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Published: April 10th 2006
We're having a great time, as you can tell by our lack of commitment to our travel blog. I guess we were a bit over ambitious thinking that we would be disciplined enough to stay on top of it. Oh well.
After we plied ourselves off the beaches of Goa, we headed inland to see two World Heritage Sites: Ellora and Ajanta. Both are a series of temples carved out of basalt (volcanic rock) cliffs, but the two locations are quite different.
Ellora consists of three series of over 34 cave temples: some Buddhist, some Hindu, and some Jain. They date from the 16th century. The main attraction is a Hindu temple called Kailash, which is the largest monolithic structure in the world. That is, it is carved out of one solid piece of rock! Thus, it had to be planned out before they started digging out the rock. Mind-boggling!
Most of the Hindu temples were carved from the top down, so there was no need for scaffolding. Again, the planning that was required to do this is simply amazing! These cave temples are huge. In most of them, you could easily seat a couple of hundred people. They have multiple rooms, pillars, benches, statues. It's not something that can really be described sufficiently.
Ajanta consists of only Buddhist temples, dating from 200 B.C. to about 1000 A.D. The attraction here is not so much the carvings but the paintings. In their prime, every surface of every cave temple was painted with images depicting stories, history, or everyday life. Unfortunately, there has been a lot of vandalism and erosion, but the paintings that remain give you an idea of what it must have been like.
We are now in the state of Rajasthan, in a city called Udaipur - the city of romance. Have a great room overlooking the lake, with a raised dias of pillows and a window. Would love to jump out the window and go for a swim, but don't dare!
It's a neat city, kind of like Quebec City, with the old part located within the fort walls. Narrow winding streets, lots of balconies, and very Islamic-looking architecture (the Mughal empire) with ornate windows and lots of tiles. Think images of Turkey, and you get the main idea.
Are heading north as soon as possible as we are tired of the heat. Average temp these days is about 40 Celcius!!! Wanted to go to Nepal next week, but heard about the latest demonstrations and 4-day strike. Maybe not a good destination right now. Northern India and/or Tibet are sounding more likely. Decisions, decisions......!
Hard to believe our time in India is more than half over!! We will definitely have to come back as we have decided that quality is more important than quantity. Thus we are not trying to rush around to "see everything". Instead, we are taking our time, spending a few days in each place to truly get to know it - a much more enjoyable and rewarding way to travel.
Hope you are all well and that spring is in the air!
Love, Kirsten and Mick
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Cameron Cooper
non-member comment
Don't Dare?!
I assume that the don't dare leap in the water refers to its contamination levels of half-burnt corpses. As I recall, just before heading for India in 1992, Mick was the guy who advised me to consuime whatever was offered rather than give offence -- "Even if it is a glass of water from the Ganges man, just go ahead and damn the consequences." How conservative we all become in our old age. Mind you, even without drinking Ganges water, (at least not knowingly), I did contract a case of dysentery that took 13 kilos off me in ten days, and saw me making bargains with God from atop a toilet in a dank, rat-infested bathroom in the basement of the Calcutta Salvation Army hostel. So maybe you're right.