{"id":6761,"date":"2010-10-24T08:06:44","date_gmt":"2010-10-24T15:06:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/?p=6761"},"modified":"2010-10-24T08:06:44","modified_gmt":"2010-10-24T15:06:44","slug":"sunset-with-the-taj-mahal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/24\/sunset-with-the-taj-mahal\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunset with the Taj Mahal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The guidebooks agree: if you only splurge once, this is where to do it.<\/p>\n

In part, they say, you do it for the hotel.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s an award-winning facility (Travel + Leisure rating #2 in Asia and #5 in the world for 2010) with posh services and amenities.\u00c2\u00a0 All that is nice, of course, but the true reason you shell out for this place is because of the view.<\/p>\n

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It’s the only hotel in the Green Zone and the closest to the World’s Most Beautiful Monument.\u00c2\u00a0 And all the rooms have this view.<\/p>\n

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We’re doing it right.\u00c2\u00a0 We ordered dinner through room service and ate on the balcony, watching the sunset on the city while the local mosques answered call to prayer.\u00c2\u00a0 The music and prayer are a constant soundtrack to the experience of being here — so much so, that the hotel provides earplugs to get you through the night and morning.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In addition to the views and music, the hotel offers nightly music and entertainment (dancing) on a platform above the pool deck — another little something to watch from our balcony vista.<\/p>\n

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With the help of the hotel, we were able to get special night-time viewing tickets for tomorrow night.\u00c2\u00a0 Night-time viewing is available each month during the time of the full moon.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually having the opportunity to participate is a process that involves delivering your passports to the Indian Archeological Society at least 24-hours in advance of the viewing time (if not before).\u00c2\u00a0 They decide whether you are granted the opportunity to buy a ticket.\u00c2\u00a0 Only 50 people are allowed in at a time and only for 30 minutes at a time.<\/p>\n

The staff at the hotel managed to get us a viewing time tomorrow night.\u00c2\u00a0 In lieu of this opportunity (and at how tired the kids were after the long car-ride to Agra this morning), we are staying in Agra 2 nights.<\/p>\n

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It was a wonderful evening.\u00c2\u00a0 In fact, it would be the most romantic evening Paul and I have ever had together… if not for the two reminders of romantic nights past along with us!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The guidebooks agree: if you only splurge once, this is where to do it. In part, they say, you do it for the hotel.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s an award-winning facility (Travel + Leisure rating #2 in Asia and #5 in the world for 2010) with posh services and amenities.\u00c2\u00a0 All that is nice, of course, but the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[88,51,16],"tags":[210],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6761"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6761"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6769,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6761\/revisions\/6769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coldspaghetti.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}