pay him. Or you're on the riverside ramparts of the 'baby Taj', looking down and kids keep on screaming up at you, demanding you to throw down Rupees., pens or chocolate. Wherever you are, people run up to you and try to force anything on you, ranging from postcards to rickshaw rides. Bloody annoying.
In the morning. We went to see the Taj. So busy. The last time l was here, the Taj was supposed to be closed, the site of talks between the president of Pakistan and the prime minster of India. Because those talks ended a day early, no-one was aware of the Taj being open after all, meaning only me and maybe ten others were on the grounds.
For the afternoon, we hired a rickshaw and visited the Red Fort, much nicer than the one in Delhi, the baby Taj and the Taj at sunset, which was not impressive at all. As the sky got more and more pink, the Taj just stayed a dull grey. As we waited for forty five minutes, a girl came running up to us with a goat on her back. This looked funny and Cute but the girl's only Intention was just that, to look cute and present a cute little goat, after which she wanted us to give her some money, pens or chocolate.
During our wait, we had to fend of some six little girls, four little boys, one boy on a camel, one man on a camel, three postcard salesmen and one guy selling trinkets. There were some tourists there, but they were outnumbered by the locals trying to shake some money from them.
The baby Taj is nice for being so very quiet. My estimate is that for every 1000 Taj Visitors. You have one baby Taj visitor.