40. Following the Crowd

Following The Crowd: Sometimes, you have no choice. So we get up early, we stand in line, we throw some elbows, we pay an outrageous entry fee ($20 each), we endure overly thorough security checks, throw a few more elbows and bingo – we’re watching the sunrise reflected in the marble of the Taj Mahal. It’s a brilliant sight, the marble and inlaid jewels changing colors with the rising sun over the course of those first two hours of daylight, and the thing really is bigger than you can gather from any photo.

But virtually every tourist who visits north India makes a stop there. And although we did see more Americans here than any other place we’ve been, we were still in the minority among hoardes of Indian families, Germans with fanny packs, massive Japanese, Korean and Chinese tour groups, and even a pack of young monks fumbling with camera phones. After we had our fill of Taj watching, we spent at least as much time people watching, as each and every person on the grounds took their turn at posing with eternal beauty. Group shots, awkward solo shots, sexy “now I am lying on my side” shots and hundreds of people repeating the same lame optical illusion where you pretend to pinch the top spire between your index finger and your thumb. We got our own nice photos of the marble inlays, the symmetry, the mosque, but honestly, none of them really compare to the sideshow that passes through the entry gate every day.