anyway i'm really excited. Coz there are quite a number of things and places that we've planned to visit. and the 1st place that we'll be visiting in our trip will be to the city of Aurangabad. This city is pretty far away from Mumbai. the four of us (Shu Hui, me, Meijing, & Ka Wei) took a Qantas flight on 14th May 2350hrs heading to Mumbai, reaching mumbai at 0240hrs (mumbai time).
4 of us waiting for our plane in Changi airport
Reaching Mumbai Terminal, we had to collect our baggage and take a shuttle to the domestic airport, where we can board our plane on Jet Airways to Aurangabad. we've got ample time to get there. coz our flight will only depart Mumbai for Arungabad at 0655hrs.
Lots of people waiting at the domestic airport
All 4 of us were really sleepy. Coz we did not have proper sleep during our flight there.... and i catch cat naps now and then.
Someone also catching a nap
sun rising in the east
Mumbai seen from the skies
was surprised that the Jet Airways flight was pretty ok. hahaha... better than the flight i took when my family and I went to Ho Chi Minh city last Dec on tiger airways.
Welcome to Aurangabad!!!!
Aurangabad city
Local public transport
Well I guess for most, u must be wondering why did u visit Aurangabad and not places like Delhi, or Agra or Goa??? and where in the world is this place?? hahaha... Aurangabad is to the east of Mumbai.... quite a bit of a distance away. by train u take about 12 hrs if by flight, it takes about 35min to reach there. and this city has quite a couple of UNESCO heritage sites. 1 of the largest Buddhist caves, Ajanta Caves, dated from 2nd B.C to 6th A.D. other than these UNESCO sites and a few other attraction sites that are tourists visit, there aren't many things u should or can expect in Aurangabad. I mean i initially did not believe what i read in Lonely Planet guidebook, but it was only when we were there that what's written there is pretty much true!
When we got off the plane, the heat just surrounds you! Our driver from Saibaba met us at at the airport and drove us to our hotel to check in. and I wrote 'driver' instead of 'guide' because, he doesn't really understand nor speak english! hiaz.... and this was the case for most of the people in Aurangabad which i came to know later on.
After checking in to the hotel (we stayed at Hotel Bagga International; www.hotelbagga.com) and freshening up, we start our adventures.
Hotel Bagga International
1st major site that we were going to visit that day is Ajanta Caves. As mentioned earlier, Ajanta caves are dated from 2nd B.C. to 6th A.D. there are altogether 30 caves there. and the caves are 105km northeast of Aurangabad. on our way there, u'll be able to see fields and fields of light brown or dried grass patches. the place was just so dry.
Dry land of Aurangabad
some of these caves have Buddhist paintings while most have Buddhist sculptures. The caves are lined in a steep face of a horseshoe shaped rock gorge bordering the Waghore River. But I must say, we did not see such a river, coz this was the dry season. what we see was juz the outline of the dried river, rocks and brow grass. And the river will only exist during the monsoon season. even waterfalls will appear and grass and trees will be green. when we heard this we were a little disappointed that we could not see such a lush green sight.
Upon reaching the carpark, our driver stopped his car and waited for us, whilst a middle aged man approached us and offer to be our guide for the visit to the caves. Just that we'll need to pay him
400. we thought it was a reasonable price (coz the guides cost 600 as written in the guide book) as he will help us to take care of our shoes when we enter some of the caves and he will also do the honors of explaining the caves. but before we can even reach the caves, we had to walk through a village selling rock and statue souvenirs to take a bus which will drive us to the caves. when we got off the car, the shop owners or 'sales' people start to hound us to buy their wares. its terrible! they see us as items who can provide them money when we buy their wares. urgh. and they can be pretty persistent... tagging along with u, telling which shop is theirs and asking u to visit their shops once u're done with the caves. finally we reached the place where we were to board the bus. for air-conditioned bus it cost 12 and non-air-conditioned bus cost 7. and it cost another 250 for entrance fees for the caves. anyway we could not choose as the bus that came was an air-conditioned bus. there is something about the indians. they don't queue! they were just pushing and jostling their way to the bus! be they old or young, man or woman or child! its just really irritating.
In the cramped bus to the caves
the bus ride was short. and when we reach the site of the caves, its a whole new sight that greeted us! coz the sight is something that i see in the guidebook, never thought that i'll be able to see it with my own eyes. the caves are really carved, built in the stone.
Ajanta Caves
i think the most majestic and beautiful caves was still the 1st cave. but also the cave that attracted the most visitors. coz in this cave, the paintings were still pretty much intact. the sculptures were beautiful. u'll be able to see the ceiling filled with paintings and the walls filled with paintings. all these paintings telling a particular Buddhist story. i was joking telling 1 of my friend that now the famous Michaelangelo is not that superb afterall. I mean the Indian monks were already doing ceiling paints way before he did and with such accuracies and precision and in caves. by the way, flash photography is prohibited in the caves. coz the dyes used for the paintings were natural dyes. using flash photography will ruined the paintings. and if someone were to use flash in the caves with paintings... everyone will be yelling at him or her. so the indians really take the rules seriously! =D
bright pink bougainvillaeas that stand out in the dry, brown vegetation. it can be a pretty refreshing sight
Painting of Padmapani in Cave 1
Bodhisattvas paintings on the wall in Cave 2
Huge Buddha statues
Carvings on the outside of the caves
Buddha carvings at the entrance of Cave 19
Huge reclining Buddha in Cave 26
Hallways of cave 26
Peek-a-boo
A buddha carved in a tower in Cave 27 (???)
and its a amazing that people in those days had such ability to do such things. their belief in Buddhism and what they wanted to offer to the Buddha must have been so great that allowed them to have such determination to do that. Coz our guide told us that in those days, the monks will cross the river everyday and climb the gorge to build the caves with just chisel and hammer. We went to almost all the caves and our guide told us that if we were to stand outside cave 16, we're in the center of the horseshoe shaped gorge. this allows the viewer to see the caves on both the right and left side. also the more we walk, the hotter we became. the heat was really unbearable.... and i think it could be true that the temperatures in Aurangabad can soar up to 40 degrees. u gotta be there to really understand how it is. totally sweltering hot! one thing about the indians.... when they see foreign people like us (coz we're really the minorities there.... perhaps we're the only chinese visiting there at that time... i did not see many tourists like us. most of them are indians and they can be indians from other parts of india there for a weekend trip) they like to smile at us, say 'hello' to us, ask us where we're from and can they take a picture of us or take a picture with us. its like overnight we become movie stars! hahaha.... its pretty interesting...
picture taken with an Indian girl
a woman sitting on a chair carried by 4 bearers
A group photo with an an Indian lady
Mummy monkey & baby monkey @ the caves
after a few hours in Ajanta caves, we headed back to the town to call it a day.
Caves taken from the bottom of the gorge
Chicken Dum Briyani
Most probably she can't take to spicy food. and I must say the briyani is pretty good. juz that its pretty spicy and it gets spicer the more u eat it. think its accumulation of the spiciness. and we also got water supplies before heading back to our hotel.
Aurangabad streets in the evening
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