The Ajanta Caves March 9th

Entrances of the Ajunta Caves

One of the big draws of Aurangabad is the Ajunta caves. They are caves hewn out of solid rock 15 to 22 centuries ago. The caves were “lost” for a 1000 years when they were covered with dirt. They were re-discovered 200 years ago. We entered several large caves that were perfect large square rooms with large columns and a carving of Buddha on one wall and “cells” for the monks off the main rooms. It was difficult to comprehend that everything was crafted from solid rock – nothing else was used. All the engraving on the columns and walls were done in the rock.   There is some painting that was done on the walls and ceilings.  The paint has faded but because the caves were hidden some painting has survived.   All the 30 caves were done for the Buddhist religion. We spent 2 hours there and visited only 3 caves. Our guide made sure we saw the best caves first. A very impressive and well maintained sight.

Cave 1 a Buddhist Monastary

Central Statue of Buddha

Ceiling

Train to Aurangabad March 8

Drying the hay

After yesterday, I was nervous about getting to the train on time but at 05:30 there was no traffic at all. We were on our 2^nd class air conditioned coach by 20 to six. The train left at 6:15 dead on time. The landscape was dry and arid with green patches where the farmers had irrigated the fields. Our coach seemed to have several dedicated people who cooked, cleaned and washed while we were still in the seats. My favourite was the food man who took our orders for breakfast and delivered a hot omlette. He then served coffee and tea, which looked really poor. He poured powder out of a plastic dispenser and then filled the cup with hot water and served it. It tasted wonderful. It was only later, when Joan had her third cup, that I realized he was pouring hot milk out of his water jug. Instant coffee never tasted so good. 

He also took our order for lunch and then delivered a cardboard box of fried rice with veggies. It looked ordinary but the taste was nice. I had just about finished mine when Joan handed me a plate of unknown food. The family across the aisle had brought their lunch and the mother made up a plate for us. We tasted it somewhat timidly and had no idea what it was. At this point the boy came over and told me to mix everything together and put it in the bread to eat. I mixed and folded and we ate everything. It was delicious but we still have no idea what we ate.

Mini Tag Mahal

In the late afternoon we visited the mini Taj Mahal. It is a copy of the real Taj except the builder skimped on the material and used plaster instead of marble for most of the walls. Now 400 years later it is easy to see that plaster does not age as well as marble. None the less it is still an impressive building. It is the tomb of the wife of a Raj, She is the only one buried there. As the guide remarked “women are expensive”.

Mumbai March 7

Joan and Tim in front of the 3 faces of Shiva

The morning was spent at the Elephanta Caves – a 1 hour boat ride away. We were accompanied all day by a guide from Mumbai. During the day we found out that she was president of the Mumbai Guides Association. She was very serious about her work and at one point she called over a security man and told him to stop leaning against the pillars because it caused wear and tear on the carvings. She was quick to pick up on our interests and when I asked about a group of women all dressed in the same saris she approached them immediately, We learned they were midwives from a small town, all in Mumbai for a conference,

On the recommendation of our guide, we ordered a thali for lunch. It looked pretty spartan with 5 very small bowls of food, but the refills kept coming until I realised I couldn't eat any more. We had several delicious dishes that we had no idea what we were eating. We love Indian food.

Lunch plate

The laundryMen District

Mumbai March 6

The Gate of India

The Taj Hotel

We flew from Singapore to Mumbai today. This is our first visit to India. Mumbai is big, loud and colourful, It has a population of 22 million which is 2/3 the population of Canada. We have only seen the area around the gate of India where the architecture is good and the colours of the saris worn by the Indian women are fantastic.