carvings and paintings and temples - oh my!

Good day blog lovers! hope you're all well this morning or evening or whatever time it may be. we're still managing to keep track of times, but days and dates have us all at sea.....mmmmm nice way to be.

anyway, back to business. so after dealing with the crazy bureaucracy of the indian railways (and we're two public servants remember - we know bureaucracy!) we finally managed to book some tickets to aurangabad. now, aurangabad is not far from mumbai, maybe a couple of hundred ks, but takes approximately 7 hours to travel to on the train. and the air conditioned seats were all booked out. but it turned out to be for the best, and jeff made many friends on the train, telling them about australia and learning about life in india. they were quite taken aback by the fact that we were not married, especially when they found out we'd been together for almost six years (that's right - i know it freaks me out if i think about it too much). and even though i'm currently wearing a faux wedding ring, it's too weird to lie when directly asked about it. and my ring turned from silver to orange pretty quick - it was well worth that $2.50, so not sure how many people it will fool...

so the reason for going to aurangabad is to visit the world heritage sites of ajanta and ellora caves. ajanta is a u-shaped valley where the caves are carved into the rock. inside the caves the walls are painted with religious murals and carved pillars hold up the roof. these caves are buddhist, ranging from around 200 BC - 650 AD and were abondoned when buddhism declined in the region, only to be later discovered by an english hunting party. it's an amazing place, and very indiana jonesy (yes, i am a product of my pop culture), and you can imagine what it must have been like to live and worship there. the monks lived in little cells carved into the side of the main chambers in each cave. a pretty austere lifestyle, but i guess that's what the monking business is all about. it was so dry that we couldn't imagine where they got water and food from, but i'm sure it's different during and after the wet season.

ellora caves were mind blowing. it's a site where there are carvings, temples and artworks from three different religions - jain, hindu and buddhist, each set carved when that religion was at its height of popularity in the region. but what is excellent is that they never destroyed the preexisting temples to other deities, just moved a few hundred metres up the rock face and started carving their own.
These people had vision too. some of these temples took a couple of hundred years to carve out of the side of the mountain - not likely to happen these days.

one of the great things about these places was that there were loads of indian tourists on their holidays. jeff and i are now in photos on mantlepieces throughout india, having been asked to be in so many family photos. it's hilarious - we now know how it feels to be a b-grade celebrity! also, at a different site little kids came up and asked us to sign their hands! it made us feel quite weird - photos are one thing, but autographs? ah, such is a life of fame....

Other highlights include:

- an all day tour in an autorickshaw, then having to write a message in his book about how good a driver and guide he was (and he was - if you're ever in aurangabad, sheik moin is your man!)

- visiting an old fort, where (or so the guidebook tells us) despite numerous defenses and all sorts of tricky spikes and what not, the fort was taken by bribing the gatekeeper. something in that for all of us.

- while at the fort, going up the dark secret passage which was the hidden way in. luckily we had our torches, but these indian dudes we found halfway didn't. hilarious - they were each holding on to the guy ion front's shoulder trying to manage their way down the steps, making a huge racket. when we appeared, they screamed, each shook our hands, said good morning, then carried on into the darkness.

- catching the sleeper train back to mumbai. luckily air conditioned, but still quite an experience. dudes come through selling samosas and chai and all sorts of other interesting sounding things we didn't recognise.

- and yes, turns out jen can still sweat more. i am now the proud owner of a bright red massive handkerchief which i use to dab at my face in the manner of a fat red englishman. ah yes, it's a beautiful sight.

Next time:
- portugese influence all round in panaji
- finding the hippy trail in goa
- Jeff turns 27 and saturn returns
- jen is completely unable to haggle

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