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Published: September 23rd 2007
Flew back to Mumbai from Goa which was slightly more comfortable than the train(1hr by plane opposed to 14 by train). Had to stay a night in Mumbai again before getting our 6am train to Aurangabad which is close to the Elorra and Ajanta caves.
We were in 2nd class seating this time and got to expierence more of Indian culture, and also got melissa the mumps aswell!!! A lot of people were very interested in were you are from and all about you. A lot of the time they wil ask you what you work at in Ireland, before they ask anything else(name, were you going etc..) This is because of their caste system, it was strange but they need to size you up.
Got to Aurangabad and we werent impressed. Presumed it would pass like it did with Goa because of tiredness but unfortunately it never did. Afraid i wouldnt advise an enemy to visit this place, its a hole. Melissa readily concurred. It so different to the next town we vistied Jalgaon, as although it didnt look much different, we thought it was a nice place, especially the people. We had a day to kill and
not much to do. I noticed that melissa's face was starting to swell but didnt say anything cos to be honest thought she was getting fat or something!! Didnt have the bottle to tell her thats what i thought it was for 2 days.
Anyway got a rickshaw driver called Baraji to bring us to the Elorra caves. Its just outside of Aurangabad. There are 34 caves which are a mixture of Buddhist, Hindu and Jain caves which were excavated similtaineously in competition. The amazing thing about them is that all the carvings are excavated from one solid rock. It was cool, so much detail in each one.
The main cave was called the Kailish and the only cave you had to pay into. We could see why, its spectacular and the photos don't do it justice. It took 100 years and four generations of kings to complete. The funniest aspect of the day was the Indians who were asking us to get in photos with them. They had these big eighties cameras and i presume were tourists from small villages not use to us milky's. Melissa wasnt to big on getting in them as her face was
expanding very rapidly at this stage.
After the caves we headed back to town and the guide made us go to a crappy craft shop before we told him to bring us home. The next day it was onto Ajanta, or so we thought!!
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Sarat
non-member comment
glad you made it!
Niall - glad you made it to the Ellora caves. I agree, out of Ajanta and Ellora the Kailas was far and away the most impressive. Hard to believe they carved an entire 100 foot tall temple from the top down!!! Ridiculous, I just don't have that kind of faith! Anyways, safe travels and try not to get ripped off too much! (If it makes you feel any better, even I get ripped CONSTANTLY in India - and I'm brown!)