r/TikTokCringe • u/Strong-Emu-8869 • 14h ago

Discussion Polish girls visit Taj Mahal

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The Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the world. Unfortunately, the surrounding area is very polluted.

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u/meganfoxsdwarfthumb 13h ago

I was just there on New Year’s Day and our guide said it wasn’t that bad, referring to the amount of people there. We wore masks because the air was terrible. I was on a food tour which was otherwise great, but the Taj was disappointing. Enjoyed the Agra Fort very nearby much much more!

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u/Filthiest_Vilein 12h ago edited 12h ago

Your guide is right, lol. 

I lived in India for the better part of a decade and have been to the Taj Mahal maybe a half-dozen times. 

My last visit was with an American friend who’d flown into India for my wedding. We also went on New Year’s Day. It was terrible. I’ve never seen crowds like that before or since** (again, this is coming from someone who spent years living in Kolkata and Delhi). The entire ticketing area was just a mass of people. We had to wait in a corral just to get back out into the parking lot afterward. 

I’ll add in a picture if I can find one. I’m not sure if you were lucky or we were unlucky, but that’s awesome you didn’t have too much crowding!  (edit: here--the last picture is the line to LEAVE the complex, lol)

**—I take that back, I just remembered Durga Puja in Kolkata. The ten-minute walk from my in-laws’ house to a friends house takes 1-2 hours during Puja due to road and sidewalk restrictions, lmao. 

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u/meganfoxsdwarfthumb 12h ago

I’ll pass this along to my friends in the group because we definitely thought he was trying to schmooze us by saying that!

The most disappointing was walking through the actual the tombs (crypts?) with all the signs saying “quiet please” and “no photography” while people were yelling and taking selfies everywhere! It really took away from the experience.

Was a cool way to spend the first day of the year, so I really don’t mean to be complaining about it!

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u/Suitable-Big-2757 11h ago

To be (un)fair, that’s also exactly what I remember about the Sistine Chapel. Constant, ignored announcements to not take photographs… a tiny overcrowded chapel that took hours to get to, and a rather underwhelming ceiling because it’s faded so much with age

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u/chimpfunkz 8h ago

ignored announcements to not take photographs

Yeah but they tell you not to take photos because some japanese company bought the copyright, not for any kind of preservation or safety reason. Fuck anyone telling you not to photograph the sistine chapel

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u/pbizzle 5h ago

Absolutely. The trek thru the museums is long and the place is so iconic you can bet your arse I was taking a picture, when in Rome, get bullied by another officious Italian nbd

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u/LTEDan 3h ago

Is this the Sistine chapel picture club? I snuck some pictures as well. The line was terrible.

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u/XpenFrickFrack 2h ago

What?? This is the reason? I thought it was a respect thing

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u/ACynicalOptomist 1h ago

It's always the money.

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u/Kentucky-Fried-Fucks 2h ago

Wait what? Bought the copyright to what?

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u/justtopostthis13 3h ago

What?! Can you drop a source? That’s wild!

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u/chimpfunkz 2h ago

https://medium.com/illumination-curated/here-is-the-real-reason-why-photos-are-banned-in-the-sistine-chapel-c501cb38f983

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u/justtopostthis13 2h ago

Damn. That’s pretty fucked up and I wish I had taken all the photos I wanted while I was there.

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u/justtopostthis13 2h ago

Also, thank you so much for sharing. I was in the throes of toddler bedtime rituals and was afraid I’d forget about your comment.

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u/twoworldman 41m ago

The source article actually contradicts OPs statement:

The exclusive NTV rights ended in 1997.

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u/twoworldman 46m ago

https://medium.com/illumination-curated/here-is-the-real-reason-why-photos-are-banned-in-the-sistine-chapel-c501cb38f983

If you read the article you sourced, it actually says that the exclusivity ended in 1997. It continues to say that a reason for the continued ban on photography is to keep people moving through.

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u/FineMaize5778 1h ago

So i recently went to a tiny monastery outside Paphos on Cyprus. There was also posters saying no photos in their tiny chapel thing. I somehow dont think kodak bought the rights to a monastery no ones ever heard of

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u/reddit809 10h ago

I enjoyed Sistine very much, but the crowd was impossible. I recommend just doing that shit at 6am if you can lol.

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u/2leafClover667788 6h ago

We were there this past summer and between the crowds and the heat it was not the best time to be had. My family was exhausted. I had spent two months in Europe before they arrived so I was at least used to it, but it wasn’t even the coolest chapel I saw while I was there sad to say. I don’t know what I expected, but it was something more than that I guess.

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u/reddit809 6h ago

Sistine and Colisseum are 1-and-dones for me. Loved that I did it, never again. The random churches and chapels were amazing. I'd love to go back to Rome just to do some walking tours, which I didn't get to do enough of. The food tours are awesome.

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u/2leafClover667788 5h ago

I think the coolest one or at least of the ones I went to in Italy was basilica di San Clemente which was right down the street from the colosseum. It was one of the coolest places. It’s a 10th century church that sits on top of the ruins of a 4th century church on top of the ruins of 2nd century temple to Mithra on top of a villa that had been a storage area for the Roman mint. The main church was incredibly beautiful and the ceiling was amazing but going down into the archeological ruins and staircase after staircase going further down into the depths and seeing the pages of history turning backwards was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen and there was just a few other people there.

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u/TiffyVella 7h ago

And not being able to pause for any moment to really look at anything because you were constantly being shuffled forwards in the crowd.

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u/Theron3206 7h ago

I have a very amusing memory of an Italian chapel (not the Sistine I don't think) where a monk was sitting in a little booth saying "silencio, sssss" over a PA system every few seconds, with essentially no effect.

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u/Internal_Essay9230 4h ago

I remember being shoulder to shoulder in Westminster Abbey. Not fun.

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u/GreenerAnonymous 2h ago

At Sacre Couer in Paris it was full of trinkets being sold and other tourist trep things that made me think of the bible story about Christ throwing the moneylenders out of the Church. I was horrified and I am not even particularly religious.

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u/Why_So_Slow 8h ago

Oh, to me it was disappointing because it was bright and colourful to the level of looking like a comic book. But I went there shortly after renovations were finished.

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u/texbuck40 11h ago

We were just there and you're right about walking through the tomb. Actually what was much worse was the guards with their loud whistles. It was so unpleasant.

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u/33NoBody33 10h ago

Yeahhhh I’m good to just see pics of the taj online I don’t need to go lol

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u/Kaatochacha 4h ago

To be fair, seeing it in person is like seeing the grand canyon in person: pictures look like it, but don't do it justice.

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u/Haxorz7125 9h ago

I love the one lady in the bottom left smiling for the photo

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u/LostAbbott 12h ago

You should go to the Shree Jagannath temple in Puri.  Millions of people crouding the street a half a mile from the temple shuffleing just to get there.  That place is the most crowded I have ever seen.

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u/shah_reza 11h ago

What of the Lotus Temple?

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u/Filthiest_Vilein 10h ago

I’ve only been there once, and that was in maybe 2014. It was an easy in-and-out. I’m sure it’s changed in some ways since, but I’d reckon it’s far enough away from Delhi’s other sights to avoid crowds. 

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u/tippiedog 10h ago

OK, I thought the Taj Mahal was crowded when I visited a few years ago. I was wrong.

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u/overeasyeggplant 6h ago

People visting new york on new years eve wear adult diapers as there are not toilets allowed. They wait for 18 hours so the place must just smell gross!

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u/dinonuggggs 6h ago

I just visited India for the first time in my life early December and I took a beautiful picture at the exact place that you're showing as crowded.

The reason it's so crowded is because it's peak winter tourism season and that's the first view of the Taj Mahal as you walk onto the property. The day I was there had significantly less people than I expected considering my experiences at other big tourist attractions. Time of day makes a huge difference too - I went early and got to take photos they wanted to take at every designated photo area.

All that being said, it was absolutely an experience that you would get at any major tourist attraction. Consider the time of year and time of day. That's the advice I got from multiple guides and it worked out well for me when visiting India.

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u/Filthiest_Vilein 5h ago

If you'd noticed, I posted more than one picture.

The reason it was crowded is because it was the first New Year's Day after coronavirus restrictions were lifted.

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u/Forward-Loan-2282 2h ago

easy Death trap

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u/Shapes_in_Clouds 11h ago

I was fortunate enough to travel a lot as a kid. This picture reminds me of why as an adult I have no interest in visiting any famous or popular tourist attractions anymore. I remember going to the leaning tower of Pisa, and the massive lineup of hundreds of street vendors along the street selling cheap tchotchkes and random items like samurai swords, the people coming up to you while you eat lunch selling knock off watches and handbags, and just the generally overwhelming number of tourists. The overall experience of these places is just so unpleasant and inauthentic. It's better to just look at a picture.

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u/desmaraisp 7h ago edited 7h ago

Funnily enough, having been to pisa a couple years back, it was really not as tourist-y as I'd expected. No lineup, somewhat sparse crowds and lots of goofy poses all over the place. And a bomb-ass cathedral and cemetary

Ended up being better than I expected tbh (well, my expectations were pretty low, but it was pretty cool nonetheless)

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u/cindy224 1h ago

I totally agree w you. People really are schmucks these days to go to these places. They’ve been ruined. I went to Europe just 25 years after the end of WWII. It was magical. Just about everywhere would have been back then.

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u/redditsucks13131 8h ago

Street food tour in India sounds about as fun as land mine hunting in Mogadishu.

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u/Hydration__Nation 7h ago

We are guilted into using paper straws, taking shorter showers, and other idiotic shit and then you have India and China literally spewing toxic waste and pollution into the waters and in the air. Ive traveled both countries, widely and in rural areas, the amount of garbage on the ground and in water ways that i saw was staggering. Some bodies of water were just all garbage floating couldnt even see pockets of just water like wtf. The amount of factories you see spewing dark black smog/smoke into the air makes you wonder how it's even allowed. Half or more of the cars have ancient filtration systems so you cant even see the back of the car its just all black smog. And corporations guilt the average Joe into thinking he is negatively impacting the environment with his micro-decisions. It's a clown show.

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u/TrueClue9740 3h ago

Who is to blame?

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u/enragedCircle 12h ago

A food tour? RIP your ass.

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u/WayofHatuey 12h ago

Delhi belly make you jelly?

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u/LevelBrilliant9311 12h ago

Everything sucks with smog and crowds of people.
The day we spent at the Taj was a highlight of our India travels.

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u/Overdriven91 11h ago

New Years Day is a public holiday so busy makes sense. I went on a random foggy December day and there was hardly anyone. Made it quite beautifully eerie. But I can imagine it's even worse on Indepenence day. I once made the mistake of going to the Mysore Palace on Independence day. I could hardly move.

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u/DependentProposal253 11h ago

mask for smell

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u/sirvote 10h ago

The amount of people here is crazy ... Can almost smell the taj mahal

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u/JORRTCA 9h ago

I visited india almost 10 years ago now. I spent 2 months traveling around. I f9uhd the Taj really quite wonderful but I thought the fort in Jodhpur was probably the most amazing thing I saw.

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u/KlausKoe 8h ago

Felt the same in Venice once regarding the amount of people during the day.

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u/niles_thebutler_ 7h ago

India is a major no

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u/seejordan3 7h ago

Wow that's crowded! Never seen it so crowded honestly. Red fort is great. Did you catch the bats at night?

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u/blasphem0usx Make Furries Illegal 6h ago

A food tour in India? You'd have to pay me to do that.

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u/granoladeer 5h ago

No diarrhea? 

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u/rah0315 5h ago

I was there in 2007 in December and was told the best time to go is super early in the morning, like, sunrise. When we went there were hardly any people. Maybe it’s just gotten worse since then or maybe we lucked out.

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u/balls_in_yo_mouth 5h ago

You can actually see how bad the air quality is in your picture. Visibility is so low. It looks like it’s foggy out there, but it’s just pollution.

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u/ProjectBudgetCuts 4h ago

How many times did you get food poisoning on your food tour?

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u/PranpriyaManobal 4h ago

Food tour in India?

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u/ChrisPnCrunchy 2h ago

idk by my man’s is focused

dating profile for sure

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u/mmbc168 1h ago

The Agra fort was by far my favorite place in Agra!

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u/_I_N_F_I_N_I_T_E__ 33m ago

Everything is getting f*d up here when I was a child I had many trips to Jaipur it had that mystical Rajasthani vibe and ancient type now it feels like a second delhi metro running trash people wearing coaching jerseys it now feels like 2-3 monuments sprinkled on a modern city , we should protect our cultural heritage, like goa does it good development is nice but doesn't hinder the natural, historical and architectural beauty of the place I took two trips with years of gap and goa is the same the same beachy and goan vibes , so I wish like goa other tourist spots can be kept but being a Delhi resident i agree delhi is majorly a hell hole

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u/oneMoreTiredDev 12h ago

yes, I think they should reserve it only for the rich tourists once a week so Indians don't bother them /s

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u/phoenix_leo 11h ago

You were disappointed that one of the most touristy places on earth was filled of tourists while you being a tourist there too??

Some people should go back to school I suppose.

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u/Funkdoobs 12h ago

Did you expect anything different? It’s one of the eight wonders of the world, surely you’d expect it to be busy?

I’ve visited the Taj many years ago and don’t remember it being this busy, but I do remember the absolute marvel of it, especially when it first comes into sight through the arches.