Hotel Sai Moreshwar Shirdi

We enjoyed our morning at the Lemon Tree Hotel. I was especially happy to see the cappuccino machine that actually works. Our driver picked us up at 8:30 AM for the 2 hour ride to Ajunta Caves, another world heritage site. The ride was interesting - we passed workers in cotton and sugar cane fields. The rural poverty is very apparent. Dingy small towns where dozens of men sat outside cafes on plastic benches. In between the towns were ...

... in 15 minutes, a ride that would have been twice as long during the day.

Aurangabad is a 45 minute flight away. The only reason a tourist would visit this unappealing city is as a gateway for two World Heritage sites - Ellora Caves and Ajunta Caves. Kerry had arranged a car and driver to pick us up. The first stop was to see "The Boss" and settle our itinerary and pay for the car. The boss is Asoka - who made sure ...

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 ...

... by writing Koran teachings on prayer caps and selling them. The tomb of a Muslim saint Hazrat Khwaja Syed Zainuddin Shiraz is right next to Aurangzeb's tomb. Prophet Mohammed’s robe is also kept here and is brought out and kept on display once a year. 

... Then, he asked for the RC book and insurance papers, I had both. Showed it.

Gotcha!

He said "yeh kya hai?? Aao sahib se baat karo" .

The insurance was over way back in January. We told him that we’ve got the insurance but forgot to keep it with us; we’ll get it faxed as soon as possible. After some pesky arguments and an astonishing self-introductory note from Gaurav—some Procter & Gamble stuff—he let us go for a price of ...

... part of the ashram. I would suggest you buy some cheap sandals, mark you name on them and find a place to put them in case you get confused about the shoe counters. Just remember where you put your sandals, because when you come out of from the Darshan area, you are on the opposite side of the Temple Complex. I was not able to find any sort of public internet facilities when I was at Shirdi. Shirdi does have telephone services for local, state and ...

... hall). Most of them had many pillars and carvings of deities. Depending on which cave you were in, they were carved by people who followed one of the following faiths: Jain, Hindu or Budhism. All of them were fantastic, and we had fun with the acoustics in the caves. Dave continually tried out his "om" all day and ******* off the bats hidden in the back corners of the caves. The main attraction of the Ajanta caves is that some of the original painting on the carvings and ...

We headed for Aurangabad next, getting the train from Agra to Jalgaon and then the bus to Aurangabad. Me and Anthony went our separate ways from here as he wanted to go to Mumbai and I wasn't too bothered about it. I hired an auto rickshaw for the day and headed to the Ellora Caves. Over 5 centuries, generations of monks (Buddhist, Hindu and Jain) carved monasteries, chapel and temples out of solid rock. 34 in all, 12 Buddhist, 17 Hindu and 5 Jain. The Hindu caves were carved from the ...

... the baby lion. It turned out she was there to promote "friendship day," a holiday where everyone around India expresses their gratitude to their friends. While Miss India was making her announcements, my cousin Tinu, being the great guy that he is, decided to embarrass me by telling the Dj that I happend to be a "good" dancer. Next thing I know my name is being announced on the loud speakers to come the center of dance floor and show them what I've got ...

... of Mumbai was dealing with the devastation. Since power throughout the city had been cut, people were forced to deal with one another. The big shots from Lehman Brothers were forced to remain in the lobby and get by just as everyone else did. Everyone was helpless as the hands of the flooding. While many found solace at the bottom of King Fisher bottles others made their way to the back of the hotel to take some time to ...