Ellora and Ajanta

Wednesday May 15, 2013, 10:35 pm

I am sitting in the airport waiting to go to Rochester for senior week, and it occurred to me that I never finished blogging about my trip. So here it goes.

The day after I explored the local sights in Aurangabad I decided to take a bus to the Ellora caves, instead of taking a taxi or a rickshaw. The caves were about 30 km away, but it still took almost an hour and a half to get there because the public bus experience outside of the big cities in India is quite

Ellora Cave Ceilings

an adventure.

I first had to take a rickshaw four km to the bus station, and I had the first truly kind auto driver I had ever met. It was a shared rickshaw that usually cost either 10 or 20 rupees, but because I did not know the area I just offered the driver 20. He smiled at me and handed 10 back, informing me that 10 was the correct price. I have never had such an honest driver. It blew my mind, but it was just a taste of the generosity that was to come.

Getting on a bus in rural India takes more pushing and shoving then getting to the center of ETHS homecoming, and not even football players would be able to deal with the close contact. Everyone is trying to get to the door and on the bus, making it impossible for people to get off the bus. Kids and elderly do not get any special treatment, and when I stopped to let a crying child get to his mother I suddenly found myself at the end of the crowd because I had let down my guard. However, after you fight your way into the bus everything calms down and people are incredibly polite. Strangers squeeze three people into two-person seat, and the women next to me continuously offered me food. It was a lovely ride though the countryside and the driver was kind enough to tell me when to get off.

Back Paths of Ellora

When I entered the caves I was bombarded by people attempting to sell me books and give me tours, but I walked right past them. One caught up to me and started out by telling me that he did not want any money. At that I stopped to talk. He explained to me that he was a guide, but it was not tourist season, and he could see I was not a stupid traveler. Since he was not going to make any money that day anyway he wanted to show me the best path to see the caves based on the position of the sun. I agreed and we were off.

Instead of walking the two kilometers down the road to caves he said I should start at we climbed over the mountain, stopping at the caves we came to on the way. Sadek, the guide, was so used to the paths and the mountain that he was able to run in flip flops over the rocks. I had lost my Tims the night before, so I was in sandals, and I was not so successful. I had a few tumbles, but ended up with only one bad cut and a small rip in my pants. It was not a big deal, but quite comedic. With Sadek I was able to see and understand things about the caves I would not have otherwise, and it was so much fun. He loved taking pictures so I gave him my camera, and he took about a million.

Three story cave

At the end of the caves path he left me to work my way back, but in classic Indian style he asked me to come to his family shop when I was done with the caves. Because he had been so nice to me I decided I would go, so when I was done with the caves I met up with him and we went across the street. I started looking at shawls with the shawl man, Riaz, and we struck up an amazing conversation. An hour later I was still in the store, no longer looking at scarves, and Sadek and Riaz convinced me to change the train tickets I had to go back to Mumbi that night for the two days later and stick around Ellora. They wanted to show me their small village the way they knew it. Agreeing to stay was very out of character for me, but it felt right at the time, and the next thing I knew I was in a rickshaw with Wasim the rickshaw driver, who would become a great friend over the next two days.

We went back to Arangabad, picked up my stuff from the hotel, changed my train ticket, and went back to Ellora, where they put me in the family hotel. I have never been anyplace so gross in my life. The sheets were white I could easily see the red bed bugs all over the bed. The water did not work in the sink, and the toilet did not flush. There were a master on the lock on the door, but it took about five minutes to close. But there was a fan and I had no place else to go, so I sucked it up, laid down some of my own shawls over the sheets and went to bed.

Shiva Temple in Ellora

At 9:00 the next morning Sadek showed up at my door. The Ellora caves were closed for tourists on Tuesday so the whole village was more or less on a day off. We had breakfast at a friend’s restaurant and then we walked father into the village to one of the most beautiful Shiva Temples I have ever seen. It was  8 shrines separately constructed and placed in a perfect square about half way down a flight of stairs. You could hear the birds and the sun was shining. The temple took my breath away, and for that reason alone I am glad that I stayed. We saw a few other temples that morning, and then headed back for lunch with Wasim the rickshaw driver.

Village life is slow, and Tuesday acts as Ellora’s weekend, so I spent the afternoon reading and hanging out. At about five I met up with Riaz, and Wasim took us to the base of the mountain where there was a small but beautiful Jain temple about half way up. We climbed up the 200 winding steps and watched the sunset in silence, as well as watching a few other worshipers struggle their way up the mountain. One of these groups of worshipers were teachers from the local Jain school, and we started talking. They were a hilarious bunch, and thought I was even funnier, so we spent quite a while chatting about marriage, America, math, and family structures.

Ajanta Caves

While I was with Wasim I got a call that the train I was supposed to take back to Mumbi the next day was completely full, and I could not get back until an 11:30pm train. That meant I had another whole day in the area with nothing to do. Thank god I was with Wasim when I got this call, because the next thing I knew he was going to take me in his rickshaw the 120km, 3 hour, trip to the Ajanta Caves that I thought I was going to miss.

The Ajanta caves were nice, but it was the six hours I spent in Wasim’s rickshaw that was the highlight of my day that day. The sun was hot, but the wind was cool, and we were driving through the real countryside. The only structures were mud huts, and crops were green all over the place. There was little rain this year, so everyone was telling me about how beautiful it was normally, but I was impressed with what I saw. On the way back we were able to watch the sunset over the fields.

After a rooftop dinner back in Ellora with Riaz and Wasim over my hotel I jumped back in Wasim’s rickshaw and went to the train station to go back to Mumbai, a far less stressful event then coming to Ellora.

From right: Sadek, Wasim, me, Travel Agent

This was not how I expected to spent four full days, but I went with my gut, and I experienced a more genuine version of India then I could have seeing the big tourist sights in Mumbai. I made relationships and friends, and for once was able to truly understand the generosity both in time and money of Indians who are not trying to rip you off.