Caves

So, if you really want something out of this world in this continent-country, it's definitely the Ellora Caves near Aurangabad. What you get to see is completely insane and totally amazing. I don't think photos do them justice but I'll try anyway. Let's start at the end, with the Ajanta Caves, but let me just mention the middle part, in which I tell you just how I panicked because my camera battery refuses to charge and how many times I've visited the Nirala Bazaar in downtown Aurangabad to find a charger that is actually able to charge my battery (not like the first copy of the original charger I purchased, which turned out to be a first bad copy because it did not work. Period). I also tried charging the battery at a cell phone ‘pump station’ that, apparently, does just that: charge batteries, cell phone batteries for some fee, but I didn’t get to find out how much it cost, because my battery could not be charged there. Hence the need to go to a place that has some form of officially recognized status as a photo camera sales department or something. They tried to sell me an ‘original’ charger but I settled for that infamous copy, which didn’t do anything apart from flashing a pretty green light all night long.

Anyway, Ajanta and its caves is 100 km away from Aurangabad, meaning 2.5 hours by bus (and why not? by now bus and train riding is my second nature!), where you have to fight your way to a seat and if you're not lucky or strong enough, you'll end up sitting in the aisle and being trampled by stampedes of Indians. If you happen to be a foreigner, you’ll get the conductor’s seat, the best in the house and you’ll nick everyone’s retina by just sitting there happily.

The minute the bus leaves you by the side of the road in a dusty cloud of dirt, the friendly Indian will jump out of nowhere, willing to take you into his hands, plant a small, shiny crystal in your palm, explain where the other bus will pick you up to take you to the mouth of the caves, and make sure that you will not forget him when you return, eagerly scratching the itch to buy memorabilia from his precious stone shop.

You’ve done this the previous day: cave by astounding cave, you walk into them all, to see 2000 year old paintings in temples carved in rock by persistent ancient Buddhists and/or Hindus, whose carving methods can make any architect or engineer drool in awe at their patience and ingenuity.

You see, they started from top to bottom, being able to construct something structurally sturdy as well as aesthetically impressive. The end result would be this:

Yeah, I know, you’re speechless, but wait till you see what I saw the previous day, which was more carving, less painting and more height, I mean depth…

And then there’s the off-the-beaten-track temple, where you get to because some local liked you enough to take you there and, even if you refuse to swim in the lake or to smoke some weed, he’s still quietly enjoying your company, while your jaw drops open at the beauty of the temple.

That’s it. I pamper you too much with so many photos!