(this is only a draft post i'm afraid as i only have 15 mins of time left at this webcafe)
what a cool-ass couple of days, with a dinner on the first night at which i was guest of honour! i took a coach trip on the first day to the buddhist, hindu and jain caves at ellora, including a stop at the fort in daulatabad. run by the state tourist department, the guide was well-informed and took his time to explain the history of everything we were looking at. on the trip i met a couple of german people, steffi and robert, and robert's girlfriend from ireland. steffi is staying with a family in mumbai and robert and his lady arrived a day or 2 after me. daulatabad fort was stunning, a classic example of islamic architecture. built straight out of the mountain the defences were pretty formidable, and the view from the top was sweet.
ellora was awesome, the buddhist caves were really tranquil and peaceful, the hindu temple enormous, and the jain caves remarkably well preserved. in the buddhist caves we saw the accommodation for the monks, meditation rooms and a huge temple, all dated around 2AD (i think). Then there was the hindu temple, the largest rock cut temple in the world - twice the size of the parthenon, and bigger than petra. it was constructed by cutting straight down into the mountain, and is like something out of indiana jones. the jain temples were less awe-inspiring but still remarkable, and really well preserved
after the caves we visted the jyoti linga in ellora village. it was impressive, but just as smelly and filled with beggars as trimbak. that's 2 down, 10 to go! the australian guy who was with us, robert, was a magnet for the touts. the poor fella always boarded the coach having bought another book or trinket. by the end it had turned into a running joke. we headed back to aurangabad and visited the bibi-qa-maqbara, which is the taj mahal in miniature. as i had already visited the day before i just sat and watched the birds flying around the minarets in the setting sun, it was very pretty indeed. then we went to a water mill but by this point we were all hot, sweaty, covered in dust and filth and just wanted our hotels.
i had arranged to have dinner with a lovely chap named dynanprakash (i had met him on the train to aurangabad) that evening so i legged it back to my room, showered quickly and was picked up by his son. imagine my surprise when i was greeted by dynanprakash and a photographer. endless pics of us shaking hands, smiling and so on! it was like i had arrived at an awards ceremony or something. the biggest surprise was yet to come. it turned out that all the prominent businessmen and educators in the area had also been invited. oh, and the state government of bihar were in town so they had been invited too. it was a surreal night, ending with me having to give a speech about my experiences so far, which i delivered in perfect hinglish.
the next day i went on a trip to ajanta, 100 kms from aurangabad, and the less said about that the better. the lonely planet describes it as being the louvre of deccan rock-art. hard to imagine but it was worse than the louvre.. overpriced (relatively speaking) crowded and commercialised to hell. some interesting artwork inside the caves but we couldn't hear the guide telling us what they depicted for the million and one screaming kids. the highlight was seeing the exterior, the caves are carved out of a horseshoe shaped gorge, and the bus trip there and back was pretty cool, 4 hours each way through the deccan plains.on the last day in aurangabad i vegged in the hotel, travelling is tiring you know ^^ i met 2 cool girls from home, and we spent the latter part of the evening while i waited for my overnight train to mumbai drinking beer and giggling a lot. we arranged to meet later on in the week in goa, which should be cool.
so now i am back in mumbai, heading to pune tomorrow. i'm going to the osho meditation centre for a few days to unwind and get inside my head a little bit. it sounds lush: swimming pools, tennis, massages, meditation classes - proper 5 star luxury.
if i get the chance later i'll flesh this post out and add some pictures. if not, i'll see you in goa :D
1 comment:
Daulatabad Fort was built by Yadava dynasty rulers. but Starting 1327, it famously remained the capital of Tughlaq dynasty, under Muhammad bin Tughluq (r. 1325-1351), who also changed its name, and forcibily moved the entire population of Delhi here, for two years, before it was abandoned due to lack to water.
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