Scooter diaries: A Taj-tastic odyssey

Let me be clear: I had no intention whatsoever of seeing the Taj Mahal while in India.

If this sounds idiotic or pig-headedly non-conformist, that's because it kind of is. Cool as it looks in photos, the Taj has never really enticed me all that much.

But when a friend offered to take me to Agra via scooter, I found the offer hard to resist.


So off we went, leaving Delhi around 2 a.m. in the hopes of making it to Agra by sunrise.

The trip was, well, a trip. Flyovers and other pavement edifices flew past, replaced by fields punctuated with streetside chai- and chapati-selling dhabas hung with strings of lights. Why we weren't squished in the inky darkness by a passing truck, I have no idea.

Then around 4:30 a.m., it started to get cold. Really, bone-chillingly, seriously fucking cold. We stopped for chai in Chhaat, a place discernible only by the road sign and the godsent dhaba that was inexplicably open at that ungodly hour. The hot, cardamom-spiced liquid was one of the greatest beverages I have ever had--dirty glass be damned. I was tempted to curl up on a pile of blankets on a nearby bench, never to emerge.

We didn't make it by dawn--we hadn't even made it close to the Agra city limits when a painfully bright orb peeked over the edge of the horizon and made the ride a little less frigid. But by 7:30 we were lining up--easily the grubbiest, most suspect-looking supplicants come to pay respects to a marble wonder of the world.

I'm not gonna lie: The Taj Mahal may be Uttar Pradesh's biggest cash grab. It cost an exorbitant 750 rupees to get in, and every subsequent junction featured another way to fleece handycam-toting tourists of all they were worth. 75Rs to check my bag? Really?

But, in the interest of total honesty: The structure itself is pretty incredible. The outer gates and surrounding stone structures, including two beautiful temples flanking the head honcho, are beautiful. But the white marble edifice is beyond stunning. To circle the thing is to be awed by one man's bordering-on-maniacal obssession with architectural perfection--and its largely successful realization.

What's sad, though, is the toll the area's disregard for minor considerations like pollution is taking on the Taj. Crap from nearby factories and refineries, which had coated me in a delightful layer of grime during our morning scooter ride, is also harming the structure, taking the sheen off the previously gleaming white marble. A digital reader in a corner scrolled through levels of pollutants in the air--particulate matter was more than twice what the digital reader stated as the WHO's safe limit, in parts per million.

That's reassuring.

We lunched at a small dhaba on the rural edge of Agra, near a field of grain (hops? barley?) I was told the resident family used to make beer. My travelling partner fell asleep and I spent a couple of hours engaging in stilted, largely incomprehensible conversation with my server and fellow patrons.