While our blogs are a little out of sequence, I'm picking up the journey from our arrival in Agra - and the Taj Mahal!!
We stayed in a cosy guest house with Sunita and her lovely family (and super tasty home-cooked food), just ten minutes' walk from the Taj, meaning we could get there for sunrise at 6am-ish.
We were super excited. Despite having seen the palace dozens of times on TV etc, it is utterly magnificent.
While there were still queues of tourists at 6am (and we were at just one of three entrances), the huge grounds dispersed people enough for it to seem quiet-ish - especially for India, and one of the world's most visited tourist spots.
But either way, the majestic wonder leaves you abit awestruck.
We didn't bother with a tour guide, and just spent a couple of hours wandering around gazing at the gleaming marble colossus, perched next to the Ganges river and overlooking tranquil gardens, and taking lots of pictures...
According to our trusty Lonely Planet tour book, the Taj was built by the emperor Shah Jahan in the 17th Century as a memorial to his wife. *Not his first, or even his second wife, by the way - his third wife!! Guess I need to up my game in the buying-thoughtful-present-for-wife department*
Anyway, with the Taj ticked off, we boarded an overnight sleeper train to the sacred Varanasi - which Freya has already blogged about.
We had planned to then take a bus across the border to Nepal - but had a last minute change of heart. Mainly the cost of flying back to India, mixed with only being able to spare a week to see what sounds like an amazing country. One for the future.
Instead we boarded a mammoth 24-hour train from Varanasi (north India) all the way to Jalgaon (mid-ish India) to check out the Ajanta Caves.
Etched into the landscape of a u-shaped valley prowled by monkeys, the hidden caves have wonderfully intricate carvings and huge stone shrines to buddha, dating from around 2nd Century BC.
There are around 30 caves you can walk around, plus magnificent views of the full array of temples from an overlooking hill that makes the never-ending steep steps worth the effort.
From Jalgaon we trained to Mumbai, where we spent four days getting a glimpse of India's cosmopolitan lifestyle.
We stayed in a plush part called Colaba, walking distance from the harbour, Gate of India (pictured below) and Taj Mahal hotel.
The area felt similar to London; while we walked past the glitzy Mumbai Yacht Club, whose roadside was packed with BMWs and Mercs, on the other side of the street homeless families lay still asleep on their ragged blankets.
You can also pay to visit the city's slums - Asia's largest - but it was actually pretty expensive, and we were both unsure on whether we were OK with it ethically, so ended up leaving it.
The city offered a totally different side to India from what we'd encountered before.
The colonial-era buildings were stunning - and the feel was a lot more Western. Indian women were walking around in short sleeve tops and shorts, there were lots of hip bars that wouldn't have been out of place in Shoreditch, and well-to-do city-types loved abit of early-morning jogging.
But there are still cheap haunts - we particularly liked Olympia, in Colaba, whose speciality was mutton kheema with slabs of thick bread for breakfast. Yum.
While wandering the city we also got asked to star in a Bollywood movie - playing the part of Westerners taking a picnic in a public park.
A chap who introduced himself as Polo (second name Marco) asked if we would be keen for the gig - he is well-known for perusing the backpacker parts of the city picking up westerners - and even offered 500 rupees each (just over five quid for a 12-hour day 😂).
Alas, after agreeing to it, he got in touch to say the outdoor shoot had been cancelled because of the bad weather.
With our Bollywood dream in tatters, we moved on to the World Heritage Site of Hampi.
With the trains fully booked, we had to get our first overnight sleeper bus.
The compartments were actually super comfy - we even had our own TV showing some Bollywood (we turned it off, our missed opportunity was still too sore).
But the mixture of a seemingly suspension-less bus, India's bumpy roads, and the mad-as-hell drivers who won't be put off overtaking a lorry despite it being on a U-bend, six cows sat on the other side of the road and other cars oncoming, meant we didn't get a jot of sleep.
But it was soon forgotten when we got to Hampi.
Having pulled up just outside the town early morning, we took a tuk-tuk past lush green fields flanked by palm trees, peppered with the sweet smell of locals burning sugar cane, into what our driver introduced as 'Rock City'.
It was spectacular. Think sprawling ruins matching those of Ancient Greece, towering sun-kissed boulders like in the Flintstones - all topped off with a pretty dose of the yellow-tinged palm trees.
We took a cycle tour on our first day - which was excellent.
One, the mostly 14th century temple ruins are scattered across Hampi - which we were told is the world's second largest outdoor religious site in the world (behind Angkor Wat).
And two, it was super interesting. Turns out Hampi (back in the day) used to be one of the world's largest, and most prosperous, cities.
It was the capital of the Hindu Vijayanagar Empire, made up of an army close to 2 million, and a huge trading town, off the Silk Road. Remnants of the stone stands that lined the then bustling bazaars - with stalls selling gold by the litre (we were told), spices and cotton - are still in place today. More on the fascinating history here.
But the standout attraction for us was the surreal golden boulders, that seem to dot the Hampi landscape for as far as the eye can see (**scroll to end for the explanations of how the boulders were formed).
There are magnificent 360 views of the city from the Matanga Hill, where you can gaze at sunset/rise from the roof of a temple atop the mountain (after a steep climb, with a small dose of bouldering).
We didn't get a clear sunset view because of some imposing dark clouds still lingering from monsoon season, but they seemed to cloak the far-off mountains in a deep blue mist that just enhanced the red boulders, lakes and ruins in view. The pictures don't do it justice.
We were also lucky enough to witness our first Indian festival, Dussehra, on the last night of our stay.
Indian tourists had flocked to the holy city and were out in force, along with locals, to light hundreds of candles along the path to the main temple, whose own resident elephant was also out for the parade.
The elephant is normally holed up in one of the inside temples, but does get taken out through the town for a daily early morning bath, which is good fun to watch. She even has a few tricks to entertain the tourists ...
We also ate lots at the amazing Mango Tree restaurant, and got a boat across to explore the other island.
We extended our stay to five nights in Hampi - easily the highlight of our India adventure so far - and could have done more days just wandering around the stunning site, but the sandy beaches of Goa await!
** Some of the boulders seem to be impossibly balanced atop of others - begging the question how the hell did such massive boulders end up like that.
Well, it turns out there are two explanations. The first, based on actual logic, says that Hampi has one of the oldest exposed surfaces on earth.
Rather than formation after any sort of volcano, the boulders apparently once made up one massive mountain of granite rock, which has been eroded over, some say billions, of years by natural forces.
The battering of wind, sun, sea etc made some rocks break off, while the more mind-bogglingly-stacked ones are actually the same boulder - nature has just swept away the unwanted bits. Pretty cool.
The other explanation, based on Hindu mythology, is that two brothers who were princes in the so-called monkey kingdom, had a big fight and threw massive boulders at each other - causing them to crack and pile up around Hampi. Incase you were in any doubt, as the picture below shows - the latter is just silly ..
