Category: India

Ajanta Caves

The World Heritage listed Ajanta caves (Buddhist) were another tight squeeze on the way to a different train station (Jalgaon) for a 24 hour trip to Varanasi.
These cave temples weren’t as cool as the ones in Ellora, but still interesting. I found the cave paintings disappointing, but without a guide (nor a good flashlight – my headlamp isn’t working anymore!) they were rather faint and I couldn’t usually find the specific painting that the guidebook mentioned in a particular cave.
Tip: if you can only do one, see Ellora.

Mailing a package home

I sent a package home from Aurangabad, a process which took over an hour, between the auto-rickshaw rides, the boxing/wrapping/stitching/wax-sealing of my things, and going to the post office (which mercifully had a short line and an English speaking clerk).

Note the wax seals (14!) on the finished package.
Over 7kg/16lbs, it cost Rs300/$7.50 to wrap (overly expensive, but no competition here, unlike Mumbai where the general post office was open on Sunday, but not the foreign parcel desk), and Rs3005/$75 for air parcel service (within 2 weeks delivery – I didn’t want to pay half and wait 2 months for ship parcel service).

Upcoming hectic travel schedule

From Aurangabad on Tue I take a 2 hour bus to see the Ajanta caves, then a 2 hour bus further to a train station for a 24-hour train to Varanasi, arriving Wed Mar 5 at 19:15
and stay one night

Then a night train to Agra, arriving Fri Mar 7 at 6:10
Then a night train to Jodhpur, arriving Sat Mar 8 at 7:20,
and stay one night at the guest house.

Then a night train to Jaisalmer, arriving Mon Mar 10 at 5:30
Then a night train to Bikaner, arriving Tue Mar 11 at 4:40
and stay 2 nights in Bikaner, inc. 1 night camel safari

On the evening of Thu Mar 13 I take a night train to Delhi and on north to Chandigarh to visit a friend’s friend’s Sikh parents (arriving Fri Mar 14).

Which will probably only leave 2 days in Delhi at the end.

It’s hella hot in Aurangabad

I arrived in Aurangabad today, which is hella hot in the daytime, but reasonable in the evening. Very dry landscape.

The reason I’m here is I visited the World Heritage site Ellora Caves today (a must see!), which make the Mamallapuram rock carvings look minor…
More detail later, this internet place is closing soon (I really wanted to get some big highlights done of previous stops :-(

There are 34 “caves” (some Buddhist, some Hindu, some Jain) carved out of the cliff-side between 7th and 11th Century)

Arrived in Mumbai this morning

Expensive hotels here. My half-decent budget hotel is Rs900/$22.50 per night (usually I’ve been paying Rs400/$10 most nights).
And I don’t even have my own toilet (though I do have a (bucket) shower in my room). Sigh.
And check out time is noon, so even though I’m here 48 hours (6am to 6am two days later), I’m paying for 3 nights! Well, he did give me a discount (only Rs500/$12.50 for the first “night” from 6am to noon today).

I ended up sleeping a few hours upon checkin because I didn’t sleep well on the train last night, despite following the lead of 3 Indian-Canadians from B.C. and paying for an upgrade to AC2 class (from AC3) via the conductor. Funny, AC2 was waitlisted when I tried to buy the ticket, and now there are at least a dozen empty berths.

Mumbai isn’t as bad as I expected, but I’ve only seen the small Colaba area near my hotel… after a late “brunch” (a South Indian thali) during which I read up and highlit my guidebook, I’m now ready to get out and explore!

Update on food/drink

Despite being ill last night (thankfully briefly), I wanted to make some more comments/updates on food/drink and prices…

Beer: In Goa, beer is cheaper: only Rs60/$1.50 for a large Kingfisher, and Rs35/$0.88 for a small (regular) Kingfisher, which I hadn’t actually seen until this point. The Goan beer Bello tastes worse, in my opinion. I’ve also seen Budweiser and Fosters here in Goa. On that note, the Kingfisher colours/advertising/slogans remind me a lot of Budweiser, actually…

Bread: I had written that adding things to bread other than ghee/butter (e.g. garlic) wasn’t “worth it” despite the small cost because there just wasn’t enough to notice the difference; well, I found an exception in Arambol, Goa: mint paratha. There is definitely enough mint to notice, and it makes it even more tasty!

Quality: I’ve had over 100 meals in India now, and I’d say I’ve enjoyed all but 1 or 2 of them (and maybe disappointed at the lack of variety, but no the quality, of 2 more meals). And the one I clearly remember disliking was because it was all (deep) fried and bland.
Which means over 95% of meals have been good or better, which is more than I can say than any other trip (or eating out back home, for that matter!)

Tip: fried almost always means deep-fried here, not stir-fried (even if the oil isn’t heated quite as much as the trans-fat inducing high heat back home)

What’s up with the wood bead necklace?

You may have noticed in some photos that I’m wearing a wood (sandalwood? rosewood?) bead necklace…
I bought it in from a girl on the street in Chennai (surely overpaid at Rs20/$0.50) hoping that would deter further bead necklace salespeople –
but I fear it probably had the opposite effect, as in this tourist was gullible enough to buy one, maybe he’ll buy more! Grr…