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Published: November 18th 2007
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Budha Santa
And this year I want a tire and a stick to beat the tire down the road with! We hooked up with a private bus in Mumbai heading east to Aurangabad, our next stop as it lay between two UNESCO World Heritage Sites: The Ellora Caves and the Ajanta caves. Also, the Dalautabad fort was on the way to Ellora and sounded pretty cool.
The bus ride itself was an interesting experience, as several Indians chose to sleep in the aisle and the largest Muslim known to man sat across from me and proceeded to choke on cats all night, or so it sounded like. On the bus we met a nice Italian woman, Penelope, who at great length insisted she join us on day 2 when we explore Ajanta.
Day 1: Ellora and the Fort The Ellora caves are a series of 34 caves built into a rock wall (some carved downwards so that no scaffolding was used). We spent almost our entire alloted time on the first 11 Buddhist caves as there was just so many pictures to take. We sort of had to speed through the remainder.
On our way back we hit up Dalautabad Fort which once again came with its own, very different monkeys. These ones were almost as big as
Ellora caves
From the beginning your typical 11 year old, and like an 11 year old, were not interested in sex. This further solidified my love/hate relationship with monkeys.
In the evening Penner and I proceeded to get high off of hookah as we were smoking it so fast in order to get as many pictures as possible.
Day 2: Spiritual stones I started the day by going through my pockets and finding the blessed flower the Diwali 'priest' gave me. I was supposed to throw it in a river, but with none around, I tossed it in the bin.
We had to wake up early today, in order to successfully complete the Ajanta caves and then make our bus in the evening. After breakfast we set out to pick up Penelope at her hotel. Penelope, who doesn't speak english very well, decided to make us wait for an hour. But it would be okay, we were early and we were splitting the taxi three ways.
On the way to the caves (1.5 hours away) Penelope kept insisting we stop for food and water as she was ever so thirsty. We stopped for another hour as she ate.
At the
caves we meandered around, took our pictures, you know, the usual - but always, ALWAYS waiting on Penelope. She claims she had a spiritual connection with the locals on account of her being a Shivaite. I say it was cause she was white, had blonde hair and blue eyes. Meh, potato pohtahtoh.
At the end of our caving we head back to the buses where we witnessed an amazing display in chaotic insanity. Waiting for the bus, was a wellformed single person line; however, when the bus arrives, it does not show up at the line, but rather quite a few meters ahead. This is when everyone in this perfectly formed line dashes towards the bus and commences the pushing and shoving. It got to the point where men were being restrained from starting fisticuffs. One guy even started yelling, in a marvellous Indian accent, "Come on Action Hero. Hm? Action Hero!"
The bus took us back to the shops and our taxi driver. I had no intention of buying anything, but since Penner and Penelope disappeared, I went for a browse. Once again, not particularly interested in anything I saw a dish that looked sort of cool
OOOoommmm
Peace of mind and asked the price: 1800 rupees ($45 Canadian). Under the assumption that 50% was a good target, I talked him to 1000 rupees ($25 Cdn) and went on my merry way. I'm pretty sure I heard snickering as I left. As if to confirm this suspicion, upon arriving at the car, Penner was confronted by a man trying to sell the very same dish to Penner for 500 rupees. Hell, he even dropped it to 250 using the sales tactic, "Well your friend bought it for 1000!" I'd been had.
Once again, we are left wondering what happened to Penelope? She returns about 20 minutes later with a bag full of stones (quartz crystal, random blue/greenish rock) claiming they were spiritual as the 'energies' at Ajanta were great. We then asked how much they cost? To which the answer was, in broken english, "I had no money so I gave them my mobile"....................
"Um, what?"
"I had no money, so I gave them my mobile"
...................
"You paid 100Euro for some rocks!?!?!?!?"
"They have spiritual attributes, see? Look at this one"
It's not bad being the second dumbest person in a car.
We arrive back in Aurangabd
Biggest Temple
This was carved downwards, negating any need for scaffolding and its time to pay the driver. Penelope thanks me for a wonderful day and donates one of her stones to me. I thank her, and ask her for the 400 rupees she needs to pay for the taxi.
"I told you Steve, I have no money"
"...................what?..............."
"This trip was part of your program, you were going to go anyway, I was your guest"
"...................what?..............."
We paid the taxi and bid farewell to Penelope. Oh, she offered us some stones for payment.
Maybe I should have found a river for that flower....
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Dad
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Good Samaritan
Ah son I'm so proud of you, you helped a "stoned" damsel in distress. Great pictures. By the way can't wait to see the plate. Dad