Escape From Mumbai
To Friendly Aurangabad
01.08.2008 - 05.08.2008
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We finally left Mumbai after four days. Almost immediately things were more relaxing and enjoybale. The train snaking its way through beautiful green hills and valleys. It was such a nice change not being surrounded by concrete and people. Or be swamped in constant rain!
Our destination was Aurangabad the perfect starting point for the Ellora and Ajanta caves.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellora_Caves
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajanta
Both dating back 1600 years they are truly breathtaking places. We spent a whole day at each site. Exploring the caves and studying the carvings and paintings. For me they are the equivalent of carving churchs out of the cliff face, and in the case of Kailasa at Ellora its more like a cathedral. Standing before it all you really get a senes of the utter devotion and respect the people of India have for the religions and gods'. If you ever have the chance to visit. GO!
On the way to Ellora there was also the Daulatabad Fort ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daulatabad ), the first of many im sure to see on this trip. We visited on an overcast day with a steady drizzle of rain slowly soaking everything. It all added to the atmosphere and made the enormous fortress even more imposing. I wish we could have stayed longer to explore the surrounding areas enclosed by its walls but we had to leave for our train back to Mumbai. I have only been here 10 days and already India's history of warfare and religous devotion is coming through strong. Old forts, town walls and temples seem to litter the landscape.
Overall we really enjoyed our stay in Aurangabad. Although its small it has a lot of character. And we met some really nice people. Like the family running our guest house, or the government tour guide who, after we declined his offer to sell us a tour to Ellora and decided to make our own way, put no pressure on us and instead told us where to catch the local bus and for how much! Then there was the rickshaw driver who could barely speak because of a sore throat but tryed as hard as he could to shout over his engine and point out various things in the city. Or the local man we met on the train and helped us to find a hotel before making his way home. It seemed that everywhere we went people just wanted to chat for the sake of chatting. They just wanted to know about us, just like we wanted to know about them.
Its people like these that really make up for the hassle and touts elsewhere that make things difficult and stressful. I hope there are more like it further on.
Next stop, Udaipur.
Posted by jimny_bob 06.08.2008 02:27 Archived in India Tagged backpacking
