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Published: December 21st 2008
We spent Wednesday and Thursday in Ellora, a little country town close to the city of Aurangabad, visiting the caves, a world heritage site, a mix of three major religions. Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism.
From Mumbai to Aurangabad the Bus journey took us 9 hours through the night. We had spent the entire day just chilling out nearby the Bus station in Mumbai, taking care of some last minute internet complications, exchanging our Aussie Dollars and chilling out in the Park. A couple of hours before boarding the Bus, we treated ourselves to a cold Beer and a Gin mix at a cozy mid 70’s type Bar/Restaurant.
The Bus ride was surprisingly comfortable, I happily drooled all over my husband to be, lost in a sea of dreams of his own.
We hopped into a taxi in Aurangabad after failing to catch the Bus to Ellora and took in the magical views spread out below the winding roads. Our driver was a lovely man with a golden smile who indulged me by stopping at a street vendor for me to get some bananas. We shared our cab with two other men that sat in the front. One of them Viki, was
the owner of a hotel in Ellora, where we eventually ended up staying.
Viki was a fantastic host to us, even sneaking in some Beer for us to drink at our discretion on our balcony. (Alcohol is taboo in India)
We head to the 34 caves the following day. A World Heritage Site, the caves are well worth seeing, the pinnacle of Deccan Rock cut architecture
Over five centuries generations of monks (Buddhist, Hindu and Jain) carved monasteries, chapels and temples from a 2km long escarpment and decorated them with remarkably detailed sculptures.
The masterpiece is the Kailasa Temple (Hindu) built to represent mount Kailash (Shiva’s Home in the Himalayas) and dedicated to Lord Shiva, is the largest monolithic sculpture hewn from the rock by 7000 laborers over a 150 year period.
Kailasa temple covers twice the area of the Parthenon in Athens and is 1.5 times as high.
Three large trenches where cut into the cliff face and then the shape was released with tools - an undertaking that entailed removing 200, 000 tons of rock.
An interesting place, we found ourselves exhausted of all the cave seeing after about 7 hours (you got to admit, pretty good work
on ABTD’s behalf there)
On the morning of the 19th - yesterday, at 7 am we hopped on the Bus to Aurangabad after downing a cup of super sweet milky tea, Indian style. Vicky the owner of our hotel gave us a hand with our million and one bags, he literally pushed Andy onto the Bus when his backpack got stuck between the doors!
We are far from travelling light. With both our lives tucked into our packs, winter and summer, hiking and swimming, teaching aids and documenting material, it is a real challenge. WE each carry a 15kg pack on our backs and a smaller day pack stuffed to the rim on our chests. Andy has a bum bag around his waste and I am dragging along a midsized suitcase on wheels!
We have agreed to try and reduce as much as possible, hopefully reducing to the point where we can eliminate the suitcase all together.
I am finding it hard to cut my books and beauty range loose, so it will be the winter section of my limited wardrobe collection that will have to suffer the loss.
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john
non-member comment
why do they think you are famous?
why do they think you are famous?