Blogs from Maharashtra, India, Asia - page 18

The World Heritage, Ajanta and Ellora Caves are real treasurers of India back to 200 BC. Ajanta reflects the Buddist believes and Ellora Budist, Hindu and Jainism. Ellora carved between 350-700 AC. For us the Kailasa Temple is the best. Carved in a monoblock rock. It almost took a century to be finished. We traveled these two sites in two days staying at Government Guest House at Aurangabad. For Ajanta Caves we took a tour from our guest house which lasted whole day. For Ellora we hired a taxi and with the same taxi we reached to Manmad for the train to N. Delhi . Both sides were extremely crowded by the students and local visitors. Kailasa Temple at Ellora may deserve to be in the seven wonders of the World. See you soon for Golden ... read more

It's been a couple of weeks since my last update, and a lot has happened! We left Kumily and after a stressful few connections through Kottayam and Ernakulam - we nearly missed the train as our bus and taxi were being held up by traffic! We got an overnight train back up to Goa, which by now we knew pretty well. We stayed in the north in Anjuna and travelled out regularly to Baga and Vagator which are our favourite places as the beaches are gorgeous and the nightlife and hostel life is busy. We also went parasailing! We had so much fun in Goa and met lots of travellers from all over the world as well as making friends with some of the local people working there. I really do love that place, and I'm ... read more

So I went to India. Again. I didn’t mean to. It just kind of, happened. Quite spontaneously a friend of mine mentioned that he was going home to Pune, for Diwali festivities and asked whether I would like to join (I assumed it was a rhetorical question and my flight was booked a few days later). Whilst this may have been my first trip to the ‘motherland’ in many ways it was my first. It was the first time that I loved it instantly and ongoingly and let myself be taken by its breathtaking beauty, it’s the first time I stayed with an Indian family and travelled with a local, it’s the first time I allowed myself to indulge in guilt free feasting all fortnight, it’s the first time I engaged my linguistic capabilities to learn ... read more

My work here so far has included dancing on a popular television show, Big Boss, which is similar to Big Brother. It is a fantastic opportunity, as we get to appear on national television and dance alongside the host, Bollywood star Salman Khan. The choreography is really fun and we always wear bright, colourful costumes. So far I have appeared in five episodes of Big Boss and thoroughly enjoyed it. The set itself is located in a town called Lonavala, which is in the mountains and roughly a three hour drive from Andheri. It's such a beautiful place, and even though the journey there is so long, it never bothers me because the views along the way are spectacular. Just driving through Mumbai itself is fascinating, it's a vast expanse of shanty towns and modern skyscrapers ... read more

Once we had finished our tour of the caves in the Aurangabad area, it was time to head back to Mumbai. We don’t normally like to head back to somewhere we have already been, however the trains heading into and out of Mumbai were more frequent and therefore it just made more logistical sense to do it this way. Our train into Mumbai would take us back to good old CST where we first entered Mumbai on the previous journey, so at least we knew our way round and where to get ourselves in a Pre-paid Taxi. Last time we did this we got charged well over the odds to drive us round the corner, so we were prepared for a hefty fare as this time we were heading north close to Mumbai Central train station ... read more