Not just a cave..

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…We actually went to visit these before Ajanta so I have no idea why I have written the blog the other way round. Perhaps, you may think, it is my advice to visit Ajanta first, and then Ellora. If you thought that you would be wrong, in fact, it is my advice to visit Ajanta second, not in the order this blog is written.
Ellora was nice. We had a nice bus ride there and then it proceeded to rain when we arrived. A lot. It was ok though, we, and two new American friends, took shelter under a big tree whilst the thunder was crashing through the sky, and the lightening was.. crashing.. or something.. through the sky.. to the ground.. wherever. We stood there for a minute and then, on remembering Jon was actually struck by lightening through a tree a mere 13 years earlier, we decided to move away from the tree to get some food, and safer shelter. I also decided to move away from Jon on the way to get some food, as you know what they say about people who have been hit by lightening, so I used the excuse of talking to the american girl until he was a safe distance away, and then, of course, I abandoned the drifty conversation to run for shelter. I don’t think I seemed at all rude. In fact I was very pleased with my cunningness…
Anyway, I digress. Ellora caves were lovely, thoroughly enjoyed after I had picked my way through 1/2litre of oil containing a couple of cubes of batter described as pakora. The American girl thoroughly enjoyed her mouth watering looking Thali.. Justice, I presume.
We spent most of our time in cave 16, otherwise known as Kailasa Temple, which I think would be more suited to being called Kailasa village as it is huge. And beautiful. So beautiful. And it has its own inhabitants, 5 of which Jon and I met called Bob, Margery, Glenith, Zuton and Wilfred, and they are bats. Gorgeous, cute fluffy looking bats that were happy to squeal and flutter around as Jon and I made them feel like Brittany Spears with our flash photography. Not all of them like Brittany though, Zuton had his own band apparently…
Anyway, KT16 (I’ve given it it’s own postcode) was immense, and beautifully carved, and wonderful, and I would have liked to hold a party there. I didn’t have the same feel as the Buddhist caves of Ajanta, so a party would be more suitable.. with a good old game of hide and seek. In one of my pictures you can see Jon trying to entice me into a little cave. Later, when he wasn’t looking, I did wander and crawl through that tunnel, to find it just opened up to a whole in the side of the outer wall, about 4 storeys high, as I peered over the edge a man called to me to jump, which I thought was very presumptuous of him, he doesn’t even know me.
On the way out we spied some monkeys. They were cool. There was a little baby one who kept chattering to us. He really did. Chatter chatter chatter.. running to his mummy (who ignored us) and then closer to us again, chattering. Jon has a great (or many, I couldn’t get him to leave) video of the baby, or more like 5 yr old, that was communicating some garbledy goop to us. I can’t upload videos on this though so you’ll just have to imagine. You can settle for a picture of him with his mummy. I tried to get a close up of him and he, out of nowhere, ran towards me, chattering. I saw him heading straight for me through my lens (yes, my camera doesn’t only have LCD) and I think he may’ve kind of stopped, not stopped chattering, but stopped running. I think he was trying to see who would run away first. I think I beat him by a second or so, cos as I peered back in his direction from behind Jon, he was just arriving back to his mummy, where he peered back at me. Of course at that instant when he ran towards me I realized I was remarkably thirsty and desperately in need of some of Jons water, it having completely slipped my mind that I had some in my own bag.. Ok… But he was TINY! And CHATTERING (shiver..) and , ok… cute.
Well, anyway, once again it was fun.
After all the excitement we returned home, and this night did not smoke shisha, drink beer and perform ridiculously unsteady cartwheels. That was the night before this. And the day of the night before this we had had a wonderful day riding around Aurangabad on our ‘friends’ motorbike.
There is something incredibly manly about riding around on a motorbike, even I feel it, and I felt incredibly manly riding around on the back of the motorbike Jon was incredibly manly-like driving. The only thing not incredibly manly was the lack of horn on the bike. No, not horn like that, that was fine, horn like a beepy thing, and we all know beepy things are more important than the actual ability to drive in India. So, in the fashion of Mary Poppins, who I pride myself on, I admire her ability to whistle with birds on her fingers, and tidy rooms by clicking her fingers, not that I have yet learnt how to click my fingers, or go around whistling with birds on my fingers, no, neither did I jump into the pavement. What I did do, in the fashion of M.P, P.P.I.E.W (fans will know) was find a pink whistle and a dainty blue necklace in my bag, not quite a lamp but hey ho.. Suffice to say, Jon was not looking particularly manly. And many inhabitants of Aurangabad had a good old laugh.
So did we, it was fun. I like this fun stuff.

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