Ellora and Ajanta Caves

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Wednesday night:

4-day weekend! It’s Dusshera tomorrow (well, technically today as I have begun writing this at past midnight) and the next day so we have Thursday and Friday off as well as the weekend. And it can’t come soon enough..it feels like an age since the summer holidays..

Anna and I are continuing our once-a-month-getaway from Bangalore by making a trip to see the Ellora Caves and anything else in the area. To do this we have to fly to Mumbai, then to Aurangabad and use that as a base from which to travel to the caves around 30km from there.

At this present time I’m sitting in a rather uncomfortable black chair, one of many joined by the arm here in Mumbai airport at nearly half-past midnight. A 6-hour wait here in Mumbai airport was unavoidable so here we are. This part of the airport is pretty much as dead as a dodo. I have wandered to the end of this strip of the airport in search of a cup of tea, anything to help alleviate the irritating cough I have recently developed, but nothing is open, so drinking water it is. For the next 6 hours. And the arms of the chairs are fixed resolutely so you can’t even lie down..it may be a long 6 hours!

We have already had a mini-drama just to get into this delightful departure area. At just after 11.30pm we make our way to Departures, bags on backs and passport and ticket in hand. The following exchange occurs:

Security guard sitting nonchalantly on a stool in front of the sliding glass doors: ‘No, no, you cannot come in. Your flight is tomorrow.’
Us: ‘Our flight is in 6 hours, so technically, yes, tomorrow, which is in half an hour’s time. So can we go in?’
Him: ‘No, no, you have to wait outside, maybe 3 hours, because your flight is tomorrow. Maybe if you come 2, 3 days before..’
Us (or rather, Anna mostly): ‘Why would we do that? That’s stupid. We have our ticket, we’re flying in a few hours’ time, where are we supposed to go?’
Him: ‘No, no…’
Us: ‘So you want us to wait for 3 hours outside? Why?’
Him: ‘If you come in, there is no chance to go outside again, no smoking, no eating..’
Us: ‘We don’t want any of that!’
Him: ‘OK, passport, ticket.’ He flicks his head towards the nearby X-ray machine, where we put our bags through, come back and he flicks his hand, not speaking, for us to enter the airport.

Arrgh. It’s just an example of when there is a person with limited responsibility and power and not a whole lot to do, so seems to make up reasons to exert any tiny amount of power they have. He was even chuckling when we asked the reasons why we weren’t allowed in. Mmm, very amusing. But it just goes to show you don’t know until you try. If there was a more timid traveller, they could easily have been sat outside for 3 hours before being allowed in! Not that inside here is particularly thrilling, but..

I have a whole heap of marking to do (on my computer, so easily accessible) but I’m knackered so going to put it off and maybe try and rest for a bit as it’s now 12.36am and I’ve had late nights all week..it’s really hard though, all that’s here are rows of hard-backed chairs with metal armrests that won’t move, and then the marble floor! Should’ve packed a sleeping bag! Oh well, tomorrow will be catch-up-on-sleep time.

Thursday:

Our flight leaves pretty much on time and arrives in Aurangabad 55 minutes after leaving Mumbai. I had booked a hotel online from a mixture of reviews from Trip Advisor, Lonely Planet, and the fact I wanted a budget option. They offered airport pick-up for just over Rs.200 so I thought, why not. We exit the airport about 10 minutes after arriving on the tarmac (we just have hand luggage) and there a man in white is, holding a placard with my name on it, even spelled correctly amazingly enough! A few moments later we are sat in a white Tata car like the other thousands of Tatas speeding across the roads of this country and making our way towards the hotel. All around are men weighing out orange and yellow flowers that look like the Indian equivalent of UK marigolds. I always saw these flowers in Bangladesh when there was an upcoming festival and it’s the same here.

We arrive at Hotel Panchavati at around 8.30am and check into room 105. It’s not that much to look at; a small, clean (most important thing!) room with two single beds, a bathroom with a toilet and an overhead shower and obviously a sink. You can hear the beeping of traffic outside but it’s not much of a disturbance. There’s a fan and A/C that I asked for and outside in the corridor lots of boards advertising the delights of the Ellora Caves, Ajanta Caves, Daulatabad Fort etc. Next to the hotel is a travel agency and after a few minutes’ discussion, we organise to see the Ellora Caves tomorrow with the Fort en route, Ajanta the following day, and check out a couple of other sights today (all via taxi) after we’ve rested our weary heads.

In the afternoon after some masala tea (they do great tea in this hotel) and toast for me, we set off in the taxi firstly to the Aurangabad Caves, then to Bibi-qa-Maqbara (the ‘mini Taj’) and finally to the Paithani Weaving Centre.

The Aurangabad Caves, carved out of the hillside apparently date from around 6/7th century A.D. and are all Buddhist (thanks Lonely Planet). At first our driver says ‘Caves are closed – festival.’ However we see people walking in the direction of the caves and decide to take our chances and see if it’s open. It takes about 15 minutes to arrive at the caves. We try presenting our PAN cards and driver’s license showing we are Indian residents (so that we can escape the foreigners’ price of Rs.100 instead of the Rs.5 locals pay) but no luck; oh well, at least Rs.100 isn’t expensive (around 1 pound 50 pence)! All the way up and all the way down we are accosted by men, women and children, following our every step and asking questions such as ‘Your country?’ ‘Your good name?’ ‘Picture?’ and so on. I can’t help but think this is a small insight into how celebrities must feel! We are the only white people here; maybe we are the first white people the locals have seen..who knows. Either way, the caves themselves aren’t worth much of a look if you end up going to Ellora or Ajanta. We went inside (shoes off) but there was nothing to see! So we took in the view from climbing the steps to the caves, felt the curious stares of hundreds of pairs of eyes on us and made our descent back to where the car was parked.

Next stop: Bibi-qa-Maqbara (the ‘mini Taj’). Anna has been to the Taj Mahal but I haven’t and may not fit a visit in while I’m here (India is not exactly small..) so this may be the closest I get to the real thing 😉

The mini Taj was built in 1679, a mausoleum for the creator’s mother (surely typifying the Indian mummy’s boy (sorry, can’t help that dig there..)). Part of it, as we saw, is made of marble but most of it is made out of lime mortar as apparently the creator’s father objected to the expense of marble. I can’t help but imagine this scenario:

1678. A small house in Aurangabad. Evening. The monsoon rain has cooled the air and all that can be heard are the crickets outside. A timid-looking boy approaches his father who is sitting just outside the door of the house they share, quieter since the boy’s mother died just a few months before. The father sits on an old rickety chair, gazing out into the night air, chewing paan and interrupting the calmness of the night by occasionally clearing his throat with gusto and spurting out some paan from the corner of his mouth. It lands on the faded tiles, adding a splash of colour. The boy clears his throat to remind his father of his presence.

‘Babu?’
‘Hah.’
‘Babu I have an idea. For Amma’s memory. I will build a monument just like the Taj Mahal. Right here in Aurangabad. It will be made out of marble, like the Taj and people will come to visit from miles around.’ The boy paused, awaiting his father’s response.
‘Son, I understand your intentions but have you thought about this? How can you compete with the Taj? And made out of marble? I cannot..I will not spend the rest of this family’s savings building this thing. It is an honorable idea but with the materials you wish..even your mother would not want such extravagance.’
The boy was somewhat prepared for this and had a compromise in mind. ‘Acha babu, but what if I build it partly with marble and partly with another material? I will aim to use only marble and still keep ahead of the costs, but we will see.’

..and the rest is history 😉

Anyhow. The mini Taj is definitely worth a visit, more so than the aforementioned caves. Again we try to get in as residents but instead cough up the Rs.100 entry fee. There’s quite a bit of scaffolding surrounding the main building which is a shame but it’s relatively quiet (we get asked for some more photos and decline) and with the considerably spacious grounds, a good area for a picnic as many families are doing. On the way back we stop at a stall that is selling a version of a fresh lime soda. The boy shakes up the lime juice, sugar and soda (and whatever else is in there; it has a slight salty taste) like he’s making a martini and a few seconds later hands us a glass of the concoction each. An acquired taste, but refreshing. Both boys behind the counter proudly pose for a photo.

Next stop: the Paithani Weaving Centre. This is also mentioned in the Lonely Planet but also by our travel agent next to our hotel so why not? Apparently ‘Himroo’ material is a local specialty (although that makes it sound like a food stuff), made from cotton, silk and silver threads. In a way it’s a shame that Anna and I have been exposed to so many of these types of places selling endless amounts of shawls, hangings, bags, cushion covers, bed covers etc as it just becomes more annoying than interesting looking at such places as it’s always ‘Madam, shawl? Very nice silk, nice gift..’ and having lived a year, and me having lived in Bangladesh for a year where such materials are also readily available, there’s not much we haven’t seen or that we don’t own already. Anyhow if you don’t own such things, why not take a look and it’s always interesting to me to see the traditional ways of hand-weaving using a mixture of skill by hand and human-powered weaving machines. We see a couple of those there but no weavers at work.

And that’s our sightseeing afternoon done..we retreat back to the hotel for a bit and then decide to head out into the crowds of people that are celebrating Dusshera. Why we decide to do this we wonder very quickly! The sheer amount and density of the crowds are something else. There’s no order to it; people jostling to get in and our of the..fairground I suppose you could call it. There are three ferris-wheels, one moving extraordinarily fast, and on either side of the wide ‘path’ I’m going to call it are other fairground rides. We get pushed to one side at one point by khaki-covered police with large sticks as they create some kind of gap for a small number of men banging drums to pass through the crowds, just ahead of a float with men throwing down more of those marigold flowers to the people below. We decide we can’t really stand the heat and chaos of the crowds for much longer and there doesn’t even to be any food around, which is part of our reason for venturing out, so we eventually push our way out of the crowds and make it onto the main street. Around 10 minutes later we find a hotel called something like a ‘Biz-ness’ hotel. The menu looks fine and reasonably priced (unlike the room tariff which is Rs.5000 and above!). We eat a good meal there and make our way back to the hotel for some more chai and bedtime!

Friday:

Apart from waking up with a blocked nose at some point during the night, I wake up at around 7am and see Anna preparing to go out for a run (because she’s a nutcase 😉). I daydream for a little and then eventually get up around 45 minutes later. The sign in reception, and the guy there, said yesterday that the hot water is on from 7-10am but after a few minutes of waiting for the cold water to change to hot, I give up and have a quick, chilly shower. After Anna comes back and showers, we go down for breakfast. I decide to load up for the day ahead and have cornflakes with milk, masala chai and a banana pancake. Except the latter arrives with – wait for it – 4 whole slices of banana on it. I ask for more banana. They present me with a banana that I have to cut up myself and distribute over the pancake, and later find out they have charged me for that extra banana! Only 5 rupees, but really, describing that as a banana pancake is false advertising..

Anyhow, after our breakfast experience (which also involved trying to avoid watching wrestling that was randomly on the TV, and trying to get some fruit for Anna to have with curd (no fruit, just canned fruit?!)) we pack what we need for the day – camera, sunglasses, Lonely Planet, hand sanitiser, tissues, wallet, lip balm – and are soon in the same taxi as yesterday heading to Daulatabad Fort.

Daulatabad Fort, built from around the 12th century, is around 15km from Aurangabad and it’s on the way to the Ellora Caves so might as well stop off. It’s pretty imposing from street level and you can certainly imagine the Yadava kings – who had it built – lording over the surrounding countryside from it! This time we present our PAN cards and driver’s license(s) and are permitted to pay the local fee of Rs.5 rather than the foreigner fee of Rs.100. Score! I think if you’re a resident of a country, you live here, why not try and pay what other residents pay? It’s not about being cheapskate, in my opinion.

One of the first things we see is a monkey who even from a few metres away seems to be about my height. Very intimidating! It turns out to be one of the many monkeys we see that day, unfortunately. Monkeys, to me, are pests. And ones this size are downright scary! We soon walk past them and towards the terracotta-coloured Chand Minar (Tower of the Moon), 60 metres above the ground, but which is closed to visitors. We continue to climb up and around steps and through archways. There are some small tunnels but hold your breath as you walk through them as they stink of bat pee to high heaven! There’s not a smell quite like it; acrid and bitter. Ugh. As we make our way back to the car, we realise we haven’t made it all the way up to the main part of the Fort, but we don’t really care! There were only 2 other foreigners there and the whole place was pretty quiet, so it’s a good start to the day.

We then carry on our journey to the Ellora Caves. We manage once again to pay the local entry fee (Rs.10 – foreigners pay Rs.250). The caves are World-Heritage listed and were chipped out of rock over 5 centuries by generations of Buddhist, Hindu and Jain (Jainism is followed by around 0.4% of India’s population and was founded by Mahavira, a contemporary of Buddha) monks. What an effort! There are a total of 34 caves and they follow along a 2km-long stretch.

We start with Kailasa Temple, managing to (politely) bat away offerings of guides. It’s a sprawling site with several tunnels and caves you can enter, along with several sets of steps to climb up at certain points to view representations of gods such as Krishna, Ravana and Shiva. What’s a shame though is many of the elephant sculptures and carvings around the temple have their trunks missing. I’m not sure why but when we went to the Elephanta Caves off Mumbai, the guidebook said many of the sculptures were defaced on purpose by attempting conquerors/armies, so maybe it is the same for the Kailasa Temple. We read in our guidebook that a good view is to be had up a path around the temple so we bend round to the right at the temple’s entrance and make our way up the steps. ‘Oh yeah, it is a good view!’ I just manage to take a picture of the Temple from this viewpoint when we see several of those bloody massive monkeys scamper towards us. As I’ve said, they are about the height that we are and their expressions are not friendly. We make a fairly speedy dash down the way we’ve come. Unfortunately we have to make our way past two of them just sitting there but we make it down intact! I’m not usually bothered by monkeys especially when I don’t have food so I know I’ve nothing they’re after, but wow, these type of monkeys are extremely intimidating and you have no idea what their next move will be. Pests!

We spend the next hour or so visiting the rest of the caves. Some have more intricate carvings than others; almost all have the familiar whiff of bat pee. One cave’s setting is particularly impressive, sitting as it does just behind a waterfall. As we walk along the road, we are passed by many a beeping rickshaw piled to the brim with people, ends of saris blowing out the side and the odd just-as-noisy truck with its requisite ‘Horn OK Please’ vibrantly painted on its back. We still get asked ‘photo please’ and occasionally we acquiesce but otherwise ‘no’. I really don’t get it sometimes. Surely we’re not the only foreigners to visit this area and why do they want a photo of someone they don’t know with them? Are we going to be framed on a mantelpiece (or equivalent) forevermore? Are we going to be in a story people tell when they are old: ‘Acha, beta, this is a picture of me with two foreigners I met one warm afternoon at Ellora..’

So the caves are unsurprisingly, definitely worth a visit. Just beware of monkeys! I have to say you can tell the sculptures and carvings were made by men as they made some EXTREMELY well-endowed female forms. The ideal female form, for many, in fact. Massive breasts, tiny waists and hips wider than their shoulders! Wishful thinking methinks..or am I doing the gods a disservice?!

I am in dire need of a cold drink and some food (despite my expansive breakfast) at this point and so we request our driver to find us a place to eat. ‘Indian, OK? ‘ he asks with slight incredulity. ‘Dahl, rice..’
‘Yes, Indian is fine.’
A few miles away we stop at a restaurant called ‘Annapurna’ (or similar). It’s busy, which is always a good sign, and order a couple of fizzy drinks, some chaat (although it doesn’t turn out to be the version of chaat Anna is hoping for), I order some paneer masala and a butter naan. It’s fine, not wonderful, but ok and cheap as ever and definitely fills a gap as they say..after we’re done we start to head back to Aurangabad. I can smell rain in the air and sure enough, for a few minutes the heavens open and hard droplets of rain begin to hit. It’s still drizzling slightly when we get back to the hotel ten minutes later; we go inside, order some masala chai and relax for a little before heading out for some food. Anna marks her students’ Humanities project while I type this blog. She says I’m procrastinating but I reckon I’m just doing the enjoyable stuff first (writing this) and leaving the boring stuff (marking) til later. And I make no apologies for it 😉 It’ll get done when it gets done..

Saturday (last full day in Aurangabad)

I’m typing this full of cold at my home in Bangalore so I don’t have the mental capacity to write what we did yesterday! Suffice to say that Ajanta is just as impressive as Ellora but in a different way as it involves paintings inside the caves as well as sculptures. The setting – in a mountainous rockface – is also impressive and a bonus that there were no monkeys.

So:

-The Lonely Planet says Ellora beats Ajanta ‘hands down’ but I disagree; you need to visit both. Ajanta is just over 2 hours by car so if you don’t have time then do Ellora but both if possible!
-There are tourists buses from the Ajanta entrance to the actual caves, but we got tired of waiting and walked the 4km to the caves. It was a beautiful day and very peaceful (if a little hot) walking along, so that’s easy to do if you fancy it.

Getting home was fine but a few days of travelling really makes you frustrated with India whether you like it or not! There are so many rules that they have for no good reason and then rules they should have but don’t (like on the roads..). They check your ticket over and over again every few metres in the airport; the airport bus to the plane was (I’m not kidding) 30 metres away when we could have walked it; there’s no decent food or snacks around unless you want a sugary donut or something; my bag gets opened after going through X-ray and they go through my purse as well as my soapbag and other things without explaining what they’re looking for..man. Anyway that’s done and I’m home! Just need to get rid of this cold miraculously before tomorrow..

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