The Manor Hotel Aurangabad

... 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.

... Ellora took under an hour. The site is made up of several cave temples and monasteries chiseled into the solid rock hillside. The Hindu temples, built in the 8th through 10th centuries are massive and very impressive. There are also Jain (9th - 11th centuries) and Buddhist caves (5th - 7th centuries).

All the caves are incredible in their own way and very deserving of their World Heritage designation. We hired a ...

... At one point the maze opens into the moat. A wall has been built there now. After you cross all the obstacles, there is a short hike to the palace on top of the hill. There is also a 110m tower of victory called Chand Minar (Tower of the moon).

Kuldabad is a Muslim pilgrimage town situated about 3 KM from Ellora. Aurangzeb, a mughal emperor who ruled for 50 years, is buried here. He wanted to be buried near the dargah of his guru and he wanted a very simple monument to be built from the money he ...

... 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 ...

... g to get out of your head... Our guide taught us about Buddhism, Bodhisattva, the history of caves, and preservation techniques. The caves were abandoned then rediscovered in the early 1900s by a British hunting party. Apparently, Buddhists from all over the world make pilgrimages to see the caves - our guide explained that many Japanese Buddhist tourists visit the cave (we saw lots of Japanese tourists). We saw 2 ...

... http://www.touristplacesinindia.com/aja nta-ellora/index.html A few personal items to note: there were very aggressive hawkers but even with their diligence they were actually helpful and nice. One of our group lost his Camera lens cover and someone returned it to him. It was here that I started to feel that India is not like Mexico. People don't try to "rip you off" or steal from you.