The Taj Mahal and the Golden Temple, these great monuments should be the reason to travel to Agra & Amritsar. You can combine these two by traveling to Delhi first and catch the train to Agra (day trip) and/or Amritsar afterwards.
The Taj Mahal
It truly deserves the hype it gets. It’s the most beautiful monument we’ve seen in our lives so far and I am not sure if that’s going to change. It’s this massive thing built of gorgeous white marbled stone which is amazingly well maintained. We couldn’t get enough of its beauty and walked around the complex for hours. The only thing that was disappointing was the interior of the monument which they have kind of neglected. Be sure to get inside through the main gate (East gate), otherwise you’ll make the same mistake as we did and walk through many dirty small alleys to get to one of the side entrances (South gate) and being approached by many vendors and touts wanting something from you which makes the whole experience less awesome.
I must say we were not impressed by Agra city itself. The only thing I remember is our arrival on the station where we became the reason of a big fight between rickshaw- and taxi drivers which was pretty scary. Don’t accept a tour around the city, because you will always end up paying more for the whole day instead of taking the rickshaw from one place to the another on your own.
The Golden Temple
Despite the fact that the beautiful temple with its dome of 750 kg gold is enough reason to visit, there is just something about the place. Since it’s a religious complex, you have to take off your shoes, wash your feet and cover your hair. Once you walk in, there is this peaceful atmosphere with beautiful religious enchanting surrounding you. You will receive ‘parsad’ which is a religious offering in both Hinduism and Sikhism. Inside the temple, priests and musicians keep up a continuous chant from the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy book. And there is also this constant cleaning of the marble floors around the temple with holy water from the Sarovar surrounding the Golden Temple on which they enrol pieces of carpets to walk on (the wet floors were quite slippery and dangerous though). We were told that there is a myth which says that taking a dip in the sacred water can cure people from many ailments which is why you will see many men bathing in it and praying towards the temple. Don’t forget to take a glimpse of the Jubi Tree which is believed to have special powers where childless women tie piece of cloths to be blessed with sons (yes, most of them are not okay with having girls unfortunately). And I haven’t even started about the surroundings of Amritsar. The rural areas in Punjab are amazing so book a cab for a day tour to enjoy the views while visiting some villages and definitely don’t forget to experience Wagah Border Ceremony which is really entertaining. In short, definitely worth your time and money traveling to Amritsar.
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