Vlog by Nate Buchanan (with Kara) documenting an early-morning visit to the Taj Mahal: arrival before sunrise, waiting in long ticket and entry lines, and entering the site around 6:35. They capture sunrise lighting and B-roll, briefly summarize Taj Mahal history (Shah Jahan built the mausoleum for his favorite wife, who died in childbirth; construction ~22 years), note practical details (gates open 6:30, tickets sold from 6:00, a reported $17 entry fee that includes toilets), and spend roughly 3.5 hours on-site. Later they meet fellow travel vloggers The Budgeteers for sunset views and conversation about low-budget travel. The tone is casual, observational, and friendly.
Questions this video answers
5:15 AM
6:00 AM
6:30 AM
6:35 AM
$17 entry fee, which they say includes access to a toilet.
Chapters
We have officially found the calmest road in India at 5:15 in the morning.
Not getting hit by a rickshaw.
We have gotten up super early to get the best views of the Taj Mahal. And we are all.
Just kidding. All these people will meet us here.
This is actually just the ticket line, but you can't buy tickets until 6am and all these people are already lined up. But it's really less people than I thought it was going to be.
People made a sound of death, which is why we got up so early.
So now we wait.
It is 5:55. The ticket window is officially open and the line has gotten a lot longer. Thank you.
So that was just the line against the ticket. Not sure where all of these people came from, but this is the actual line to get into the Taj Mahal. The ticket Booth opens at 6, but the actual gates to the Taj Mahal don't open until 6:30. Looks like we're actually about 100 people deep in line. Let's go.
Okay. Thank you. It is 6:35. I've just made it into the gate. By the time we came in, I couldn't even see the end of the line. It was so long. Now I'm just waiting on Kara. We got separated into two different lines, male and female for security checks on the way in. They are very, very tight. So we brought nothing but our camera. We took the mic off. We don't have our stabilizer. So sorry if today's footage is a little shakier than usual.
You made it.
You can see that even though we got up at 4:30 in the morning, there are still tons of people here. But the light is beautiful right now.
And it feels so good outside.
Definitely worth getting up early for this.
First things first, we are rushing to the pool to get the typical cosmopolitan.
We've come over to the east side where the sun is rising and it's making everything that's beautiful golden color. So two very long Taj Mahal music montage.
Now we're about to go inside of the mausoleum, but there's no time.
Now that we've gotten all of our shots with the beautiful lighting, we are going to take some time to just sit and admire the Taj.
But first we need to find a toilet because the realities of India are setting in and we like to keep it real on the vlog. Can't show you all this pretty stuff without real stuff.
It's okay, you can do it. Better off.
And then should I cinematic B roll to the toilet?
Okay, I'll stop.
$17 entry fee does get you a free toilet. You want me to take it? The whole family?
Okay.
You are so cute.
Give back the baby.
Bye. Bye. Nice to meet you. That was the first I got to hold an Indian baby. I've been wanting to do that since we got here. It was the cutest little thing. I was sitting by myself and they just came up and he went, well, dope.
So we've been sitting on this bench for the last hour listening to a really good audio guide that we will link below. One of the really nice things about the Taj Mahal is that even though it is packed with tourists, the grounds are huge. So you can kind of find like a nice spot to get off alone by yourself and just enjoy the views.
So I'll try to summarize the highlights. Basically, there was this emperor named Shah jahal in the 17th century and he had multiple wives, but one of them was his small, very favorite. But she died giving birth to her 14th child with him. And he was so upset that he wanted to build the biggest, most beautiful place for her to rest in paradise for the rest of her life. So that's why he built the Taj Mahal just for her. And it took 22 years and tons of workers, but it was worth it because he loved her so much.
So a couple things that make the Taj Mahal especially unique for that period of time is that one, at that point, all of the other buildings were built out of red sandstone. And this is one of the first marble tombs that was ever built. And they only built tombs for men at that point. And this is one of the first big tombs that was ever built for a woman.
Okay, that's enough history for the day. I think it's time to move on.
Alright, we are leaving the Taj. It is about 10 o', clock, which means that we spent about three and a half hours looking at a building, which is a lot longer than I thought we'd spend.
Yeah, we have a couple other things planned today, but first we're going to find some coffee.
We got some food, we got some coffee and we are heading out for the afternoon. And we are both really excited about our plans.
So there's another group of vloggers in town. Their names are the Budgeteers. They have a really fun YouTube channel. They're way more hardcore than we are and we've been like Internet friends for a long time. But tonight we get to meet them because we're in the same place on the same night.
Hello.
Hello.
You're late.
You're Late.
We've already unsubscribed.
Hey, buddy.
Sa.
We ready?
Do I look weird like this? We're with the Budgeteers, Taz, Lena, and Patty. I feel like I need to say that, like, Patty does. And we've met a new couple, Mattie and Rhiannon.
So they have brought us up to this epic sunset spot. They've already pushed us way out of our comfort zone. We had to talk our way past three police officers. We bribed some people at the gate to get up here. But it has been totally worth awesome views. Okay, but seriously, we love what these guys are doing on YouTube. We think it's super unique. I don't. I can't say.
I can't say that I envy your travel style, but I really respect it. It's a nice way to say, oh, peasants. No, no, no, no. I. I don't know that we could do what you guys do.
We make a travel show once a year, and we're three friends on the road. And we express ourselves by the way that we travel. We think that travel is an art form and a creative outlet for yourself. And we take a small budget. Normally it's a thousand US dollars each. And we go to a different part of the world and we stick our thumb out and we hitchhike and we stay with locals and we find cool spots like this. And yeah, we just try to stretch our money and have a really good time doing it and meet cool people. Like, yeah, just get out there, guys. Travel and have a good time and you don't need loads of money and just go with your friends and have a good time. Why do I feel like I'm gonna cry? I think I'm about to.
Black twist.
We're not friends.
No, but. But they do a really good job of, like, tying it into a series. And they do, like, longer kind of documentary videos and they're really good.
Yeah, it's interesting.
So go check out the Budgeteers. We'll link them below. Give me a kiss.
Seriously.
We are mixing powdered coffee in our room temperature water bottles because it's our only option at five in the morning. This is going to be the earliest I've ever had a Snickers. We got these yesterday and then we forgot to buy breakfast for this morning. Snickers for breakfast. What better way to keep you from getting hangry before the sunrise with my bottle coffee. Come on, we're going to the Taj. Let's go to the Taj. Come on, everybody.
Where you going, guys?
Going down to the beach.
I haven't seen one move that fast in three weeks. Too late, Sam.
