Taj Residency Aurangabad

4:00 am Mumbai - I am wondering exactly why I decided to catch the 7:15 flight to Aurangabad. Coffee is at the door and I am headed to the shower. On my way to the airport I see Mumbai as never before, quiet. No horns blaring, no traffic, no nothing. It is a great way to see the city. Today is Holi, part of the 4 day Hindu celebration of Spring and it is a good thing I am headed out of town. Today is the throwing of the colors....basically all sorts of dye and water balloons are thrown at eve...

So...there's an expatriate (expat) association in Hyderabad that's open to anyone who lives in Hyderabad who holds a foreign passport. I've been a member of TEA (Twin Cities Expat association) for the past two years and it's a great place to meet people from all over the world and from a variety of walks of life. The TEA group organizes weekly happy hours and sends out a weekly email to all it's members to inform you of what's going on in the city that week. They also organize trips for the e...

While at Aurangabad you will find one of the rare engineering marvels of medieval India: The Panchakki, meaning the water wheel. It is situated right in the heart of the city and will take just an hour to tour the complex. As we entered we were surrounded by a group of guides. Strangely we found they haggle over the rates and settle for around Rs.200 whether it is for three hours at the Ajanta Caves or four hours at Daulatabad Fort or the half an hour tour at Panchakki. These guides earn maxi...

Hello everyone! Yesterday was our last day in Bombay, and we spent time wandering around the very narrow and crowded streets of Crawford MArket; where you can buy ANYTHING from gold jewlery, mangos, and a bloody goat head. We took a lot of pictures but I think that still photos don't quite show just how insanely crowded and busy these narrow winding streets are. Then we had another delicious meal and decided to write out our postcards and locate the post office before getting on the train to ...

Visited the caves of Ellora, need to thank Helene Martin for suggesting we take a day here. The caves, which aren't actually natural caves but temples carved out of the rock. Similar to the caves on Elephanta Island but far more vast. Temples of 3 religions, Buddhists, Hindus and Jains right next to each other without a so much as a sword in sight, what a concept. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellora_Cav es Aurangabad is vastly different from Mumbai. Whereas Mumbai is an Indian city that has a...