Ajanta and Ellora caves

 At Ajanta Caves

Ellora Caves with waterfall in the background

Over the weekend of August 12th, Jon and I traveled to Aurangabad, Maharashtra with Srikanth Kondaveti, Abe Dorr, Ravi Chandra, Rajanikanta Sahoo and Mehar Chaitanya to see the Ajanta and Ellora Caves. These guys were great company and gentlemen. I felt as though I was with brothers all weekend. They went out of their way to look after us and it was nice having "fixers" as Jon would say. If a hawker was too persistent, one of our Indian friends was usually able to dissuade them.

The Ajanta caves date from 200 B.C.E.  to 650 C.E. and are a World heritage site. There are 5 temples and 25 monasteries cut into the rock gorge. Use of the caves ended with the decline of Buddhism in India and they were lost until British hunters discovered them in the 19th century. The caves are in a beautiful setting which I tried to capture in the pictures above. This was probably the greenest and cleanest area of India that we have experienced so far.

In the early caves the Buddha was not represented as a man but as a symbol as a stupa as shown above. It is a rather large and uninteresting blob like structure.

The Ajanta caves are most famous for the paintings which are well preserved. Non-polluting buses take visitors to the cave site in order to preserve them. The paintings tell stories of Buddha. It is clear that these paintings must have been very bright and beautiful when new. I could understand how monks would feel like worshiping in a place like this.

My favorite part of the caves was the depictions of Buddha. In the last cave there was a giant sleeping Buddha which was really cool, as well as the sculpture above. This was a great place to visit and it is probably one of my favorite places in India now.

On Sunday we went to see the Ellora Caves with 34 caves dedicated to the Jain, Buddhist and Hindu religions. Although this is also a World Heritage site, the caves at Ajanta were better cared for since there was less trash and destruction. The view in some areas was nice with a waterfall, but not as spectacular as Ajanta. The cave above is a Hindu Temple which took 200 years to complete.

The most impressive thing about these caves was the sculptures. The sculptures were numerous and detailed. In the 3rd photo Jon is standing next to Siddhaika, the Goddess of generosity seated on a lion and under a mango tree. In the 4th photo he is next to Shiva-Parvati with Ravana trying to lift Mount Kailash.

We also went to the Daulatabad Fort. It was impressive, but I have seen enough forts so that I did not take as many pictures here. I did, however, get good shots of monkeys and even some bats.

We ended the day by going to see the Taj Mahal replica known as Bibi-Ka-Maqbara. Having seen the real thing, this was not impressive but interesting. I did not take a picture of it, I guess I was that unimpressed, or out of batteries.

The Weekend - Never a Dull Moment

On Friday night we went to a sports bar with about 15 of Jon's co-workers; in other words, I was out partying with 15 guys. We drank a few beers, bowled and the guys sang Karaoke to "Hotel California." Unfortunately, the video did not come out so I can't post it. Needless to say, it was awful. My bowling game was pretty good so I think I did a good job representing the female gender.

On  Sunday afternoon we went to Shilpa Raman which is an arts and craft village with rock sculptures gardens, waterfalls, and historical exhibits. Most of the rocks were in their natural state and were labelled according to what they resembled. There were many throughout the park that were sculptured into forms as well. People were lined up to take a ride in this ball. It looked like they were having fun, but the ride was very short; up and down the carpet once. I think we had more fun watching than the riders had riding.

There was a large group of adults who were playing what looked like a version of duck, duck, goose. The set up seemed complicated and the guy in red was directing it. There was a long pause between rounds. They were having a grand time and we watched them for a while.

There were several exhibits featuring mannequins in historical reenactments. What doesn't show up is the trash scattered around. Even in this park, which has the potential for being a very nice retreat, there is litter everywhere.

There were plenty of arts and crafts. Now I know where Pier One get its imports. There were many beautiful pieces, but a lot of it is too big for us to consider. Once again, we were hounded by the retailers as we walked through the market. I guess I should say I was hounded because they were mostly hollering "Madam, Madam, come look." This market is pretty accessible and I will be making another one or two trips back there alone. I have actually been given a directive by Jon to shop.

Delhi

Delhi was a nice change of pace for us. It felt more familiar than the other cities we visited. It still had pollution, tarp homes and crazy traffic, but it seemed more like a modern city. We went to an Italian restaurant run by an expatriate that had good food that was more authentic Italian than the Indian versions we have experienced. We spent very enjoyable afternoons with Chris and Laurie in a restaurant and club. Most of our time there was spent visiting various temples.

Our first stop was at the Lotus Temple. It was far more interesting on the outside than in. This is one of seven houses of worship in the world for the Baha'i religion. All Baha'i Houses of Worship are nine sided since nine is the highest digit and "symbolizes comprehensiveness, oneness and unity" according to Baha'i literature. I do like the principles of this faith especially equality of men and women, universal peace and compulsory education.

This is the India Gate which is a national war monument to World War I Indian solders who lost their lives in World War I and the Third Afghan War. We were very hot here and it wasn't really that interesting up close.

Because it was so hot in Delhi we tried to do activities that involved air conditioning. The national Museum seemed like a good idea, but there were only a couple of rooms that were cool. 

The museum had a lot of Indian artifacts and art, but the museum is in need of some upkeep. We were a little appalled to see that some of the stone artifacts were placed on pedestals that were painted and the bottoms of the artifacts had some paint on them. In the above picture Jon is standing in front of an exhibit which claims to contain some of Buddha's remains.

This temple was like going to a carnival funhouse. It is a 108 foot Hanuman statue next to the highway. The gods inside are very colorful and there are tunnels and a lot of rooms to explore. Jon and I had a puja blessing inside (for a fee of course). 

The last temple we visited was the Akshardham temple. We could not take pictures there but did take an interesting boat ride that was like Disneyland's "Its a Small World" ride. It provided riders with a little of India's history; however, I question some of the claims made.

Varanasi

A view of the Ganges from the train

Tarp dwellings next to the Ganges

A rice paddy with women working viewed from the train

We took an overnight train from Khajuraho to get to Varanasi. That was an experience since we were on the train for about 14 hours. The sleeping berths were 3 tall and 6 beds to a compartment. It proved to be a good way to see the countryside. It is amazing how people are present all along the countryside. Sometimes we would see a guy standing out in the middle of a field and wonder what he was doing there since he was obviously not working. The people seen working most often were the women. I saw many groups of women huddled in a circle, probably eating. The landscape was littered with litter, rice paddies and other crops such as sugar cane and corn, and slum dwellings.

Jon and I took a boat ride on the Ganges at sunrise and sunset to see the worshipers going to the ghats to bath in the Ganges. The night was much busier since it was the beginning of another festival. After the ride in the morning, Jon and I took a walk through town near the ghats with our guide. We walked up to one of the two cremation sites where a couple of bodies were burning. Even at a place where one would think there is respect for the dead there were con artists. A couple of men approached us to ask for money to buy wood for the poor who came there to be cremated. We were suckered since it seemed like they were official. Our guide took us to the silk factory owned by his family after the tour. Indians are great entrepreneurs. They come up with many angles in order to sell things. I think our guide was pretty effective since we bought a few things and we liked him.

Hindus believe that to die in Varanasi means to end the cycle of rebirth and death, and bathing in the Ganges washes away sin. We saw people washing clothes, taking baths, filling containers of water, holy men sitting under umbrellas praying, tourists gawking (me included), a few sadhus (men who have renounced all of the pleasures of life to focus on spirituality), and people there for the festival dressed in orange. There are homes or hotels where old people come to die so they can be cremated and their remains put into the Ganges. Jon's Indian colleagues gave him a bit of a hard time saying that he was probably going to Varanasi for that reason.

Eega

Eega is a movie we went to see last night. It was in Telugu but we were able to understand most of it. It was very entertaining and well done. The basic story line was guy meets girl and falls in love. Bad guy also wanted the girl so he killed the good guy to get him out of the way. The good guy was reincarnated as a fly and he went after the bad guy. It was appropriately billed as the ultimate revenge story. Although there was violence, there wasn't anything sexually explicit. The couple in love never kissed and I am not sure that they even touched. The bad guy was naked at one point and he was covered with a blur so nothing showed, but it was done so that the audience could tell he was naked. There is another movie in Telugu coming out soon called Jism 2 (not kidding). It is billed as very sexually explicit, but I seriously doubt it would get a PG13 rating in the U.S. I think we might have to go see what that one is all about too. 

Khajuraho

Khajuraho was the smallest town that we visited up north with a population of about 20,000. It was also the most challenging for many reasons. One reason was that communication was more difficult there since there were fewer people who spoke English well and we do not speak Hindi.  We stopped there to see the wonderful Hindu and Jain Medieval temples which did not disappoint. The carvings are numerous, detailed and many are very erotic. Many Victorian visitors were outraged by what they saw when visiting the temples. It is interesting that these explicit carvings and Kama Sutra are the products of such a conservative country.

There was a Shiva festival occurring while we were in Khajuharo and the active temple next to the historic ones was overflowing with people all day. I think the chant they were shouting was "SHHIVVAA". One striking thing about this day was that it was extremely hot. With the high humidity and dew points it felt like 112 degrees Fahrenheit.

After taking a break from the intense heat, Jon and I took an autorickshaw to look at some shops. That is always a challenge because people practically pull tourists into their shops and try to sell anything and everything to them. It definitely takes the joy out of shopping for me and I have not done much of it because of that. We also received an unexpected tour of the living quarters of the people who live in the city. We saw the home of a woman who works as a nurse and was working on medical records. It was modest with a few rooms, had electricity but no modern appliances, and a small courtyard in the center. In another section we saw a kitchen shared by 4 families. The outside of some of the homes have writing on the wall to indicate that children inside were vaccinated for polio and tetanus.

After visiting the village, we went to a rooftop restaurant next to the temples to have a beer. It was absolutely enchanting. There was heat lightening in the sky which was beautiful and a light show at the temples which we were able to enjoy.

What Jon did not realize at the time of the picture above was that he was about to experience some of the very bad of the country. We ended up leaving when he started feeling ill. He developed a high fever (103.9), vomiting and diarrhea that night and I had a doctor come to the hotel. The doctor stayed for an hour until his fever came down and prescribed several medicines. The cost was 3900 rupees which is about $70 U.S. dollars. It is about 10 days later and he is still not quite right. We think it was the omelet he had for breakfast outside the hotel that morning. The doctor thought that the heat also had something to do with it.

Because Jon was sick we spent the second day in Khajuharo in the hotel. We had to leave that night at 10:00 to catch a night train to Varanasi. Since there was not a car big enough, Chris (Jon's brother) arranged and paid for a taxi to make 2 trips to the train station. Jon and I took the second trip. The cabbie pulled a fast one and tried to charge us a second time for the ride. Jon was sick in the car and I spent 10 minutes arguing with 5 men about the fact that we had already paid. It was a problem since Jon and I did not have any rupees. They looked at me with blank stares and whispered softly to each other (the situation did not get resolved until Jon got involved). Chris argued with the cabbie again when we got to the train station and we did not end up paying anymore. Being a woman in this country is a topic for a future blog.