So pretty much the only way to make a trip to the Taj Mahal any better is to bring along some kids from Asha Mission who have never really left their town before… and especially to see one of the seven wonders of the world!
We had an early start arriving at Asha to pick up the kids at around 5am. The children were dressed in their very best clothes for this exciting outing. We piled up into two cabs and began our journey to the Taj. One thing we didn’t anticipate about this adventure was the car sickness. Most of this children especially the younger ones had never really ridden in a car for longer than a few minutes. So it would be a understatement to say this 4 hour trek to the Taj was a bit of a stretch for them. It was a big stretch. We had kids tossing cookies everywhere. It was wild.
We stopped at McDonald’s about 45 minutes away from the Taj. We could have just left it at that and gone home, because I’ve never seen children have more fun at a fast food restaurant. We had an air hockey tournament, and then this Indian MCD’s randomly had those electronic cars for kids. I’ve never seen them smile so big and proudly drive around the McDonald’s at approximately 6.5 mph.
One of my favorite moments of today was when we were getting really close to the Taj Mahal. There is a small stretch about 15 minutes away where you can see it from a far distance. As soon as I saw it, I nudged Sanju and Bloomy to look out my window. Seeing the smile on their faces was worth the whole extremely tiring long day. Ya know if it was just me seeing the Taj for the first time, I would probably stay pretty composed..I would think it’s super neat…but stay composed. Seeing them climb over me to get to window with huge grins and bright eyes saying “Didi! Taj Mahal! Taj Mahal!” was worth the 8 hours of crazy Indian driving.
And the Taj Mahal is not just neat. It is incredible. It’s perfectly symmetrical if you didn’t know that already. SO COOL. Word vomit of random facts. They carved the intricate designs in the walls with diamonds because the marble they used is so tough, tougher than iron. It took 22 years to build. It was all built to be one woman’s tomb. It is huge. HUGE. It is made out of all marble and different precious stones.
