http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Aurangabad/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , India , Maharashtra , Aurangabad en-us Thu, 10 Dec 09 11:45:35 +0000 Thu, 10 Dec 09 11:45:35 +0000 Sorry for the delay in posting......didn't realize how unreliable the internet would be here Anyway....Aurangabad. This was our first stop mostly as a base to explore Ellora Ajanta caves. Aurangabad itself was a very strange mix of urban and rural.....mass traffic jams caused by people dogs goats and cows. People on cell phones digging through garbage. very strange.Our first day we spent http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Aurangabad/blog-458096.html Hi everyone. More of a newsflash than a proper update. On a night bus from Aurangabad to Ahmedabad. 800pm we stop for a toilet break. VV is nicely relaxed on the bus and i suggest to her that now is the time to go to toilet if she needs to coz we probably wonrsquot stop until the morning. She says she is fine and doesnrsquot need to go. 810pm After 10 minute break the bus continues on its p http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Aurangabad/blog-442234.html From the moment they stepped off the train Lai and Aaron could feel the difference. Mumbai was choked with people sweat and dirty air while Aurungabad was idyllic quiet and sleepy. Even the train tracks smelled less of piss not that it wasn't noticeable anymore just not quite as prevalent. They could see the blue in the sky between the darkening monsoon clouds and the air was misty whil http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Aurangabad/blog-435114.html Welcome to the art that rocks. Located about 400 kms from Mumbai Aurangabad offers to tourist glimpses of fine art history right from 2 BC to 18 AD. Aurangabad is very well connected by air rail road. I drove from Pune which is about 250 kms from Aurangabad to spend a weekend out there to explore the region. For those not driving may want to hire a cab locally. This would prove quite cost http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Aurangabad/blog-432929.html Today we did a tour of Daulatabad Fort Ellora caves and Mini Taj Aurangabad aka Bibi Ka Maqbara.Today was more or less the same as yesterday Ajanta caves and being photographed for being Korean etc We first started off seeing the Daulatabad Fort. We literally took about 10 mins to look around and I didn't think it was worth seeing but it was on our way to Ellora so we saw it. I wouldn't recom http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Aurangabad/blog-411185.html From Cochin took a flight to Mumbai then from Mumbai hired a car to take us to train station and our driver drove us through the Dharavi slums as in the movie Slumdog Millionare then took an overnight train at the Mumbai CST train station formally known as Victoria Terminal to Aurangabad... and boy what an adventure. When we first arrived at the station we were overwhelmed by this reall http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Aurangabad/blog-411165.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Aurangabad/blog-395823.html Our foray ino the dark world of Bijapur's eateries came back to bite us with a dose of the dreaded Delhi Belly. An already torturous 10hr bus journey to Aurangabad was made all the worse with bad stomach cramps. We arrived into Aurangabad and it felt like we had stepped into the twilight zone. Every day for six hours this city has no power and it has been this way for three years We learned ver http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Aurangabad/blog-378162.html Blossom Travel Servicesgt to know about the services and facilities offered by Blossom Travel Services http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Aurangabad/blog-375525.html From Udaipur we had a long journey ahead of us to get to south India the first leg being the 6am bus to Indore. Travelling through Madhya Pradesh we couldn't help noticing a pattern in all the towns we passed through they were all crapholes. Indore looked no different only bigger as we rolled in at about 6pm. We had four hours to kill before the night bus to Aurangabad. We bought our tick http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Aurangabad/blog-368590.html India. A nation of contrasts. The Haves and the Havenots. The stinking rich to the stinking poor. Sending men into space for exploration at the same time as sending men to their graves from starvation. The Darkness and the light. Ok that last one might be taken from the novel White Tiger you should read it itrsquos a good book.And now me. I have spent the first half of my monthly budget co http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Aurangabad/blog-357866.html Since I have been eager to visit forts ancient ruins and fortlike places I could not remain in the guest house today. Visiting Daulatabad was not even a preplanned trip therefore we had to catch a local bus to Daulatabad. A couple of guys suggested that we should take a horsecart but we felt that it was not a safe mode of transport here. The bus fare is much cheaper than a ride on a horseca http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Aurangabad/blog-324695.html We hired a rickshaw to visit this isolated place not many people came across. The auto rickshaw stopped by the side of busy road. We were signalled to follow a little road. This little road runs into a small gate then to a huge courtyard consists of a water tank and a mosque. The next entrance leads to almost neglected tomb which housed one of the most controversial Mughal Emperors Aurangzeb. At http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Aurangabad/blog-324685.html August 9 2008While we were eating breakfast in Jalgon we got approached by two Canadians wondering if we would like to share a hired car with them to the Ajanta Caves. Got into the jeep with them Aruna and Mike and took the hour drive to these caves. The Ajanta caves are more of a U shape and are quite close together. Some of the caves were pretty cool and interesting because they are really ol http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Aurangabad/blog-312175.html Ajanta a different viewThis was the fourth time that we were visiting Ajanta. We had seen the cave paintings first time about 36 years back when they were in a much better state of preservation. Over the past 36 years they have deteriorated despite the efforts to conserve them and so every visit to Ajanta makes us more pensive.However Ajanta and Ellora still work their charm on us because of http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Aurangabad/blog-312082.html Crater Lake LonarThe very first photo that seeded my young mind with a desire to travel and see the whole wide world was that of Crater Lake Oregon published in a National Geographic Magazine.I was hardly 6 years old at that time. I had to wait for about 50 years before I could partly fulfill that desire.In 1998 we had the opportunity to visit Crater Lake Oregon. You can see my photos on the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Aurangabad/blog-311658.html Irsquove been trying to keep my rants to a minimum in the blogs just to keep them shorter. But to add a little color to this one I went to eat breakfast before our trip to the Ajanta caves. As part of the set meal I got cornflakes with milk and coffee. First they didnrsquot have any milk they ran out after serving Darren and Ben five minutes before me. They were the first two people in th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Aurangabad/blog-277973.html Well fortune has smiled on me yet again. Thanks to the renowned inefficiency of the Indian rail network I didnrsquot miss my stopThe journey from Hyderabad to Aurangabad involves you waking up at 345am or thereabouts so that you donrsquot miss your stop at 405am. I set 2 alarms as I usually do but they simply didnrsquot go offhellip..either of them which left me feeling well miffed http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Aurangabad/blog-273728.html 18 yes we were squeezed in there too.Hello everyoneWere back from Aurangabad now after spending 3 days there as a base for the Ellora caves which are a set 34 hand carved temples resting places and assembly halls. all made the made around the same time but by different religions 12 buddhist 17 Hindu 5 Jain some of which are home to hundreds of bats at one point chased us out Ou http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Aurangabad/blog-254611.html Ako nekad pozelite da budete kao Brad Pitt dodjite u Aurangabad. Ovde su nas voleli i stari i maldi zene i mushkarcineki likovi su nas iscimali da se slikamo drzeci se za ruke. Svi su nas pozdravljali sa svima smo morali da se rukujemo upozdamo ili slikamo. Deca bukvalno skakucu od srce dok nas pitaju kako se zovemo. Jedan stariji chovek je stao pokraj nas prisetio se engleskog pa nas pit http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Aurangabad/blog-251037.html