Aurangabad: Ajanta Caves, Ellora Caves & Daulatabad

We flew into Aurangabad from Goa via Mumbai.  We would have loved to have spent some time in Mumbai, but that’ll have to be next time…

Aurangabad is known for its close proximity to two ancient UNESCO World Heritage temple cave sites.  On day 1, we traveled 2.5 hours to the oldest, Ajanta caves.  They are situated in a desert highland type of terrain.  All of the caves were literally carved out of the sheer rock face, from the 2nd century BC through the 6th century AD.  There are 30 caves in total.  These are groupings of Buddhist temples and cave monuments varying in size, including many sculptures.  Ajanta caves were lost for centuries, and then rediscovered in the 1800s.  Because of this the wall frescos have been preserved very well.  Many statues of Buddha and other important figures were carved in each temple.  There are holes in the cave floor that acted as pigment palates for the ancient artists to create the frescos.

We visited the Ellora caves on day 2, which was only 45 minutes away from Aurangabad.  The Ellora caves are considered the epitome of ancient Indian rock cut architecture.  These caves were carved out of the rock by Buddhists, Hindus and Jains over 5 centuries.  The Ellora caves are significantly more intricate than the Ajanta ones and whole temples were cut down into the rock from top to bottom.  There are 34 caves in this location of varying styles, including gardens. 

After leaving the Ellora caves, we stopped in Daulatabad, a city that has a massive old Fort with an impressive series of 3 moats and fortress atop the mountain.  Jason and I climbed the 750 stairs, through bat-filled caves and up the mountain to reach the fortress on top.  I’m finding that caves and bats kinda go hand in hand.  Side note…bats stink, apart from being really creepy. 

After descending the mountain, we stopped to watch a mother and baby monkey hanging out next to a family having a picnic.  The langurs here are NOT shy. Mother and baby playing and feeding was priceless.

Goa

We spent 8 days on the beautiful beaches of Goa, located on the east coast of India, on the Arabian Sea.  It was colonized by the Portuguese, and then became a hippie oasis starting in the 1960s. We stayed in a great little private beach cottage at Hotel Estrela Do Mar, in Calangute, for the week.  Calangute is in northern Goa, and a big tourist hub.  There were mostly Russian tourists here during March, along with the charming locals, who of course want to sell you everything under the sun.  No room in our bags for souvenirs though…

It is HOT!  Mid to upper 90s with high humidity daily.  Perfect weather for swimming, fresh fish dinners on the beach, and cold King Fisher beer.  

On the first night, we found our favorite local beach restaurant/bar, Bubbles.  We became fast friends with our waiter, Paul.  We also loved the friendly hotel staff, and particularly our housekeeper, who made creative towel art incorporating designs like swans and hearts, complete with fresh flowers.  Cute touch.

We spent one day checking out the more northern, quieter cliff beach towns of Vagator and Anjuna.  We adored Vagator, with its rocky cliffs and gorgeous beach.  Far fewer tourists too.  We had an amazing Greek dinner at Thalassa, high up on the cliffs overlooking the sea, at sunset.  Would love to come back here someday.  Not much more to say, except we spent most days eating great food and relaxing on the beach.  All in all, a perfect place to break up our Indian adventure with some relaxing beach time.

Bandhavgarh National Park

We traveled south from Khajuraho to Bandhavgarh National Park via pre-arranged private SUV.  As it turns out it can be really cost effective, and obviously a huge time savings to take a car or plane vs. train.  We enjoyed the beautiful landscape, flooded valleys and farmland all intermixed with narrow mountain roads. 

We arrived at our “resort” called Goldbro Tiger View Resort around 5pm, ready to take it easy and see some tigers in the next few days!  Again, we were the ONLY people there.  There was a staff of 5 or so young men, none of which spoke English…not that they should…  The place was a bit old and had patchy electricity and running water, but we still had a good time.  There was a pool too, but we never made it in.  When we wanted a hot shower, we’d let the manager know, and one of the staff would build a fire to heat our water, which took about 20 minutes.  Best showers ever.

Our first jungle safari was the following evening.  Bandhavgarh National Park, according to Lonely Planet, is the top park to visit in India for tiger spotting.  It isn’t fenced in at all, and there are supposedly a high concentration of tigers here.  In total, we went on 3 jungle safaris – 2 evenings and 1 morning… and NO tiger sightings!  But, we did see several paw prints and heard lots of roars.  A couple of the other safari groups spotted a mother and her cubs crossing the street.  Oh well…  We did see a leopard and were told this is very rare so that helped to make up for the lack of tiger sightings.  In our pictures of Bandhavgarh you’ll see one that looks as if there is nothing there.  There is a leopard in there somewhere, we promise.  We also saw more spotted deer than I probably ever will in my lifetime.  Also saw many monkeys, Sambar deer, barking deer, peacocks, wild boar, storks, mongoose, and bison. 

Tala is a tiny town closest to the park, where we stayed.  We went to the market everyday for food and talked with the locals, who were very nice.  It’s kind of weird that there are obviously so many Westerners here on safari’s, but we never really saw any of them in the town.  It seems like such a shame to spend the entire time in a resorts, with such a cute little town right outside their gates.

On our last night in town, there was a “marriage party,” which was more like a rave. At dinner, the owner couldn’t shoo us out fast enough because he wanted to attend. It seemed as if the entire town lined up outside our hotel. Old and young alike were marching down the street, followed by drummers and a massive old generator, operated by a man pushing it along on a cart. People held ornate lights above their heads (also generator operated), and young boys lit off tons of fireworks.

Khajuraho - warning - some temple pictures may not be suitable for those 17 and under : )

We left the Agra train station by sleeper car at 11:30pm, where we said goodbye to our tour guide, Ompal. The train stations are particularly sketchy at night.  Good thing this is our first and last sleeper train during our travels.  There was some kind of rally going on at the station.  Ompal said it was “a political problem.”  Ok…that’s reassuring.  Jason was able to find the first class waiting area while I waited in the car, and we boarded on time.   We arrived in Khajuraho at 9am, only 2.5 hrs late.  Indian rail is notoriously unpredictable, so this wasn’t too bad.

Immediately upon getting off of the train, we were greeted by a rickshaw driver/tour guide who offered to take us to our hotel for $3.50 (for 10km). Sold.  Of course, on the ride to the hotel, there was the obligatory up-sell to take tours with him throughout our time in Khajuraho.  We just wanted to relax, so we got his number and said we might call later.

Khajuraho was just what we needed after all of the travel and hustle of the last few days.  It’s a peaceful little town where the main attractions are the Kama Sutra temples, which are scattered throughout the city.  These temples were originally erected in the 10th and 11th centuries, with some necessary reconstructions throughout the years.

We stayed at the lovely, Usha Bundela hotel for 3 nights, and walked to and from town (only a mile or so) each day.  The staff is very attentive…almost too much.  Breakfast is included in our stay and ends at 10:30 am.  Without fail, the manager calls our room each day at 9:30 a.m. and says, “Good morning, Sir, will you be taking breakfast?”  Jason – “Yes, we’ll be down in 15 minutes.”  Manager - “Please – come to breakfast.”  SO funny.

We visited the largest, Western group of temples on day 2, and a waterfall, animal sanctuary, Old City, and Eastern and Southern temples on day 3 with, Vicky (same tour guide), and his business partner/rickshaw driver.  Vicky liked to try to convince us that all Americans say “Sounds great” about everything.  The funny thing was that when he said it, it was “the sound is great” which made it that much better.   We had some wonderful Indian fare, plus a great wood fire pizza that could rival NYC. 

Once again, there were very few Westerners around, which made the experience more authentic for us.   I caught a little cold after we arrived but after my Ayurvedic massage yesterday I am cured! 

Agra & The Taj Mahal

Home of the Taj Mahal.  It is known as, “symbol of love.”  The ruler of that period built this as a gift for his wife who had died.  It took 22 years to complete. 

At the Taj Mahal, we had a great tour guide, Pervis, who took tons of pics of Jason and me.  He was hilarious because he kept shooing people out of our shots.  He’d scowl and give them stern looks if they didn’t move immediately.  LOL.

After our Taj Mahal tour, we landed in the obligatory sales scheme.  Everyone has an angle…  But, we saw how they produced the marble and gem inlay (precious and semi-precious) similar to that at the Taj Mahal.  We ended up purchasing one keepsake marble table there, which is stunning.

We ended the day by getting drinks at Hotel Amarvillas, a gorgeous 5 start hotel with an unobstructed view of the Taj Mahal at sunset.  Sleeper train to Khajuraho tonight…

Jaipur (The Pink City) and Fatehpur Sikri

The drive from Delhi to Jaipur took about 6-7 hours on a decent highway.  Our driver, Ompal, looks to be in his 70’s and speaks very little English, but is pleasant and an excellent driver.  He, like almost every other driver or shop owner we’ve come across, chews a lot of tobacco.

Just before arriving in Jaipur we hiked up to the Amber Fort, which is a beautiful amber/pink colored Fort built atop the mountains.  Definitely the most impressive of the forts we’ve seen thus far. 

Most Indians think that I’m Indian, and definitely aren’t shy about asking.  However, as a gentlemen pointed out, as we were leaving the Amber fort:  (to Jason) “You are American…and she is African.”  Very astute.

Jaipur is known as the Pink City because many of the buildings in town have been painted the same pink shade.  We also saw the City Palace, which was built by Jai Singh.  We stayed a hotel in the town center called Karnot Mahal.  It’s a budget hotel for $20/night.  We almost decided against staying there when we saw the cows, goats and trash heap right out front, but to our delight, the hotel is situated in a pretty courtyard.  It was very clean and comfortable and we ended up having the place almost entirely to ourselves (again – loving it), with our own private patio overlooking the lively city.  Tons of monkeys on every rooftop!

After visiting the City Palace, we left Jaipur for Fatehpur Sikri.  These are two towns associated with two mosques, on the road to Agra.  It rained all day, but it cleared up just in time for us to see these majestic structures.   We took a auto-rickshaw (tuk tuk) up and a local guide showed us around.  Had to take our shoes and socks off out of respect.

As was the custom, men and women are completely separated even in death.  A husband’s tomb has no concrete cover, whereas the wife’s does.  Also, men and women have to pray in separate rooms.  The ruler of Fatehpur had 3 wives.  One Muslim, one Hindu and one Christian.  Within Fatehpur he created places of worship that honored each of their religions.

We participated in a brief ceremony that has couples tie pieces of red string to a small section of the ornate windows. We were allowed to make three wishes that we could only share with one another after leaving.

Delhi

We arrived in Delhi after a 7.5 hour red eye from Beijing, which is 2.5 hours earlier than Beijing time.  We’re now 9.5 hours ahead of EST.  Took a prepaid taxi to our hotel in the Paharganj district, on Arakashan Rd.  This area is known for lots of backpackers/hostels.  Our hotel was in a back alley, and we had to search for quite a while before finally finding it.  The fact that it was 3:30am didn’t help matters.  Most of the Hotel lights were out on the street, and when we found the hotel, all of the staff were sleeping on cots in the lobby.  Had to wake them up to be shown to our room.  This reminded us a lot of traveling in Southeast Asia, where this was common.

After sleeping for a few hours, we were excited to check out the City.  Jason purposefully booked our hotel near the Railway station so we would be close for our train to Agra (Taj Mahal).  Nothing a pair of earplugs couldn’t fix. 

Started our first full day by having coffee (Nescafe) on our quaint hotel roof garden. Other tourists were never out there, so we had it to ourselves, which was nice.  The sights, smells and sounds are truly overwhelming – in a good way (so far).J  It’s also warm, which is a nice change from Beijing, but not oppressively hot.  It’s been 50s-70s so far. 

Our plan was to see Delhi for a couple of days, then take an early morning train (already booked online) to Agra, where we would stay for 3 nights.  Everyone said this is too much time in Agra, but we planned to chill by the pool and relax at our hotel for a few days after seeing the Taj Mahal.  Well, it didn’t take too long before we fell into a couple of notorious Delhi scams.  While trying to do a practice run through of the train station, “employees” misdirected us left and right, saying our train was cancelled because of weather.  Then they haggle with a rickshaw driver to get you to their partner’s travel agency to book an overpriced tour.  We quickly found out the weather delay/cancellation was bogus and ended up at least getting a somewhat reasonable deal with another travel agency.  So, our new plan was to do the Golden Triangle, which basically adds Jaipur, known as the Pink City, to our itinerary…

Luckily, we were able to work out a full day Delhi tour with a private driver for $8 total.  So, on our 2nd day in Delhi, our driver, Ompal took us to the Kutb Minar, Lodi Gardens, India Gate, Lotus Temple, Parliament, Presidential Palace, Ghandi Museum and the Red Fort.  All very beautiful, but we are suffering from a little bit of temple/monument fatigue.  REALLY happy we got a driver though, because traffic here is no joke.  Even crossing the street can be challenging.  There is a hectic mess of rickshaws, bikes, motorcycles and people swarming all around you, but somehow it all works…

We are still easing our way into dining safely, but had a delicious chicken Biryani dish for dinner the first night and pizza at Amici’s last night.  SO good!  Can’t wait to try more of the regional curries and naans.  No “Dehli Belly” yet, and hope our luck lasts!