Uttar Pradesh in March

UP only national park — tigers, rhinos, and swamp deer in a terai wilderness that nobody from outside UP visits.

Krishna's birthplace — the jail cell temple, Vishram Ghat on the Yamuna, and India's most colorful Holi.

City of 5000 temples — where Krishna grew up, Holi is a war, and spiritual energy is tangible.

The Taj Mahal is worth every cliche ever written about it — and Mehtab Bagh at sunset, when the crowds thin, is when it stops being a monument and starts being magic.

Where Ram spent 11 of his 14 years of exile — the most important Ramayana site outside Ayodhya.

The city where food is religion, manners are art, and the Bara Imambara is the most underrated monument in India.

Where Buddha gave his first sermon — the Dhamek Stupa has stood here for 2,500 years, and this quiet park is the antidote to Varanasi's chaos.

The oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, where life and death happen simultaneously on the same riverbank and neither apologizes for the other.