4 bikes, 8 people, and 3 bouldering pads

Varanasie, on the Holy Ganga river at dusk about to make our candle offering. The blurry face on the right is our friend and fellow traveler from Australia, Chris.
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From Loy: Leah has been doing a lot of travelling, so she's had less time to send blogs. Here's a few brief paragraphs about her travels:

From Leah: (From Varanasie) We had a long day of traveling from Pokhara to Varanasie- a crappy bus, a minibus rooftop ride, and a sweet private jeep that a guy in Pokhara scored for us. Varanasie is intense: when we took a boat ride along the Ganges, we saw the cremations and people bathing that are so commonly depcited in pictures of northern India. We're hanging out until tonight when we take the night train to Agra (12 hours) we'll stay in Agra for only a day, and then take the next night train to Jaipur. We met up with a guy from Australia who is going to travel with us to Jaipur- he's on his own, and we're just going to travel together until Jaipur. I love how the community works around here- meet up and hang out- chill, travel together. It's sweet.

We rented motorbikes one day and had a whole motly gang of us just whizzing around, people from America, France, Spain and India climibing together. It was epic. Untouched boulders!

Varanasie, on the Ganga river at sunrise
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(From Mumbai) We just reached Mumbai this morning. Tomorrow night we have a 15 hour night train to Hospet, and then a 1/2 hour bus ride to Hampi (we changed our schedule a bit). We're going to hang out in Hampi for about five days. Hampi is smaller, more layed back and chill compared to the hassle and expense of the big cities. If anyone has ever seen the bouldering film Pilgramage with Chris Sharma and Katie Brown, they filmed it in Hampi. The whole place is scattered with a ton of amazing boulders. After that we'll head down on another train to Kerala.

Agra, sunset behind the Taj Maha
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(From Hampi) I just spent an amazing 5 days in Hampi! We met a couple other travelers who all climbed, and we found a lady in the village who rents out old climbing shoes that people leave behind for 30 rupees per day. The area is literally miles upon miles of boulders as far as the eye can see. Endless possibilities. We would get up at 5:30 in the morning and climb straight until like 2pm. We rented motorbikes one day and had a whole motly gang of us just whizzing around, 4 bikes, 8 people, 3 bouldering pads- people from America, France, Spain and India climibing together. It was epic. Untouched boulders! After a day of climbing, I would go to the lake with the Spaniards and just relax after a perfect day of climbing and touring. I officially put every care in the world away from my mind while in Hampi.

At the most one of the most amazing architecturally beautiful structures in the world, The Taj Mahal. This is at sunrise, before the hoardes of tourists arrive.
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From Loy: It just so happens that this term, I'm taking a class on the architecture of Northern India, so I'll admit my jealously at Leah's getting to see structures like the Taj Mahal in person! There's so much amazing history behind the palaces and tombs in places like Agra and Mumbai. Here's a little bit that I found interesting: The Taj Mahal was built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, and finished in about 1648. It was built after the death of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, and is considered to be the ideal of perfection in Mughal architecture. The tomb is placed, as is traditional, in a char bagh garden (a quad-partite garden), however, Shah Jahan broke tradition by placing the tomb at the far end of the garden, right on the river. It confused scholars for many years, however, recent studies have made claims that on the opposing side of the river, there was supposed to be a "Moonlight Garden". This garden would have been for people to enjoy in the light of the full moon, taking in the beautiful white marble of the Taj reflecting the moonlight, and also reflecting in the waters of the Jamuna River.