Aurangabad and the caves

These caves are mind boggling... the sheer time and energy that the workers spent designing and building them from the 6th to the 9th century AD is incredible!

They are the famous Elora caves near Aurangabad, half of the duo of cave sites which this area is famous for. The others are at Ajanta, further north which we didn't get to see this time.

We took a public bus (where it's at ;) ) to Elora in the morning, cramming onto it as it approached the bus station with people pouring into it, even through the windows! We hadn't had to fight for a seat this bad before. Miriam ended up sitting on my lap for most of the 50 min journey...

Once we got to Elora and had hustled our way past all the usual hawkers selling cold drinks and " 500 year old Mughal coins", we walked to the far end of the cave complex, tracing the time back to the 6th century when the first Buddhist caves were excavated. These began in a very simple and practical style, becoming increasingly bigger, more elaborate and artistic as they had to compete with the flamboyant sculptures of the hindu caves further along in the 8th century or so...

Most of these caves are known as "Viharas" or monasteries where the monks both worshiped and lived. Lots of these have halls as well as cells which they probably used for living quarters and meditation.

The caves were carved over long periods of time, some taking decades and in the case of the famous Kailash temple even 100 years! The standard technique was to insert wooden poles inside cracks within the basalt (yep, it's all basalt here) and then soak them in water. This would cause them to swell and slowly the rock would break away. It was a very time consuming process and had to be done very carefully since there was no room for error. (It's incredible to see how accurate the work was done)

Once the majority of the surrounding rock was gone the rock sculptures could come in and begin the fine work of releasing the beautiful figures hidden within using hammer and chisel. Simply Beautiful.

It seemed like the early caves were often left unfinished in preference to beginning a new cave right beside it. Often the massive rock pillars which keep the roof up have been detailed in fine patterns near the top and then left unfinished half a meter down. Other spaces seem to have been left bare purposely (especially the Buddhist caves).

After cave 12 of the Buddhist series the Hindu caves began. These were typically highly detailed in sculpture and of increasingly bigger proportions, culminating in the (insert word meaning something very impressive) Kailash temple. Not really a cave any more since it has no roof but rather a massive single sculpture excavated out of the hillside. This mamoth project took over four generations of architects (i would love to see the drawings) and sculptures to complete and was originally covered completely in white plaster, symbolizing the snow on the abode of lord Shiva; Mount Kailash. The photo below doesn't even begin to do it justice...

 

 There's a bit more I want to say about the Jain caves but my card reader has just packed up so I'll have to wait till next time.....

-Jo

Ok, here they are, some more shots from the caves. This first one is a typical scene which is becoming more common...every attraction we go to see we seem to become the attraction ourselves. This group were kept busy asking Miriam and Sophia questions and I was able to sneak away to take some more photos in peace ;)

The inside of one of the elaborate Jain caves.

- Jo

Mumbai, 2 nights in Colaba

A guy with chairs piled high crossing the road

India or England?

Near the markets....

View from our room

Scary hooved creatures outside a boarded up temple building

Spent 2 nights in the Lawrence hotel in Colaba, described as "the best rock bottom deal in Mumbai" by the Rough Guide. Yes, it was clean with good service, in a good area of Mumbai at a cheaper rate than anywhere else, so can't complain about the view outside or the urine-dripping toilet seats in the shared bathrooms. All was tolerated!

Jo and I visited the National Gallery of Modern Art for a few hours and gazed at a mixture of European post-impressionist inspired art; it was interesting.

We gazed at the Taj Mahal Palace (now a fancy as hotel), and the Gateway across the square, where the British came and left from ceremoniously through this Indian version of the Arc de Triomphe (photos coming next installment). We then trapsed around fending off people offering us drugs, taxi rides or tours, or wanting to tell us how they got beaten up, robbed and left with nothing and could we please help. Hmmph.

Thank god we found a bar, with cheap jugs of ice-cold Kingfisher and "finger chips" (we have come to realise they are in fact a version of hot chips, not deep-fried fingers, sorry to disappoint), which gave us all the energy in the world to tackle the markets (fresh veg, all the cosmetic product in the world at ungodly cheap prices, and even Haribo gummi bears) and view the many, huge, disintegrating Victorian-esque buildings. (more photos also coming).

We checked out the Victoria station which is famous for being totally over-crowded, and eventually caught a bus (after an ordeal late at night at the train station in an attempt to book a train ticket for 6am the next morning) to Nashik (India's wine capital!!! -sorry Terry, didn't do any wine tours as they were out of our price range), and then further on to Aurangabad where we are for tonight.

Yesterday.....

Sophia and I got henna-ed yesterday !
Johannes turned in to a buff snake-catcher...
A snake nearly got us all! (this one was in Sophia's bed)
now that I have a willing shopper, we hit the markets!
home-made chappatti, home-made raita and curries from the local shop, "parcel, please" (parcel means takeaway here)

One morning with Lalita and Dada...

This morning we're three! Sophia came in the middle of the night after a long mission trying to find the taxi we had booked from Mumbai airport. After lots of stunted phone calls and a few hours of sitting restless waiting for a response we finally got a call from the taxi driver at 3 am that he couldn't find the house we were staying in and that he was waiting a few blocks down the road....
Dada and I grabbed our jandals and went for a midnight stroll.
Sophia was waiting in the cab with a few other passengers and I felt relieved that she had made it safely. :)

So this morning when we all got up around 9:30 or something, we went next door to watch Lalita (Dada's wife) cooking UPMA for us. It's a yummy savoury semolina porridge and the recipe is as follows ( approx) ;

take a bowl of semolina (suji) and fry in a little oil until brown. Put to the side.

Fry a tsp of mustard seeds and some curry leaves in some oil. add chopped onions, tomatoes (all finely chopped) and sweet corn (or cauliflower etc, just not too many all together) fry a little more and add 1.5 bowls of boiled water. stir and let boil for a minute.

add some salt and a little sugar to the semolina and combine with veges. stir and let sit with the lid on for a couple of minutes.

Enjoy with a sprinkle of dessicated coconut on top. YUM!!!

- Jo

P.S. did I miss something Miriam?

Pune

Well after 4 hours in the bus from Mysore to Bangalore, and then another 20 hour trip on the train, we finally arrived in Pune on Sunday night at around 4pm. After catching an auto-rickshaw to the Iyengar centre near Milind's place where we'd be staying, and taking up an offer from a nice woman who called the house for further instructions, we met Dada on the corner of his street near the temple. Who knew that everyone we would ask would have a different opinion about where Lakaki road was !? But good on them for trying to help.
So yesterday we spent most of the time relaxing and getting our boundaries, sussing out vege and chai wahlahs; getting chappatti flour, milk, eggs and ghee... and this morning had our first taste of cooking again in a long time.... with... pancakes for breakfast!
Yum! We swapped a pancake for some little fried tasty savory balls from Lalita in the kitchen adjacent. SHe is Dada's wife, and he is the brother of Avinash and Supriya's brother-in-law; Supriya my DOS from Dynaspeak. So THAT is the connection for those who were unclear! (and I was, a little, myself!)
It is so nice to have time (we are hear for a week!), and also to be living close to these lovely people. We feel very lucky. They have helped us suss some things out and hopefully organised everything well for picking up Sophia tomorrow evening when she arrives at Mumbai from Perth.
We are about to look at some sights around Pune, hopefully find this tour bus ride that we have heard about. Soon, though, I am looking forward to shopping, hoping that Sophia will be more of a sport than Jo has been so far (which won't be difficult at all!!!).

That's all for now, will post some pics of here next time.
xx
M

Random photos from Kudai and the road from Miriam

A little out of focus, but lines and lines of washing all white and then all colours and all hanging among these trees as we drove past in a taxi....

Johannes on a food-buying mission on one of the short stops during one of our many bus trips. Luckily this time we got seats unlike the trip to Kudai with five of us all standing or lying piled on top of eachother and then ontop of our bags. One sick on the way and one desperate for the toilet. Not a happy bumpy ride through the night, but pretty funny in heinsight
One of the many stunning views from Karuna farm, just out of Kudai...
Some gum leaves I collected in the forest on our way to the farm. Later we made a mobile and hung it in our hut for future stayers to enjoy. The place felt a bit in need of some decoration being very bare and minimalist
Kate enjoying the rooftop view from our guesthouse in Kudai. (Our room had two massive double beds which slept six of us comfortably)

In Mysore

Yo yo!

Just a quick imagless post to say hello and that we are in Mysore, further north and west from where we've been previously. It is a nice town, I am enjoying the cleanliness and the large roads and organised (!) traffic. As proof of this, Jo walked out before the lights changed last night and got told off by a traffic police officer, even told to go back and wait. Being the rebel that he is, he didn't, of course, and I shook my head with an older woman who grinned back at me.

Mmmmm... we tried some local sweets that were utterly delicious and from the famous best sweet stand in Mysore. I can't remember the name, but some maise flour with sweet syrup. And mangos! they are in season now and very cheap from the markets. Had some icecream from a local parlour that was sooo sweet and not creamy and just tasted like lollies and all the flavours basically the same, so I have to say New Zealand does it better!

Today we are hopefully going to see the Raj Palace (I got a glimpse from the bus on our way into town), and then get a bus to Bangalore. From there we have a long long train ride to Pune which leaves Bangalore at about 8pm and arrives in Pune the following day at about 4pm. It is going to be a long ride! We have apparently got a bed, though, so we will see how much space and sleep we get. Apparently it is not uncommon for them to overbook and so you end up with 5 other people crammed on your bed. (When we went to book online there was a waiting list of over 50, but at the train station they gave us a bed straight away (?) Who knows?!

That;s all for now. Later when I get more time I will add some pictures and also tell you about our wicked time in Kudaikanal up in the cool mountains with amazing views and this farms we stayed on for one night on the edge of a cliff.

Kisses
Miriam

On the road again...

Just a quick reflection....

We were in Kodaikanal a few days ago. It's a beautiful mountain town which reminded me of the northen regions of India, Daramsala and such. We were there for the blink of an eye, just enough time to soak in the mountain vista, take out the polar fleece (first time in India!) snuggle for one night under a duvet and then we were off again...

Not our most preferred way to travel but after hearing from Stefanie at Sadhana about this place we just had to see it.

We said goodbye to our friends from Sadhana; Holly, Charles, Kate and Patrick who had arrived at Kodai with us the night before and took a taxi to the small mountain village of Prakasupurum. From there we walked along a rough track traversing along a lush green mountainside.


This place was clean, fresh and expanded in every direction in the way that only mountains could....aaaaaahhh :)

(A friendly cow grazing the grass underneath the gum trees on our way to Karuna farm)

Another half hour of walking brought us to the top of a steep valley; here was Karuna farm where we would stay for a night. Situated on a steep valley overlooking the Tamil Nadu plains, Karuna farm was set up in the late sixties by Nevil, an indian guy who came to Kodaikanal to settle in the quiet of the mountains and set up his own community. From what we saw (which wasn't much since we had just one night there) and heard there are about 14 farm plots with individuals or families living on them. We as guests had our own little hut and we felt quite isolated from any community but it was nice just to chill out in the quiet of the mountain.

Nevil had begun all those years back by replanting trees on this steep terrain and by now it is well established with big trees and small plots of banana tress as well as vegetable garden terraces.
(Miriam outside our cute little hut with it's own outdoor kitchen and bathroom.)

Walking around the farm, we let the small wooden signs lead us around. One of them was the "rock" and this place proved to be my most favorite of all.
Following a narrow track along a stream and then out over open terraces we came to a giant rock outcrop at the lowest reaches of the farm. Here the terrain dropped almost vertical all around us and provided a magnificent view of the entire valley. We sat here for a long time, simply taking in the scenery...



- Jo

Moments in Sadhana

here are some random photos from our life in Sadhana.....above; the main hut where we had all our meals and meetings, aswell as workshops etc.

One afternoon during lunch...

Miriam being her yummy self ;)

The view from the water tower...

Miriam and her nemesis; the climb to the water tower. She overcame this challenge on our last day when she climbed all the way to the top and we gathered with four friends on a small concrete platform to soak in the view.

Sadhana Forest with pictures!!

Ahhhh.... we relax having a chai from the local 'chai guy' ten minutes by scooter from Sadhanna forest. As well as chai, we buy naughty things like biscuites and cola, that we aren't allowed to eat at the community. This is Joseph from France and Johannes.

Jack relaxing in the main hut. This is where we all eat together, decide on jobs, give announcements and have meetings or dance parties together even! Jack is one of the many who have arrived since we have been here. There seems to be a daily influx of keen volunteers who have heard about this place through a friend, passing traveller or planned thier trip from back home...

Discussions in the kitchen after cooking duties are all done.

This is the mud pool where we cool off after a hot day of working. It looks muddy (and is) but is clean enough and the mud feels good on the skin and in the hair. In fact some use this as their daily shower. (I think it's filled up quite a bit more since I took this photo a week and a half ago. We had a few days of rain last week in short durations that pelted down)

Sadhana forest long-stay volunteers get their own huts to provide more privacy, The main dorm is like this only much larger. People sleep on ground level and above, too.