Travel in and of itself is a wonderful experience (mostly) but there are certain auspicious happenings that make the days even more memorable and ones so epic that they forge a spot in your rhetoric for the rest of your days. In this case the tale we will bore our future grandchildren with will be of how India found itself lucky enough to be host to the particularly significant occasion of Dan’s 30th birthday!
Even more spectacularly, the day in question just happened to find us in our first non-Rajasthan destination, that of Agra (Uttar Pradesh, India) so what better way to start a memorable birthday than by catching the sunrise at…the Taj Mahal!!! Seriously, having begun the year at The Great Wall of China and now finding ourselves at the Taj, 2012 cracked up to be a pretty special year.
The day began with an early morning group walk down to the road to the Taj from our hotel, belting out the Happy Birthday song at the top of our lungs while sleepy Indian vendors set up shop for the day. As day broke, we arrived at the line to wait for the gates to open.
H-J had purposefully not looked skyward the entire previous afternoon upon arriving in Agra, awaiting the moment we turned that magic corner and were greeted with the beauty of the building itself. Its fair to say then, the anticipation was pretty high!
After a cup of chai, some shuffling into the correct lines for entry (ladies, gents, Indian?!?) it was time to pass through security and onto the grounds beyond.
Even the gate was exciting and we stopped for the requisite self-photos along with the ooohs and ahhhhs that emanated from our over excitable little beings.
Then it was through to the Other Side…where lies the absolutely magnificent Taj Mahal itself. It really is as stunning and impressive as you would expect. We felt chills.
But not enough chills to stop us taking literally a billion photographs of the palace, the mosques, ourselves, the water…blah blah. The weather is pretty smoggy and grey at this time of the morning, as well as this time of the year, which has had a strange effect on all our (and everyone else’s photos) in that they all look like we’ve photoshopped ourselves overtop. But we promise, we were actually there!
In honour of our time spent in Korea, where couples famously wear matching outfits when on honeymoon/holidays/just kicking it in the main street, we decided that we would have a team outfit for the day and rocked our most fabulously awesome Go! Go! Curry! t-shirts. 
After taking a spin around the mausoleum which is pretty incredible too (you can’t take photos in that particular area so, goshdarnit, you’ll have to check it out for yourself) it was off back outside to soak up more the atmosphere, surroundings and people.
A pretty fantastic way to spend a morning, really!
But the afternoon beckoned. Memory eludes us as to exactly how we ended up there but nonetheless we found ourselves entering through the security gates, scanners, bag checks and into the lobby of the gorgeous Radisson Hotel, Agra.
Actually, our memory isn’t that hazy – basically Prince Chirag whinged and whined about needing a dose of luxury until the point we all just gave in and went with him. Not that begrudgingly of course, and much less grudgingly again when we eyed up the gorgeous line up of cakes – a slice of which was complimentary with a drink. Hard to say no really. Desserts and Proper English Tea were promptly ordered.
It may have been Dan’s birthday but judging by the look on Chirag’s face, it could well have been his lucky day too!
Of course, being a 30th birthday party, a divine looking chocolate truffle cake was discretely arranged while Dan was occupied eating his free slice. Another round of Happy Birthday burst into being and a surprised looking Dan blew out his candles.
What else to do in a lovely hotel? Well, it just so happens that the Radisson is home to a day spa so massages and foot scrubs were indulged in. We won’t bore you with the details but suffice to say, its the cleanest our feet looked/felt since arriving in India three weeks prior.
An afternoon can pass quite quickly in this fashion and before we knew it, it was dinner time. Now, for those of you who know us well you’ll know that we love our meat. And juicy, delicious beef is something that we’re spoiled with in New Zealand. In Korea we would go hours out of our way solely to find something beefy and delightful…so you can guess how were feeling in beef-deprived India…It turns out, however, that they had saved the best till last – we opened the menu to find A BEEF BURGER.
Happy Freakin’ 30th Birthday, Dan! This one is going to be hard to top…
Seriously, why aren’t you putting all of this into a book! I see a bestseller!
Thanks Caroline, that’s really sweet! We’d DEFINITELY buy a copy, haha. And our mums would, too. We hope….
And me!
Amazing photos! Maybe I need to plan a trip to India!
Its well worth a mission though make sure you take more time than we did in each spot – our schedule was exhausting!!!
Beautiful imagery, my sister speaks of her time there (with some fondness) she unfortinaltey had rather severe dehydration when visiting the Taj Mahal, but still remembers its beauty. Funny that out of all those images, the one with your glasses HJ is my favourite, that faint reflection across the lens is so beautiful.
Amazing cake, foot rubs and a real beef burger, wow! Lots of good reasons to enjoy the lap of luxury, surely a great celebration at the end of a pretty memorable day 🙂
Dan did a primo job with the Taj in the Glasses shot, for sure 🙂 It also doesn’t have the weird photo-shopped quality of the other pictures which is cool. This was such an awesome day.
Happy be-lated, birthday, Dan!
Thanks John! Birthday season gets extended this way, eh?!
I love the team “Go! Go! Curry” shirts!
It was quite easy to find each other through the day, hahaha.
Happy birthday! xoM
Thank you!
Taj Mahal looks more beautiful than ever. 🙂
It totally lives up the hype 🙂
Happiest of birthdays!!!! Dan, so glad you had a great time celebrating! Thanks for posting the photos, a trip down memory lane for me…loved it, too.
Thanks, Dea. It was a birthday to remember, for sure. Glad it evoked some memories for you 🙂 When are you off to see your daughter?
Happy belated birthday Dan! And what a way to spend it, you’ll remember your 30th forever. I’m surmising the birthday cake and beef burger (God, it’s huge!) were pretty up there too.
Andrew and Rachael’s housewarming on Saturday night, and a nice BBQ and evening was had by all. Was nice to have a chat to Natalie, although I was gutted she hadn’t bought the lovely Ivy with her.
Much love, Elaine xxx
The birthday lives on this way, hehe.
Glad to hear that everyone is going well – wish we could have been there to celebrate with you all. We hope beef burgers were on the BBQ!
Happy Birthday Dan!
Thanks Sara!
YES! The matching clothes are awesome!! Haha! We see those vacationing Asians here ALL the time, with their matching hoodies, or t-shirts, or swimsuits… How fun 🙂 And that cake looks a-maz-ing! Happy Birthday to Dan!! 🙂
Matching swimsuits?! Now that’d be something…hahaha. We might not blog that if we get that crazy.
Thanks for the birthday wishes. And yes, the cake was delicious!
Loving the ‘Go Go Curry’ shirts, it’s so fitting for your destination haha 😀
I’m dying to go to India for our honeymoon (it seems so exotic and romantic, and I want something different from the standard tropic island resort) but don’t think the boyfriend is very keen on it…… would you recommend for/against it?
Haha true, we hadn’t even clicked on the appropriateness of the Curry part of the Go Go Curry outfit selection – we just happened to have them on hand, LOL. D’oh.
Honeymoon destination – well, if you want to combine tropical island feel with the extra challenges, the south of India could be perfect! It was far more relaxed and less gritty than the north but still had a wonderful unique feel about it. When are you honeymooning??! And when is the wedding??! Arrgggghhhh how exciting!!! Email me for a chat if you like 🙂 (H-J)
We haven’t set a date yet, could be any time between end of this year and sometime next year. Trying to find a place to live first because the Sydney housing market is ridiculous these days!!
I’ll def drop you an email when things are more set in stone, right now it’s just me getting ahead of myself and looking at dresses/holiday destinations (am I being a bridezilla already lol??!). Bf is wanting to go Thailand, but it seems so cliche 😛
Yeah I can imagine buying a house in Sydney must be pretty insane – good luck!!!
Parts of South India actually reminded me a little of Thailand…so could be a great compromise 🙂 Keep an eye out for our upcoming south posts and check it out. Its definitely more the area we’d love to re-visit.
You guys are always making me laugh! I don’t remember the separate lines to get into the Taj Mahal. Interesting! And you guys all TOTALLY looked photoshopped into the pics! Hilarious! I love the little swag boy + girl picture. And you guys found a beef burger in India?! Dedication!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAN!!!
Yeah and did you notice that the separate lines are kind of offensively delineated into High Value (i.e. tourists) and Indian? In all honesty we only noticed the lines when a guy started yelling at people to get into the correct ones. Sheesh!
Beef, YUM. Of course, we would sniff that shit out! Haha.
Oh you lucky, lucky things! Sounds like Dan had the most amazing birthday ever 🙂
Its going to be hard to beat next time round! Ideas?!
Love the couple shirts. Were you wearing couple undies too? 😀
Happy belated birthday!
Of course!