The Taj Mahal: Visiting India's No.1 Tourist Attraction You Probably Know Nothing About
What is the Taj Mahal? Adam's in hectic Varanasi, surrounded by spirituality and noise pollution, but the topic of today is India's iconic and universally recognisable travel destination, the Taj Mahal. Do you know what the Taj Mahal is and why it was built? Adam shares the story of his recent visit, involving a very uncomfortable late night train ride, as well as delivering a Taj Mahal quiz. Tune in to learn how much you didn't know!
Alun takes over the Lost & Found section with a story involving a suspicious encounter and some very bad manners. Were Alun and his housemate on the brink of joining a Japanese porn ring or was this just some innocent fun? You decide!
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00:00 - Recording amongst the Chaos of Varanasi
01:44 - 5AM Mission to the Taj Mahal
03:00 - The Uncomfortable Train Journey to Agra
08:17 - Travelling India With an Indian Girlfriend
10:58 - Buying Tickets at the Taj Mahal
16:22 - Why Do Tourists Take Touristy Photos?
19:32 - Trapped in a Monsoon at the Taj Mahal
24:05 - Tripping Point: Taj Mahal Special
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Welcome to Tripology
Alun:
[0:02] Hello and welcome to this episode of Tripology. It's the most authentic backpacking
Alun:
[0:08] podcast on the old internet. I'm Alan and I'm here with my best mate and one of the greatest travellers of all time. It's the ever protective Adam.
Adam:
[0:18] Alan, it's amazing to be back for another week, mate. I do have to start off by apologising about the noise. I am in Varanasi in kind of north eastern India and I'm sitting right along a very very busy road with floor to ceiling windows lots of motorbike traffic and, uh you know hundreds if not thousands of Indian families and things walking past all the time so that is what the atmosphere is all about.
Alun:
[0:43] Ever such a din ever such a cacophony most travel podcasts they would say I'm sorry we can't record but me and you we say let's record anyway i happen to know that that very same, guest house a rest house that you're in, i've actually stayed in before not only have i stayed in there before and i've sat in that very reception waiting to be checked in but when i was there they took me up to a room and there was an englishman who'd been sick over the side of his bed and therefore i was upgraded for free.
Adam:
[1:14] Oh my goodness that's disgusting do you know what made him sick.
Alun:
[1:17] I think it was a drugs or alcohol or a combination of the two we went up there we saw the sick he went I'm sorry and then the guy said you can go upstairs in a different room.
Adam:
[1:28] Oh, as long as it wasn't the complimentary water that I've been drinking, that's absolutely fine. This is crazy, mate. I wouldn't even say this is on brand, but there's people walking in and out of the reception, closing the doors.
Alun:
[1:40] It's good. I'm going to do next week's episode from the Shibuya Scramble.
Adam:
[1:44] Perfect. We won't hear a thing. I am going to tell you, mate, about a recent experience I had over at the old Taj Mahal, which I know you've been to before. i've been to twice now and i think it's quite a nice little insight on what it's like to travel by public transport and visit what is india's number one travel destination and then at the end of the show we've got a tripping point for you a very long overdue tripping point on Taj Mahal which for most people listening to this may well be something they know very little about.
Alun:
[2:15] I'm excited for it mate i'm excited to hear about the Taj Mahal i'm excited for tripping point our little travel quiz, but I'm also excited for the Patreon of this week's episode. Last week, I teased it. It's going to be me talking about how I was ever so nearly inducted into a Japanese pornography ring. If you want to hear that kind of saucy shit at the end of the show, there's one thing to do. Go to the show notes, click on our Patreon link and pay a very nominal fee. Just a little contribution to say, hey, I appreciate you guys. And you'll get to hear the show after the show and it fits seamlessly into your, podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts it's exciting to be over there and hear about pornography and the travel world and all that sort of thing anyway, go on as you were tell me about the Taj Mahal.
Adam:
[3:00] Uh, so just, um, cast your minds back to what was only about 10 days ago. I was with my girlfriend in Bangalore and it was about 2am.
Alun:
[3:11] Is that a soft reveal on the podcast? I don't know if we knew that you had a girlfriend.
Adam:
[3:15] I just thought I'd throw it in there. Why not?
Alun:
[3:17] Oh, well, no one draw attention to it.
Adam:
[3:20] I've got to talk about, uh, you know, the big preamble and run up and then talk about all the history. I'd rather just go straight in there. I've got a girlfriend. She's from Bangalore.
Alun:
[3:27] Sorry, I'm just getting a notification. our listenerships just dropped off the face of the earth.
Adam:
[3:34] Just as my phone's about to run out of battery. Perfect. And anyway, so it got to about two o'clock. We were in a hotel in Delhi. And she had spoken to her mother earlier that day. And her mother said, why don't you go and visit Agra and the Taj Mahal while you're there? And we only had a couple of days left before we were parting ways. So we didn't really know how to fit it in. But we started talking about it more and more at 2 a.m. and then we started looking online at the viability of getting there later on that day and we managed to find a train that was leaving at 10 past 5 a.m it was an express service that was about two and a half hours long all the way to agra we could go to agra for the day and then make it back later that night so we just so.
Alun:
mahal.
[4:16] Keen to go to the taj mahal because you've already seen the taj mahal she's already seen the taj
Adam:
[4:22] She hasn't seen the taj mahal.
Alun:
[4:24] My goodness well haven't I just revealed myself to be a little bit of a bigot.
Adam:
[4:29] Because I assumed that she'd seen the Taj Mahal Adam just because she's Indian just Bangalore is very far away from Delhi by the way no.
Alun:
[4:38] I understand that but you know she has been to Delhi so Delhi you know Agra's not far from Delhi I just made an assumption I've revealed myself to be just ignorant and I apologize to the Indian community writ large your girlfriend included.
Adam:
[4:52] That's totally fine mate so that was really the um the motivation was to go and show her the Taj Mahal something that maybe she would even admit she should have seen already and we hopped on a train, we did an all-nighter you know two o'clock became three o'clock became four o'clock and I was thinking fuck you know I'm I know you as well.
Alun:
[5:09] You were like I know what you're like you were like oh did you uh did you know that the pillars are actually slightly tilted so in.
Adam:
[5:15] The event.
Alun:
[5:15] Of a disaster they tip away from the.
Adam:
[5:17] Taj Mahal did you know that or oh.
Alun:
[5:19] First time I'm telling you okay.
Adam:
[5:21] Alan I'm gonna give you a tripping point at the end of this show can you please just keep your mouth was that one of the questions oh sorry it was uh so there we were you know we hopped into an auto a rickshaw took whatever you want to call them, about at 4 4 30 got to the train station and there we were told we needed to go to counter number 517 something along those lines uh to buy a ticket for the express service, where we were met with a guy who said i'm so sorry the tickets online hello the tickets online are closed uh 15 minutes before departure so you're gonna have to wait for the next one that was in about 50 minutes time and i a little bit of hindi.
Alun:
[5:58] Would solve that problem wouldn't it if only could if only someone in your.
Adam:
[6:01] Party could speak to him in hindi well actually i took control of the situation and i said here's 500 rupees we are gonna get, we are gonna get on that train if you don't mind and he said sorry i misspoke earlier oh you meant that train oh, sorry about that no no he said uh he said i've just told you so there's no way i can't get you a ticket online my system's closed 15 minutes before departure it shuts off i've got no there's no way i can get you on that train, unless i found another 500 rupees on the floor then maybe the system might reopen i said um, I said, look, we really need to get on that train. We can't wait. We're already here. There must be some other way. He said, would you be open to a general ticket? I could maybe still get you a general ticket right up until when the train leaves. I said, yeah, that's fine.
Alun:
[6:55] The general ticket system's open, is it?
Adam:
[6:57] It is. It is. I think he assumed that we would want first class. So I said, look, general's fine. He ran over to his colleague, managed to get us two general tickets. I was digging my heels in. I said, thanks very much.
Alun:
[7:10] Do you still keep the 500?
Adam:
[7:11] No, of course I didn't. i said and the rest yeah and the 10 rupees yeah thank you have a good day, uh so we raced to platform seven where we hopped on the train and i mean do i want to say this yeah go on there's a certain attitude and approach you need when getting on a train, in india especially when it's very busy and neither i nor my girlfriend possesses that attitude all right now tell the people that.
Alun:
[7:43] Don't know what the attitude entails adam.
Adam:
[7:46] You've got to be a bit rough rough and ready you've got to be prepared to push your way through you've got to be quick you've got to take your opportunities um you sometimes.
Alun:
[7:54] Got to fend off wandering hands haven't you.
Adam:
[7:56] Also true so we hopped on we spied an upper bunk and we hopped up there the two of us, and and we were good as gold i mean we were both on one bunk with general yeah it's a bit of a free-for-all one bunk you gotta be a bit careful what's it like to be.
Alun:
[8:13] In a relationship what's it like to feel intimate and in love.
Adam:
[8:17] I'll tell you one thing, mate, and this will be the last time I say something like this, certainly on this episode. Travelling India as a solo white man is not the same as travelling as a solo white man with a hot Indian girlfriend. Especially on a train and in general class.
Adam:
[8:36] it was you use the word adjective sorry the word adjective use the word protective at the beginning as the adjective and now you're starting to maybe understand the link because a few stations down the track, a load of people got on the train and three men tried to get on our bunk two of which can.
Alun:
[8:57] I go that was.
Adam:
[8:58] It top was a.
Alun:
[8:59] High up bunk was.
Adam:
[9:00] It yeah.
Alun:
[9:01] They tried to get on.
Adam:
[9:02] You've never seen agility like it it's like you.
Alun:
[9:05] At helms deep kicking.
Adam:
[9:06] Down the ladders no honestly it was crazy two blokes succeeded they got off so we had to like shuffle up right against right against the window three other guys jumped across the way and all of them were just staring at my girlfriend, no but it's general class mate it's a free-for-all you do what you want in it yeah yeah and there's you know there's about 100 people on the floor it's an absolute bedlam and all of them were just staring at my girlfriend, unapologetically, just looking at her.
Alun:
[9:35] Now, what was your response to that? Because I know you, you're a protective guy. Yeah. I can imagine that you were feeling enraged, but you wouldn't have said anything because you're respectful to Indian people.
Adam:
[9:48] It's very difficult to give more than one person the death stare at any one time.
Alun:
[9:52] Without going cross-eyed. Oh, Adam. You're not looking your best on this train.
Adam:
[9:58] You're dehydrated. I knew we should have got you a panty bottle. Oh, Adam.
Alun:
[10:04] As soon as we get back to delhi i'm going to take you to my.
Adam:
[10:06] Ophthalmologist, uh so what then happened next yeah basically the whole time i was just worried about whether she felt comfortable or not right so my journey became about her and her journey and just making sure that no one was sneaking a little hand in and all this sort of stuff i mean we're making light of the situation but it's a very real, situation we found ourselves in and it does happen way way too often to tourists especially as well as you know lots of other women and even me but that's a different story for a different day uh so we we managed.
Alun:
[10:37] Neither me or you were this is not new to either me or you because we lived in india together for a period of time and during that period of time we were both dating indian women weren't we.
Adam:
[10:47] Yes yeah it's just something.
Alun:
[10:49] We've we came to accept about life but now you've returned to the promised land and have a whole new relationship baby.
Adam:
[10:58] Yeah and and i would you know usually i would say i don't know from first-hand experience but i actually do know from first-hand experience what it is like to be touched on a train but as i said that's a different story for a different day so the train journey itself was pretty uncomfortable more and more people got on every stop we finally after about an hour delay got to agra, do you remember liking agra because i think i hate it.
Alun:
[11:21] I have no opinion of Agra, other than that I thought the Taj Mahal was quite cool. I was there with French friend of the show, Emmy. If you go long enough back, you can actually see an episode with Emmy on it. I went to Agra with Val, had some food and went straight back to Delhi. And that day was Christmas Day.
Adam:
[11:41] Oh, wow. That's really cool.
Alun:
[11:43] Yeah.
Adam:
[11:43] Very cool indeed.
Alun:
[11:44] Yeah, we woke up, we gave each other presents in the morning. She gave me an art set. I gave her a bar of chocolate. off to the Taj Mahal, came back in time for tea, and then promptly went to Goa for New Year's Eve.
Adam:
[11:54] Very, very nice indeed. So yeah, it wasn't that time of year for us, no festival time. Actually, maybe you don't know this, or I read on the internet earlier that on Fridays, the Taj Mahal complex is closed. So just remember that one if you're going to go there, guys, listening to this as some sort.
Alun:
[12:09] I think that's a scam, actually, because when I was in China, they do that where they're like, oh, sorry, the Forbidden City's closed today, come and have a drink with me. I once went to a temple in yogi kata he went sorry the temple's closed today come to my art shop.
Adam:
[12:22] I've i've been to an art shop in yogi kata as well and all i had was some tea well.
Alun:
[12:27] But it's actually closed is it on.
Adam:
[12:28] Friday that's what the internet says and i don't know what the internet's getting out of scamming me so no uh, probably true we we got there we paid the this is the taj mahal now we paid the difference between a foreigner tourist ticket price and a local indian citizen ticket price.
Alun:
[12:48] Oh that's beautiful and symbolic.
Adam:
[12:51] So well no i mean i paid full price for mine which is currently sitting at 1 100 rupees and for an indian national excuse the motorbike eyes it is 50 rupees, just fight my hell of a motorbike going past um just 50.
Alun:
[13:08] Just say that bit again i reckon.
Adam:
[13:12] Just yeah it's, Currently, it is about 1,100 rupees for non-Indian citizens, for foreign tourists, and it is 50 rupees, just 5-0 rupees, for Indian nationals. Now, the reason why I'm mentioning that is because, obviously, it's quite a large difference in price, which we don't mind paying, of course. It's just the way things go. However, the funny thing about this interaction was that Indian nationals have to provide a piece of identity to prove they're Indian, either a passport or an ID card, okay? now my girlfriend come on my girl they're staying in um, so my girlfriend is indian and looks indian and produced a piece of national id which was digital on her phone she got given the indian ticket, and then when she gave that indian ticket to the man checking the tickets at the entrance he refused to believe her and said you need to show me some id, so she showed him the same id that she had shown the guy she bought the ticket from at the desk, at the office. And he said, it can't be on your phone. It has to be a piece of physical ID. And I went, sorry, I was already...
Alun:
that is?
[14:25] Where's he getting off with that? Who cares? What, just because she's with you, you reckon
Adam:
[14:29] Well, it's not the first time it's happened. It also happened in Hampi. So, I know. I just, I think that there's... She doesn't present as an Indian traditional dress, you know, sari, this kind of...
Alun:
[14:45] Oh, come on. No one, you know, lots of Indian women are dressing saris.
Adam:
[14:49] I know, but maybe the fact that I'm with her as well, they're going, oh yeah you're trying the i'm an indian card are you um, and he wouldn't accept it yeah and and she had to produce a piece of physical id she managed to you know dig around in her bag or whatever i got really frustrated i lost my call i obviously hadn't slept at this point i was already on high alert because of all the eyes that were on her in the train and i was feeling you know, pretty uncomfortable for her and and worried about her safety and that sort of stuff so uh, yeah i snapped i snapped i'm not proud of it but we managed to get through.
Alun:
[15:19] Did you should we role play uh.
Adam:
[15:22] I don't know if i've got enough i'll be the guy i don't know if i've got enough battery on my phone to role play but we'll we'll try.
Alun:
[15:26] I gotta be honest with you i don't believe uh this id problem number one it's on a phone problem number two who that white guy next you.
Adam:
i said i don't mean to be rude sir but how do you think she bought the fucking ticket from your colleague it was with that piece of ID.
Alun:
[15:48] My colleague i'll have you know is an idiot and believes whatever he sees.
Adam:
and it-
[15:51] Uh so we ended up going in, you know, we did the whole photographs and all that sort of stuff
Alun:
[15:57] She paid the full price in the end, did she?
Adam:
[15:59] No, she just got the 50 rupees, the 50 rupee Indian price.
Alun:
[16:02] Oh, he believed, ultimately he believed it.
Adam:
[16:04] Yeah. Yeah. We managed to sneak through as a, as an Indian and a British man, and we got through and then luckily that it wasn't that busy. I don't know how busy it was when you were there, but we managed to get there early enough that there weren't thousands and thousands of people walking around the Taj.
Adam:
[16:22] What was it like when you were there? What was your experience on Christmas Day?
Alun:
[16:25] Pretty busy. Me and Em, we just snuck around the outskirts a little bit. Do you know what I mean? Just tried to evade the crowds. But there was a lot of people doing this picture where they pinch the top of the Taj Mahal as if it were a sort of nipple.
Adam:
[16:41] Okay. Yeah.
Alun:
[16:43] I don't like it when people do that. These are a list of things I don't like. People pinching the top of the Taj Mahal. people pushing up the leaning tower of pisa i can't stand that one people uh kissing the sphinx yeah not a fan of that one either.
Adam:
[17:00] Just some street dogs going past that's fine.
Alun:
monument.
[17:03] I wanted to make a mistake so i don't like those kinds of pictures very people interact with the
Adam:
[17:09] Yeah very touristy indeed i wanted to make.
Alun:
[17:12] But that's also people do that with the pyramids of teaser and with uh the eiffel tower as well
don't they they pinch the top of it.
Adam:
[17:19] Yeah yeah they do.
Alun:
[17:20] What is that as a cultural meme as a resonance with the culture why why do people do that.
Adam:
they're not putting.
[17:26] Uh because they are not thinking for themselves and they're just following a trend i imagine
Alun:
[17:32] That much what is the trend even, uh look at this forced perspective look how big i am i can pick up this monument.
Adam:
[17:43] It's just a.
Alun:
[17:43] Weird it's quite mental if you think about it it's really odd just.
Adam:
[17:46] A strange cultural thing that happens.
Alun:
[17:50] If you've ever done that if you've ever taken a picture where you've like interacted particularly I'm interested in the pinching the top of yeah please write in there's a contact form on our website tripologypodcast.com what possessed you to.
Adam:
[18:03] Do justifying your actions was.
Alun:
[18:05] Just was it just that someone's you've seen it before or like what.
Adam:
[18:09] About that picture appealed to.
Alun:
[18:11] You that you felt like you wanted there's no judgment here i'm just curious.
Adam:
[18:15] I did take a video of lots of other people getting their photo taken in front of the taj, and it's astonishing really how many people are doing i mean i took a similar video at what i run over in bangkok a few months ago it really is something to you know it's almost like a case study it's a visual representation of just how mental we've all gone, but we walked around uh did the photo shoot and all that sort of stuff and she doesn't really like being the center of attention which is you know difficult as a hot woman in india, but we we really enjoyed the morning and then we went into the mausoleum and that sort of stuff and then we took a bit of time over by some steps.
Alun:
[18:54] The taj mahal is a is a basically a place that was created by a rich guy for his wife who had passed away as a monument to life just throwing that in there is a bit of education.
Adam:
[19:04] This tripping point is going to fall by the wayside alan alan can you sorry spilling out so much tea um, the then we took you took a bit of time we you know it'd been it was the second time i was there i really do like it i think it's a lovely environment it's obviously a spectacular building beautiful symmetry and uh, you know lovely kind of atmosphere everyone's very calm and what have you and sorry the motorbikes are really distracting.
Adam:
[19:32] people waving at me through the window amazing and uh so we just stopped by some steps and then we felt one or two raindrops, and my girlfriend said i think i think it might rain, and i said oh you know oh she's psychic there are blue skies i mean the reason why she said it like that with some degree of you know a bit of hesitation was because the skies were blue and there was just sort of a rain cloud off into the distance often in distance it didn't i don't think But.
Alun:
[20:01] You felt the drops from the distant rain cloud. It was like a sniper of a rain cloud.
Adam:
[20:05] Yeah, a hell of a wind it was. And yeah, and within maybe three minutes, the heavens opened. And it wasn't just a drizzle.
Alun:
[20:14] Wow.
Adam:
[20:14] It was an absolute downpour.
Alun:
[20:17] She's a meteorologist.
Adam:
[20:19] We, you should have seen the scenes, mate. It was so funny. We had the whole place to ourselves. So, you know, the Taj Mahal, if you imagine where the mausoleum is, the central dome around the outside, there's just a huge open space. and then there are steps off down to the side that lead to another space and there's a few buildings which are built out of that kind of red red brick, which you maybe you remember but the whole everyone everyone in the place just sprinted undercover, it was torrential it was really like some of the hardest rain i've ever seen in my life and we were sitting on these steps just trying to get under this ledge that was above us, and i think we were probably there for about 45 minutes, it was that's romantic it was really romantic it was incredible we were watching everyone else who was you know in grouped grouped um in their hundreds, all cowering under you know different different places around sort of the complex and it was just the two of us out in no man's land and you know the odd drop would sort of flick my fringe but we had to stay there for so long oh wow it's heartbreaking, no no it's really.
Alun:
[21:29] I've always yearned to be under a ledge with someone with spurious id in a foreign.
Adam:
[21:34] Country yeah it really was beautiful it was a lovely moment that we we kind of looked at each other and thought you couldn't even plan this that was well worth the 1,150.
Alun:
[21:42] Rupees for another piece of rain flops my fringe i'm gonna absolutely get Take off into a wonderland of feeling.
Adam:
[21:54] And it went on so long anyway.
Alun:
[21:56] That's lovely.
Adam:
[21:56] It went on so long that we decided to just brave the rain. And... uh long long story short or long story transparent our clothes got soaked and they went see-through.
Alun:
[22:13] Well that's gonna be a fun train ride.
Adam:
[22:14] Back yeah it's not not exactly what you want to be walking around in just your underwear around the Taj Mahal, but yeah but um thank goodness my girlfriend's a fashion designer so she jimmied up some um alterations let's call them and everything Yeah, just with a hairpin and some sticky tape. She's honestly a superstar.
Alun:
[22:33] You as well?
Adam:
[22:34] No, I mean, I was wearing dark clothing, as was she actually, but she was wearing a lovely long red dress that when wet and stuck to her became a little bit more transparent than you would like.
Alun:
[22:45] She made the equivalent of a coconut bra, but out of different objects, you know? Like just used the nature to create new items of clothing.
Adam:
[22:53] No, no, it was her own dress. She just made alterations with the dress and a hairpin or two, which then doubled up the material and covered everything up, yeah it was really impressive.
Alun:
[23:02] That's amazing that's genius.
Adam:
[23:04] Isn't it i would say so uh and then we we ended up getting a you know that really rounded off what was already a perfect day um, it was only half a day at that point and then we got a bus back all the way to delhi and arrived home for about 6 p.m but, what what kind of struck me not only was that a magical experience and a great way to see the taj mahal for a second time, but what struck me was just how little i knew about the taj mahal but how right but how sort of prominent and famous it is to everyone in the travel community.
Alun:
[23:40] Yeah and well that's a perfect segue to ask me.
Adam:
[23:44] Some questions about it if i've ever heard some you can see um yeah it's a very very quick run run up to what is now everyone's favorite quiz show it's tripping point.
Alun:
[24:05] Yeah, Tripping Point, baby. Can we do a bit of a quick fire one, mate? One thing I've always thought about Tripping Point is it goes on ever so long. How many questions have you got for me and can we just race through them nice and quick smart?
Adam:
[24:15] All right, just give me two seconds. I will quickly check so we've got a cut point and then my battery on my phone.
Alun:
[24:23] I reckon just do five quick fire questions, eh?
Adam:
[24:26] What, and then we bin off the Patreon?
Alun:
[24:30] No, we do the Patreon.
Adam:
[24:32] I've got...
Alun:
[24:33] Just do five quick fire.
Adam:
[24:34] I've got probably six or seven, including the bonus ones, all right? And I can rip through them. So this is a nice, short, sharp, punchy tripping point.
Alun:
[24:45] Let's go. I'm going to answer as quick as I can, baby.
Adam:
[24:47] And do you think it's, I think it's probably quite appropriate, the steaks. If you get four or more, then I've got to go out for a curry tonight. And if you don't, then you've got to go out for a curry. How about that?
Alun:
[25:02] Yeah, fine.
Adam:
[25:03] Perfect. it's a win-win, okay here we go question number one the taj mahal was commissioned by which mughal emperor is it a give me again well they're all multiple choice alan.
Alun:
[25:17] No no but mate there's some that we just have to do again.
Adam:
[25:21] But shoot there's some what.
Alun:
[25:24] There's some that I just definitely, like, I couldn't hear you because of how loud it was.
Adam:
[25:28] Oh, okay.
Alun:
[25:30] The listener won't be able to.
Adam:
[25:31] Question number one. The Taj Mahal was commissioned by which Mughal emperor? A. Akbar the Great. B. Shah Jahan. C. Aurangzeb. Or D. Humayun.
Alun:
[25:43] No idea. I'm going to go with Akbar, baby.
Adam:
[25:45] That's incorrect, I'm afraid. It is Shah Jahan. Did you know that the Taj Mahal was built in the 17th century to commemorate Shah Jahan's third and favourite wife, mumtaz mahal who died during the birth of their 14th child what do you think about that.
Alun:
[26:00] I knew that actually but i just didn't know his name.
Adam:
[26:02] Did you really 14th child third and favorite wife.
Alun:
[26:06] Yeah i read that on a plaque.
Adam:
[26:07] My god number two approximately how long did construction of the Taj Mahal complex take was it a five years b 12 years c 22 years or d 45 years.
Alun:
[26:22] Oh I think it was it's either 22 or 45 mate and I think construction the whole thing I'm gonna say 45 years I think it took ages.
Adam:
[26:33] You're wrong again I'm afraid that curry gravy is getting ever ever closer it's 22 Did you know the construction started in 1632 and finished around 1653? It was built by a team of over...
Alun:
[26:44] Obviously, I didn't know. Otherwise, I'd have said a different answer.
Adam:
[26:47] It was built by a team of over 20,000 artisans and a fleet of over 1,000 elephants. My goodness.
Alun:
[26:53] Well, they were completely finished after 22 years. They didn't do anything a decade later or two decades later. I reckon they put the finishing at all touches.
Adam:
[27:00] Would you want half a point?
Alun:
[27:01] You're angling for half a point. No, no. Just carry on.
Adam:
[27:05] Number three. What gives the Taj Mahal its famous white appearance? Is it A. White sandstone, B. White marble, C. Polished limestone or D. Painted granite?
Alun:
[27:16] Definitely not painted granite. Oh, that's a really good question, that. It's...
Adam:
[27:23] What do you think it would have been made out of?
Alun:
[27:25] Oh, man. It looks different to how I expected. It's not as marbly as you would think it would be. It's not marble either. You're looking at my facial expression. What was it, white sandstone or limestone?
Adam:
you for an answer.
[27:41] White sandstone, white marble, polished limestone or painted granite. i'm gonna have to push
Alun:
[27:49] Are you i don't know actually i have no idea i.
Adam:
[27:53] How much you like i want it.
Alun:
[27:54] To be marble i want it to be.
Adam:
[27:56] Marble okay.
Alun:
[27:57] So i'm gonna say.
Adam:
[27:58] Marble correct i think that's.
Alun:
[28:00] I think it's disrespectful if it's not.
Adam:
[28:01] He's got a point on the board bonus question here we go you could you could get two here in one here the four minarets of the taj of a hull are tilted outward by about 2.5 degrees but why.
Alun:
[28:13] Yeah um you once told me it was 25 degrees on a text because you missed out the decimal and i said it i said it to the um yeah i think i said, 13 uh i said it to the french girl who was training to be an architect who i was with and she spat out her coffee she was like it would fall over at 13 degrees it would be on the floor your podcast course is an idiot um, why so they fall away from the uh central complex in the event of an earthquake or an actual disaster if someone pushes them over that's.
Adam:
[28:46] Worth a point in my book mate very very good answer indeed uh number four, the Taj Mahal stands on the bank of which river is it a the Ganges is it b the Yamuna is it c the Godavari or is it d the Namada, oh any.
Alun:
are smarter.
[29:06] Ideas well the problem is if it's not the Ganges then it's a tributary of the Ganges my god you
Adam:
[29:13] Than even I thought you were, i don't know how you knew that.
Alun:
[29:17] So but does that not count tributes of the ganges don't count as the.
Adam:
[29:22] Ganges not really i could probably give you half a point because in the did you know section i was going to explain something about it.
Alun:
[29:28] There was a tribute of the ganges uh sorry we'll cut this out we're giving the names again.
Adam:
[29:32] Uh no no we can keep it all in baby it's a the ganges b yamuna c godavari or d namada.
Alun:
[29:41] I'm gonna go with godavari.
Adam:
[29:42] It's yamuna did you know the Yamuna river is the longest tributary of the Ganges in India and flows for 1,376 kilometers, which is 855 miles. It's a long way.
Alun:
[29:54] Yeah. I can't legislate. I didn't, I just, you know, it's one of those things. If you just don't know the name, you don't know the name. I just, you know, it is what it is.
Adam:
[30:00] That's it. Uh, how are we getting on here? Wow. We're already at 30 minutes. That's amazing. Uh, number five, what is unusual about the placement of Shah Jahan's cenotaph inside the main chamber of the Taj Mahal?
Is it A, that it is exactly centred beneath the main dome? Is it B, it is located outside the mausoleum? Or is it C, it is buried beneath the mosque?
Adam:
[30:29] What are your thoughts?
Alun:
[30:33] I'm just trying to remember going there. And I do feel like more than one of those are true. I feel like it is buried. It is central.
Adam:
Yeah.
[30:44] So it's the cenotaph we're looking for, not the grave, yeah? Whether that changes the answer?
Alun:
[30:53] I'm going to say it's underneath that mosque, baby.
Adam:
[30:56] I'm afraid it is the fact that the cenotaph is exactly centre beneath the main dome. And the reason why that's unusual...
Alun:
[31:03] That's what I said.
Adam:
[31:04] The reason why that's unusual is because the Taj Mahal is famous for its symmetry. It is famously symmetrical, but this one detail goes against that design approach.
Alun:
[31:13] Wait, is it not underneath the mosque then?
Adam:
[31:16] The actual graves, the plain graves, are buried below the mosque.
Alun:
[31:21] But you're asking about a cenotaph.
Adam:
[31:22] Exactly right. Here we go. So how many you got so far? Is that just two? Two points. You're going out for a curry, aren't you?
Bonus question: The cost to build the Taj Mahal is estimated at 32 million rupees back in the 17th century. But how much is that in today's money? Would that be A, $550 million, B, $700 million, or C, $825 million?
Alun:
[31:49] Dollars yeah that one 825 mil you.
Adam:
[31:53] Got it baby you got it.
Alun:
[31:55] That's right.
Adam:
[31:56] So that's i make that three of about seven or eight or something i'm afraid you're.
Alun:
[32:00] Going yeah it wasn't a great performance by me i will say for every wrong answer i got i showed good knowledge and working out you know like i knew there was something under that mosque i knew there was a tributary of the ganges, you know sometimes we play to win sometimes we play to make content that was neither good content or a win so that's just the risk we run sometimes and uh i feel like i've made us all stupider, but it was fun to play it was fun to answer and i enjoyed your story and i just know i just want to say this on record it was your birthday on last week's pod and it was your coming out parade as a man in a relationship on this week's pod and i just want to say just in general i'm happy for you and i think you're a lovely guy and you deserve the world and with all that said let me tell you about the time I was nearly inducted into a Japanese pornography ring in the Patreon section. We'll go there now, shall we? Click on the link in the description and the show notes, patreon.com forward slash topology podcast, and you can listen to us talking about crazy things after the show. Come on, get over here. If you like the show, just go on Patreon, honestly. I don't know what you're thinking. Let's go.
Adam:
[33:07] Thanks ever so much, guys. I hope you enjoyed that story. I hope you know a little bit more now about the Taj Mahal than you did before, and we'll see you on the next one. Bye-bye.
