Aurangabad/Ajanta

Well today I head for Delhi. Originally I had planned to be there 4 days ago but modified my schedule to spend some more time with my friends who are also travelling in India. I will need to change my flight and fly out a day or so later so I can get to see the Taj Mahal which, after all, is really why I came to India in the first place. It would be a shame to be here and not see it.

Spent yesterday at the caves of Ajanta. Anything I say, or even the photos I took, will not do this place justice. Look it up on the web, or better yet, make the trip yourself. There are a series of almost 30 caves that date to between 200BC and 700AD. They are Buddhist caves, largely unfinished due to the wane of Buddhism in India in the 8th century. The Monks left the caves, migrating to China and Nepal, and these caves were forgotten/lost for 1000 years. A British soldier (I think he was a soldier) rediscovered them in the 18th century after seeing a cave mouth while hunting tigers. He informed the King at the time that there were caves on his land and he sent his men to investigate. It took 23 years to excavate the site.

No flash photography is allowed so some of my photos are a little dark and grainy. I used my low light option on my camera (which is working well by the way - thanks Jodes and Stace) which has enhanced the light but changed the looks and colours of some of the paintings, but you will get the general idea.

I part with my friends today. They have been so impressed with these caves that they are staying to see another, slightly younger, set of caves at Ellora. These caves just have carvings where Ajantas had both carvngs and paintings. After that, they make their way to Nepal where they will do some Everest trekking !! Sounds like too much hard work for me. They will eventually head to Ireland where they are going to work for a while so while I am in the UK I may try to drop in and see them. It has been fun to catch up with them and travelling with others is advantageous in many situations. I wish them well.

I really like India. If you can get past the poverty, dirt, pollution and never ending request for money from beggars or from touts inviting you to come in their shop and look – "free to look, no need to buy" - it is a great place. The people are very friendly and generally helpful. Although you have to take their help with a little caution. Indians, it seems, dont like to admit they dont know something. If you ask for directions they will tell you the way, not neccessarily to where you want to go, but they will gladly give directions. On many occasions we have asked a group of people and they literally have all pointed in different directions. They drive like absolute madmen – we saw two accidents today – one must have surely had fatalities, and the Indian head wobble is something to be seen. It is like a marionettes head, as if their neck was rubber and a breeze has blown. It was quite disconcerting the first time I saw it.

It is also nowhere near as hot as I thought it would be. It is still winter here though but the weather has been pretty good. I did hear that last week Delhi got down to a low of 2.3 degrees celcius. I dont think it is quite that low now, which is probably good since I packed extra light, only summer clothers with the intention of buying warmer gear when I needed it.

Have not suffered the dreaded Delhi Belly as yet (touch wood). The day we arrived here in Aurangabad, we settled in and went walking around. I did come down with quite a headache and retired to my room – I slept for 14hrs. It was most likely due to my being seated backwards on the 9hr train trip (I dont like travelling backwards) combined with some reading I did without my glasses, which I left at home by the way. Oh, and speaking of leaving things at home, I bought to Lonely Planet guides for the the first part of my trip – Singapore and Bangkok, and guess where they are ? So that headache, and a severly stretched quadricep from hacky sack (sp?) on the beach at Goa are my only health issues to date.

Just to what I was reading, there is a book called Holy Cow by Sarah MacDonald. She used to present the Moning Show on TripleJ. It is about her travels in India and is pretty spot on from what I have read so far – check it out for some further insight into my recent ramblings.

Anyways, namesta (na-meh-sta) from India for now.