Our train from Mumbai arrived at 4:30 am. This time we had to travel first class (bummer) and were able to get a compartment with only two beds so we were alone. It was wonderful. Although again I didn’t sleep well because this time I was worried about over sleeping and missing our stop (we weren’t at the end of the line this time and having our own compartment meant we didn’t have anyone to ask if it was right, the stations tend to be poorly labeled. Jason however thinks the train beds are the most comfortable he’s slept on in India. Go figure). Fortunately, the hotel let us check in early without an extra charge and we were able to get some sleep before going out.
There are two main reasons to go to Aurangabad: the Ellora and Ajanta caves. We decided to go to the Ajanta caves the first day (mostly because the Ellora caves are closed on Tuesdays). They are 130 km away and the road is so-so at best (it took around two hours to get there) but the countryside was pretty and we had hired an AC car through the travel agent in the hotel.
The Ajanta caves are a series of Buddhist caves that have been carved out of a mountain cliff along a river. There are 30 caves although some were not finished and others are inaccessible. They date from 200 BC to AD 650 but had been abandoned and lost until 1819 when an English man was tiger hunting and spotted a little bit of one through the jungle. These ones, although older than the Ellora caves, are in a bit of better shape because they had been lost. They are known for their wall paintings (which are beautiful) and have been named a World Heritage Site. There are two different types of caves: monasteries and temples. The monasteries are a big room with a statue of Buddha at the end and a bunch of rooms on each side for the monks to sleep in. The temples are mainly one room with a Buddha at the end (either in human form or as a stupa ) and carvings/paintings of his life.
When we got there we employed a guy to carry our diaper bag (which gets pretty heavy) and watch our shoes when we had to take them off (he did offer to carry Anna too but I said I was ok) and a guide. We have found we like having guides so we don’t just walk in look around briefly and walk out. The guide was also able to tell us the stories in the paintings (I have no idea how they get the story out of those paintings, the different parts of the story are all painted together) and various things about what makes each cave special. Later, our bag carrier said we got a good guide who is also writing a book. The colors were surprisingly bright and although we couldn’t use the camera’s flash, we still took plenty of pictures and will lighten them up in photoshop.
After going through most of the caves, our bag carrier took us down a path that goes along the river and to a waterfall. It was amazing with the cliffs on either side and the vegetation and the water. The song from the Planet Earth videos sprung in my head. Then we walked back along another path and ended up at the base of the mountain (you start out going up a bunch of stairs to get to where the caves are although you can hire two guys to carry you up in a chair). We got back just in time to catch the bus back to the parking lot (4 km away).
As we were getting on the bus, I noticed that Anna no longer had her binkie. Since the clip broke on the binkie tether, I just tuck it into the front part of the wrap but she has a tendency to pull it out and play with it and drop it when she is done. Usually I’m relatively careful with making sure we have it but not this time. I was worried because she could have dropped it anywhere. Jason went running back to look for it and I stayed on the bus and worried. As the bus was starting to pull out, he was running back. I had decided to get off if he wasn’t coming back when it left so was glad that I didn’t have to. Anna had dropped it at the base of the stairs. Our bag carrier had run back and found it for us. Shwew, disaster averted once again. Maybe we should get some back-ups and/or fix/replace the tether.
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