Day 29, February 6

There are plenty of hotels and restaurants near the Taj Mahal — in my opinion, it’s better to stay here. We stopped by a small café, Joney's Place, recommended by Lonely Planet, with the tiniest kitchen in Agra. The guidebook suggested trying lassi here — a signature Indian drink that we hadn’t managed to have even once anywhere in a month — it was time to make up for lost time.

We ordered banana lassi and two omelets. The lassi exceeded my expectations — like a thick milkshake, with a wonderful banana aroma — very tasty! The omelets were good too. After fortifying ourselves, we moved on.

There are three entrances to the Taj — south, west, and east. The south entrance is popular with independent travelers and the line is shorter there; however, as it turned out, the ticket counters there open only at 8 a.m. — which was completely unsuitable for us.

We went to the western gates, which are located not far from the southern ones. There was an incredible silence for India around us — there were practically no motorcycles or tuk-tuks here — by the rules they are not supposed to be allowed in here, so as not to pollute the air and the snow-white Taj. Almost all the souvenir shops were closed. The gates to the Taj were closed too, but we learned that the ticket counters at the western gates open at 7 a.m. — we’ll go here tomorrow.

Taj is surrounded by a high red sandstone wall, behind which only the dome and the tops of the minarets are barely visible. We walked along the wall, past some vegetable gardens, to the river. There is tight security near the river — soldiers with automatic rifles are sitting there. Taj is still practically indistinguishable behind the high wall. I hope that tomorrow we will finally see it in person.

By the time we got to the hotel, quite a lot of time had already passed — we were already tired, and we still wanted to go to the bazaar — but it turned out to be 2.5 km away from us, so we clearly wouldn’t make it before dark. We walked around a bit more — but strolling around the area near our hotel wasn’t much fun. We bought a Snickers and headed to the hotel.

We cut the Snickers into small pieces and enjoyed savoring it. In Kyiv, that probably would never have worked out.

In the evening we went to dinner at a little eatery not far from our hotel. We ate a very tasty masala dosa — huge and with lots of filling. When we were returning to the hotel, we arranged with one of the tuk-tuk drivers that he would take us to the Taj Mahal tomorrow at 6 a.m. for 40 rupees.