Ellora and Aurangabad

We only just managed to get off the train at Jalagon, arriving, at our stop a half an hour earlier than expected. I was very impressed with how quickly Sean could gather himself together and got off the train, I could never move that fast first thing in the morning. We then squashed ourselves on a local bus that we didn't have window seat, because our 3 hour bus trip to Aurangabad was over in 2 hair-raising hours. It's virtually unheard of for a bus to arrive early in India.
We’d come to Auranagabad to see the Ellora caves, a series Buddhist, Hindu and Jain temples carved into stone cliffs from 600 to 1000AD, but we spent the first day luxuriating in aircon and television (Sean especially happy because Tottenham was on the telly), until the power went out. But our first stop was an early morning visit to Daulatbad Fort.Not knowing what to expect, we spent a lovely morning there, wandering around and climbing to the top. We found many treasures. Massive wooden doors with spikes to stop elephants charging, a deep, algae green moat that used to be infested with crocodiles. We met the loudest, laughing Indian man in his seventies, who insisted he was too old to climb to the top, but we saw him there, and it was quite a climb. We found a tucked away Ganesha (my favourite Indian god) shrine where we were blessed with the red dye on our forheads, which trickled with sweat into our eyes. We were led through a pitch black tunnel by a man with a kerosene flame, keen for baksheesh, even though he’d been standing directly below a sign that said ‘Do not tip’.

This high fort, with strong walls, and many defences, built on sheer rock was once overcome by bribing the guard at the gate.

Next day we went to Ellora. An early start again, we were the first people there, but not for long. We took hours to wander through these wonderful temples.

It is now the summer holidays in India and there are many Indian families travelling around to see the sights, much more than foreign tourists. The Indians love to have their photos taken with foreigners, they shove screaming babies in your arms, stand close and laugh away, taking photos and videos on their mobile phones, me red-faced and confused, Sean slipping away to take his own photos of the bizarre scenes. Eventually we started moving away if a family was looking in our direction.



Nice arse!
We got mobbed at the mini-Taj. An unexpected treasure in Aurangabad, the Bibi-Qa-Maqbara is a smaller replica of the Taj, built by the son of the man who built the Taj. Less impressive architecturally, it had all the joy and charm that was missing from the real thing. We were sitting on a ledge near the mausoleum and large families kept coming up, the ladies and children sitting with us like they were our oldest friends and husband and fathers snapping and filming away, capturing my look of confusion for their family albums.


Mini Taj
Then, after a large baksheesh to Aman, our very helpful driver, we were off to Mumbai, our last stop before heading back to Delhi.