It was after 16 hours of night bus heading north that we arrived at our destination Aurangabad. The city has nothing very interesting, except for its palace, the Bili-Qa-Magbara which is a replica of the famous Taj Mahal in Agra, but much smaller than the original. There we were the main attraction for Indian tourists who wanted to take pictures with us.

Auragangabad is indeed a base to visit the two famous caves of the region, which are cities of temples carved in the mountain, where an entire civilization lived between the III and XI centuries. Both impress with their size and manual work but they have their differences. Ajanta Cave, the oldest, have 30 caves built in a valley and it’s all about the frescoes on the walls and ceilings and cave # 26 which has a fantastic carving job.

But we liked much more Ellora cave, with 34 caves excavated in 2km, she has a magnificent job of carving and caves that impress by their size, as the Kailasa temple, simply breathtaking!

After 3 days we left for another long journey towards Rajasthan in the north. We did 8 hours of night train and made a stop in Mumbai. The city is more urban and for the first we found the modern locals and young guys wearing shorts and women with shoulders off, which is rare here. Mumbai has impressive buildings with a strong influence of European architecture, as the train station, the high court and the Taj Mahal Palace hotel. In addition, the city seems to have stopped in time, with its ancient buildings and Fiat taxis from the 50’s. There we also visited the Dhobi Ghat, a big outdoor laundry where about 400 men do all the manual work. This is India!

Unfortunately we lost the chance to become stars in India, participating as extras in a Bollywood movie. We were recruited on the streets, but as we had to leave the same day it didn’t work. So at 6 pm we embarked in another night bus for 18-hour trip to Udaipur.