Aurangabad area

  Aurangabad, India
Wednesday, January 30, 2008

The 2-day trip to Aurangabad is well worth it, an early flight dropped us at the tiny airport at 7 AM. Through the taxi stand we got a non-negotiated 1700 rupee taxi for the entire day so first destination the Ajanta caves. This 2 hour drive took us through the Indian country side with the sugar cane and cotton harvest in full swing. Every 10 minutes you pass through a village with hundreds of men milling about and this road has barely any intersections. The middle of nowhere starts right where the English language dissapears from the road signs. As a rule you will find opposing traffic in your lane and our taxi driver missed no opportunity to overtake slower cars be it in bends or approaching a hilltop. 

Ajanta caves

The area around the Ajanta Buddhist temple caves (second century CE) is deserted. The inevitable buildings like ticket office and restaurants are well separated from the site and a 5 km bus shuttle provides a connection. This is smart! Compare that to the Ellora caves where a bus can drop people off right in front of the temples. A flashlight is handy and although flash photography is not allowed, you can do a lot of photography unsupported. Western tourists there a few, Indian children on a school trip are present in large numbers.

A drive from Ajanta to Ellora takes another hour and a half, there a not 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

Kailash Temple

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 rock faces. I can only hope these creatures did their math, I would not like to see one of those nests plunge right into the temple.

It is a beautiful and impressive building and in several places you can see the original decoration, it certainly looks a grey basalt color now but this was certainly not the intended color.

Another taxi trip gets you to Daulatabad fort built on a 200 m elevation (12th century), conveniently located between Ellora nad Aurangabad. From a distance it seems impossible to climb, in practicality nearly impossible and we've seen tourists simply give up. Halfway up the fort the builders managed not only to construct a moat but also one with variable water table so that a bridge over it can be submerged. Very neat. The city of Aurangabad is not Mumbai: there are potholes everywhere, hardly any private cars, just motorcycles and the smog is chocking.