Hotel Girnar Aurangabad

... the restaurant, only to be saved by 2 waiters the Indian equivalent of batman and robin! At first glance they thought we were mad running away but then got rid of the beast and we carried on eating our delicious curry!... Neither the first or the last monkey that has put us into SVT on this trip!

On our way down from Delhi Jo had her bag pinched from the hotel or on the train- which was a bummer as it had all her valuables in it- thank goodness ...

... freshen up. The hotel was a great value and the service was excellent. We had dinner, then our driver took us to the airport for our 8 PM flight back to Mumbai. Kerry was waiting at the airport. Unfortunately, the plane was about 45 minutes late and he had been attacked by mosquitoes. Exhausted, we crawled into an auto rickshaw for the midnight drive back to his apartment. Back to the smoke, rotting garbage and smelly rivers of Mumbai.

... to look at the famous weavings. A few of the old wooden looms are still in use. The weaving technique is called Himroo. The fabric is woven using cotton, silk and silver threads. It can take months to make a special wedding sari and cost tens of thousands of dollars Two older men were sitting cross-legged at the ancient equipment carefully controlling the delecate threads. We couldn't afford the hand loomed fabric, but did ...

Daulatabad fort is located about 13 KM from Aurangabad on the way to Ellora. This fort has an elaborate defence system comprising of many gates, moat, canons and maze. The Menda (Ram) canon is among the largest canons in India. The dark maze is home to ...

... to read more Wiki entries about Ajanta...click here. To read more about the Ellora caves...click here. Enough history...more blogging. So our TEA planners had organized a private train car for the 30+ members going on the 10 hour train ride to Aurangabad. It sounds horrible...but it actually wasn't. The train car was a AC class 2 sleeper car which meant there was plenty of room for everyone to lie down, read books ...

... Meinung war, dass nun niemand mehr hineinpasst waren insgesamt 17 Erwachesene und 3 Kind** im Wagen, was bei ein** halben Stunde Fahrtzeit und 40 Grad Aussentemp**atur kein besond**s gross** Spass war. Endlich in Ellora angekommen, hatten wir dann das Glueck, dass wir in d** Mittagshitze relativ schnell wied** getrocknet waren. (Mmmh!) Wie d** Name schon sagt, handelt es sich bei den Ellora Caves nicht um Hoehlen, sond**n eingentlich um ein 2km langes Felskliff in den die v ...

... religions had carved out each cave/temple differently . In the Jain caves we saw many worshipers get down prostrate before Ambike (the proctor goddess) and do all sorts of random rituals. The next day we check out the poor man Taj Mahal. BiBi-Qa-Maqbara is tomb built by in the late 17th century as a loving tribute to his mother, Dilras Bano Begam. The monument's name translates ...

... India. The caves are dated between 20BC to AD650. We were definitely impressed. The guide told stories and showed us paintings on the ceilings and walls as we wandered around the horseshoe-shaped rock gorge. Many Indian tourists were here as were school groups whose noise ruined any chance of a meditation session there. We had a right laugh at the people in the chairs carried by bearers that you could hire if you wanted to do the caves Maharaja style and Nadine the ...

... that many roads and so not really a shortcut possible. Hotel Kailas has great cottages with a view on the Ellora caves on the opposite side of a valley. Electricity apparently is an issue but solar panels on the compound are part of the solution. The main attraction of the site is Kailash Temple (8th century CE), hailed as the biggest monolithic structure in the world. I could not help noticing several Hugh hornet nests on the outer ...

... believed to be drawn by the buddhist monks. Others have rock carvings of lord Buddha and his avatars. I clicked a photo of lord Buddha in the "laughing Buddha" position. The caves are dark inside and are lit by strategic lighting (non corrosive ) and flash photography is also prohibited.But I could see many people taking pictures with their "flash" on. Many of the cave's walls had a different kind of ...