My first impression of Mumbai was not a good one. Getting off at the station, we jumped into a taxi (a real car not just an autorickshaw!) and started our journey to New Bombay, which involved a lot of traffic. Even though it was 9 at night, we were sweating, so the windows were down, and hot fumes from standing trucks and buses poured into our vehicle. This, plus the 20 hour train ride, made me sick to my stomach, and I vomited, which made me feel a little better.

When we arrived at the house, we were greeted by our friends who had come from America, Jen, Pampi, and Sandeep (we were meeting Sandeep for the first time). We were all there for Aradhna's wedding, and were staying in Aradna's childhood home, now her parent's guest house. We had planned to relax for a few days in Bombay, but we were talked into leaving early the next morning for a side trip to the caves of Ellora and Ajanta.

They had booked a car for the two-day excursion, and we left as early as we could to try to get as much time at Ellora as possible before sunset. We arrived in the nearby city of Aurangabad around 2, and booked a couple of hotel rooms. Dolly did a great job of haggling down the rate, and we grabbed some snacks and headed out.

We first stopped at the wrong parking lot, at a fort a few kilometers from the caves. We didn't intend to - we were misled by the UNESCO World Heritage banner, and soon realized our mistake and jumped into the car to head down the raod. That is, all of us but Sandeep jumped into the car. He had been distracted by a vendor selling old coins, and all of our yelling didn't cause him to budge an inch until he selected the specimens which pleased him the most.

We finally made it to the caves of Ellora with about an hour before the sun went down. We took a guide and he brought us first to the most impressive "cave". To call these structures caves is misleading. This was a giant complex, carved out of the solid rock. In the middle was a two story temple, with intricate carved decoration. There was then a 20 meter wide pathway, and the sides had hallways hollowed out, with statues carved into alcoves. We were told that it is the largest monolithic structure in the world.

We then saw a few more caves, including one that had a great resonance for "Om"-like sounds. At the last cave, the guard was about to lock up, but since our guide is an offical employee, he was able to take the keys, and we stayed until the light ran out.

The next morning we left early again, and stopped at the Bibi Ka Maqbara, a tomb that looks a lot like the Taj Mahal, only quite a bit smaller. It was still a beautiful structure with nice grounds, but we didn't stay long as our day's agenda had us going 100km out to Ajanta and then all the way back home.


Ajanta was a lot more slickly run. We paid for parking (by the head!) and then ran a gauntlet of gift shops to the bus, for which there was also a fee, before entering the caves, where there was the expected entry fee.
The caves range from 2000 to 1300 years old, and are situated around the outside edge of a horseshoe shaped gorge. These were rediscovered in the early 19th century by some hunters. The fact that they were rediscovered means that at some point people forgot about them! Ellora grew in popularity and significance, and became the center of activity, but it blows my mind that as a result of that these caves were forgotten.

The caves are not as large, but are in a far more beautiful setting, and they contain surviving paintings on the walls and ceilings and columns, as well as numerous statues. We were not able to stay as long as we liked because we were on the clock, but as the others stopped for a rest, I quickly walked down the far end. Some of the these were less impressive caves, and I was rewarded at the end by a cave with a reclining Bhudda and a number of other carvings.

We endured a long and hungry ride back (the only available food for a long stretch was at Dhaba's of questionable hygene), and arrived back at around midnight. For two days and 1200km, we owed the driver around 9000 rupees - under $200! In the end we were glad we went on the trip, both to see the sights and spend time with our friends.