Caves for Days

One more weekend trip while living in Pune. It was either a three-day beach party in the tourist hippie town of Goa, or exploring some ancient Buddhist caves. Call me an old man, but I chose the caves. Behold Ajanta and Ellora, two separate UNESCO World Heritage sites where a series of caves were meticulously carved out of giant rock walls between 200 BC and 600 AD. Both places are outside of the city of Aurangabad in northern Maharashtra, a quick five hour bus ride from Pune. Ajanta is made up of about thirty different caves with various stages of Buddha's life immortalized on the walls and columns of each one. Though cut from the rock over two thousand years ago, they were not discovered by modern society until a party of British tiger hunters stumbled upon them in the early nineteenth century. At Ellora, the caves are more expansive and have Hindu and Jain influences as well. They are all beautifully intricate and unlike anything I have ever seen before.  My brother, the geologist, would have completely lost it.  I visited during the dry season, so the surroundings were dusty and earthen-colored. During the monsoon, however, these places become jungles of lush greenery and waterfalls. Made me realize that India should be seen at least twice - once during the dry season, and once during the monsoon. 

A beach party would have certainly been a nice time, but I can do that in Florida. I'm not sure I'll ever come across a place like this again. 

One leg of horseshoe-shaped Ajanta caves

This group of old Asian women could not get enough of the porters at Ajanta 

Paintings cover the walls and columns

That is Charles in there. He is from Belgium. I didn't know him when I took this picture, but we became friends later

Each cave at Ajanta features a statue of Buddha in a different pose

Cave guard upstairs at the main cave of Ellora.

I'll never understand how they cut this place out of one huge rock


From the top of Daulatabad fort. We went to see peacocks, but they are an elusive bird. The view must suffice

This was built to look like the Taj Mahal, but apparently doesn't hold a candle to the real thing. Still pretty nice though

Me and Charles sandwiched between our two new Indian friends

Monkeys stealing Cheetos. I see this happen every time a monkey gets near a tourist with snacks

As I finish this up, almost a full two weeks after my cave trip, I am relaxing at home during my last weekend in Pune. On Monday I get to celebrate my 27th birthday with everybody at Manavya, then it's off to Bombay where I embark on a journey to north India and Bangladesh. I will be sure to fill you in along the way. Per usual, I appreciate you coming to take a look. Enjoy your Cinco de Mayo!