The Taj, The Oberoi Amarvilas and me

We’re in India for the first time so what do we HAVE to do??  See the Taj Mahal of course. 

Just after sunrise

Proof that I was there

"the girls" plus Mark

And it doesn’t disappoint.  It truly is stunning even though it must be one of the most clichéd images on earth. 

We all knew that Shah Jahan built the Taj as a mausoleum for his wife Mumtaz.    But there is so much more – this family almost beats families on “The Young and the Restless”.  These facts may not be 100% accurate but are pretty close.   

• Mumtaz was one of his many wives who died giving birth to their 14^th child.  
• She had originally been married to his brother and he did away with his brother to marry her.  
• She died, he built the Taj.  
• Later his son had him imprisoned in the Agra Fort also built by the Shah.  But being a considerate son (???) he granted his father’s wish that from where he was imprisoned, he could have an uninterrupted view of the Taj. 

But let me mention that “The Taj” (yes we are now on first name terms) has nearly been overshadowed for me by our time at the 5 star Oberoi Amarylis hotel.

And no, we weren’t staying at the Oberoi (if only).  We were staying just down the road at the Hotel Sheelah.  The Hotel Sheelah is the worst hotel we have stayed in this trip and I think the worst hotel I have ever stayed in.  It really needs little more than a good clean.   You almost don’t want to touch anything because you just don’t know what type of filth you will be putting your hands on.  Enough of that.

The one good thing about Hotel Sheelah is that it is a 5 minute walk from the Taj Mahal, great when you want to go for sunrise.   And on that 5 minute walk, you go past the Oberoi Amarylis Hotel with the high fence, immaculate gardens and men in uniform at the gate to welcome you.  Some bright person in the group, I suspect it was Asher decided they would like to have a drink at the Oberoi…. and they and a few others did. 

I think this is Alex's photo of our view 

from the Oberoi balcony 

The next day after getting up at sunrise to visit the Taj, we all ended up at a beautiful “drawing room” in the Amarylis, sipping drinks and looking at this alternate view of the Taj.

           

As you can imagine, I am not the first person to take a photo of their drink with the Taj in the background.

                          Caitlin, Lisa and Aideen

                            "Our" waiter

It was so lovely to be in beautiful surroundings and just relax and chat.  Our lovely waiter, whose name I feel terrible for having forgotten, would have been very aware that there was no way in the world that we would stay there but he was delightful and even let us take his photo.

                 

                                  More proof

Celebrity spotting is the thing.  On the first day, some of the girls saw “Erick”, (whoever that is), from a TV show.  We also found out that on that day when they had been looking out at the pool, Leonardo De Caprio had actually been one of the people they had been looking at sitting by the pool. We’d already read in the paper that he was at the Taj the day before us.   Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook had been there a week or so before.

Oh what a change from Hotel Shellah

                           

What else would you do at a place like this, but take a selfie