...and equally amazing Ellora caves!

After the serenity of Ajanta it was shocking to see the huge crowds at Ellora caves. Apparently Ellora caves is much more accessible and closer for most tourists. Even some of our India colleagues said that they usually make it to Ellora but not Ajanta because it was just too far.
My first reaction when entering the main cave was that there are too many damn people here. But eventually they are spread out and you do find peaceful areas as you can see in some of the pictures. In fact, when you walk away from the main cave there are significantly less people. There were large groups of children on school field trips. They were so cute in their school uniforms and some groups were wearing traditional sarees. I was walking along with a group of kids and they were so fascinated by us foreigners. I said hi to one young boy and he said hi back and giggled endlessly with his friends. We get stared at a lot here but I have gotten used to it.

The caves here are more spread out and for some you have to drive. As Ajanta is known for the cave paintings, Ellora is known for the sculptures. Again, these caves were not caves at all. They were literally scooped out of the mountainside from the top to bottom. I couldn’t believe the intricacies of there stone carvings and sculptures. We did not see all of the caves and by this time it was past 3pm. Since it was going to be 5+ hours drive home I wanted to get on the road. Hnkl does have a rule about driving at night in India for intercity travel, for safety reasons. Besides, as impressive as it had been, I was caved out. As the reviews have said, you do not do these two places justice to see it in one day. It should be minimum of two days but we did not really have a choice so I was glad to have the opportunity to see it in the first place. Who knows, India has really grown on me so I might be back with Gary one day.

I couldn’t believe it but my frickin camera ran out of battery! The night before I saw that the battery was 3 quarter full so I didn’t think it would be a problem for today. I was used to my SLR lasting the whole 3 week trip without recharging once! I guess the difference is that I don’t use the lcd screen which could be a battery drainer. Enough said, last time I’m leaving my good camera home.

We even had our own shoe guy!

Saturday, Feb 27

OK, this was funny enough to have its own page! At Ajanta you have to take off your shoes before entering the temples. For westerners who generally have higher quality shoes, and therefore prone to theft, you can hire someone to watch your shoes. I’m not kidding! When we hired the guide at the entrance he offered the services of a person to watch our shoes for us for 150 rupees for the 2 of us which was less than 4 dollars. You can see in the picture that its this sweet old man who watches over our shoes and carries it for us as we walk from cave to cave. This place is very clean so it was not a big deal to walk in our socks. In fact there are signs forbidding littering and spitting. If the next cave is a little far he gives us our shoes to put on. That’s the craziest and funniest thing I’ve ever done but hey, 2 bucks is worth ensuring that I will have shoes to walk in for the rest of the day!

Amazing Ajanta caves....

Saturday, Feb 26

I learned the hard way that when trying to save weight and space in your luggage, your good camera should not be on the list! Talk about bonehead move! When packing for this trip I figured that there would not be any major tourist attractions that would require my good SLR. Naturally I brought it to Delhi last month because the Taj Mahal calls for it. So instead I brought my small Sony digital. First of all, I missed out on so many on the road pictures because of the reaction time of the sony digital. You waste precious seconds turning on the camera and then taking the pictures. With my SLR I could flip it on and take a picture within a second. I got so mad each time I tried to take a picture and missed the opportunity. Aside from this problem the massive panorama of the caves was harder to capture with the pocket camera. Oh well, lesson learned. I will NEVER go on an audit without my SLR!
The caves of Ajanta aren’t really caves at all. They are literally scooped out of the mountain side with a chisel and hammer by Budhist monks. That’s why it took 800 years to build this. No, it’s not a typo, it took them 800 years! It’s so hard to fathom when you hear it but the first cave was built around 200 BC and it was abandoned by the monks around 600 AD leaving the last few caves unfinished. It was lost for 1,000 years as it was covered by overgrown forest. It was discovered in 1819 by a british hunting party. They were tracking a tiger when they noticed the animal slipping into one of the caves. To get to it you have to take a bus for the 4km to the main gate. Then you have to climb up some steep steps to the entrance. It was worth it to pay 700 rupees for a guide who showed us the amazing caves and explain the stories behind them. Each of these caves are essentially temples consisting of one big room in the middle and surrounded by about 8-10 small concrete cells. 2 monks occupy one cell. There is also one separate space where there is a large statue of Budha. Inside the temples there are various drawings depicting the life of Budha. The colors are not plant based, then come from the various minerals of the mountain itself. As a result the colors have been preserved for over 2000 years. It’s so amazing to see how vibrant the colors are. There are about 29 of these cave some of which are as big as a 1500 square ft home. There are also intricate carvings outside of the temples. The Taj Mahal was beautiful and visually stunning but Ajanta caves is a more amazing feat and to me more impressive. I was telling Gary that the Cliffside native American homes that we have in the southwest pales by comparison. We spent 3 hours at Ajanta but could have easily spent 6. The area surrounding the caves is so pretty. What the camera cannot capture is the spirituality of the place. It's so peaceful to walk around the caves, inside the temples and by the stream that runs through the valley below. Again, my damn SLR which I left at home to save 2 lbs would have done it more justice!

The peddlers here are some of the most aggressive I've seen. As soon as our driver parked the car there were about 5 or 6 shopkeepers waiting for us to get out of the car. Ofcourse I didn't know they were shopkeepers until later. Basically they follow us and act very helpful, telling us where to take the bus. To get to the bus that takes you to the main entrance you have to go through a long row of shops on either side. Anyway the scam is that one shopkeeper will hone in on a tourist and walk with them the whole way to the bus stop. They give you a stone as a "gift" claiming they don't want anything in return, yeah right. Then as we pass their shop they point to it and the number. So my guy said to me there's my shop, #67 pls remember and stop by on your way back. I already started telling him that I am not interested in buying anything and he kept saying you don't have to buy, just look. Yeah right, do I have "stupid" written on my forehead? So, already I was already dreading our return to the car and going through the row of hell! These people do not know how to take no for an answer. So, I thought to ask Raf when we were finishing the tour if he intended to shop afterwards and he said no. So I told him that it's important that we walk straight through the rows of shops and do NOT give any eye contact and do NOT say anything to them. He said ok. Well, as soon as we got off the bus on our way back Raf talks to them and that got them riled up. My shopkeeper was waiting for me ofcourse and insisted that I visit his shop and I said no and kept walking. Then I realized Raf had agreed to go into his shopkeeper's shop and started to look. Dammit! That made me stuck and I had to wait for him. Meanwhile my shopkeeper is in my face begging me to come look into his shop even though all I am saying to him is no, I don't want to. You can feel the rising desperation in him to get me to his shop and I was adamantly refusing. Eventually he went over and brought some of his stuff to me to look. Still I told him no, I did not want anything! I felt like a total bitch and that made me even madder. It was so stressful and I wanted to kill Raf who was taking his sweet old time negotiating with his shopkeeper. He strayed from our plans!! He was buying some stupid elephant figurines that you can get anywhere but he believed them when the told him that the figurines came only from their special place. It's probably imported from China!! I dread to think what this would do to Gary who finds it very hard to say no to people and always wants to be nice. They would eat him alive, ha ha

Traffic jam caused by sugar cane carts-only in india!

Friday, Feb 25

When making plans our colleagues were so great with helping. They really wanted us to see Ajanta caves but it’s over 350km and requires staying the night in nearby Aurangabad. At first I was reluctant to be away for 2 days but Rahul told me that Taj Mahal is the number 1 sight to see when you come to India and these Ajanta caves is number 2. Put that way I couldn’t let the chance go by. Who knows if I would ever be back this way again. They booked a driver and hotel for us and we left for Aurangabad directly from the plant Friday afternoon.

It took 5 hours to reach Aurangabad but the scenery was amazing. The first 40km from jejuri was on a small rural road. First of all, this area of India is very fertile. The main crop that I see is sugar cane but there are also lots of tropical fruits such as mango and papaya. Along the road there were so many carts filled 6 feet high of sugar cane and pulled by oxen. At one point there was a traffic jam because the road was filled with cart of sugar canes. There were stands about every 50 yards or so, squeezing fresh sugar cane juice, I was so bummed we couldn’t get some. We follow a strict rule to not eat anything from roadside stands. Our driver told us that they were all going to a sugar processing plant which we eventually passed. I also trucks carrying processed sugar canes apparently they use this for fuel for fire. Since most home do not have plumbing people portage water from a community well and carry this in a 5 gallon aluminum jug on their forehead! Once in awhile I’ll see a women carry what looks like an impossible load on her forehead. One was carrying a big wash bin filled with pots and pans and dishes. Another had a big bunch of wheat on her head. All women here wear beautiful colorful sarees. I remember how Gary loved watching the scenery of Vietnam from inside the bus and thought he would have enjoyed this. Once in awhile we have to stop for big herds of sheep crossing or goat crossing or oxen crossing, you just never know! Got to our hotel in Aurangabad by 9pm with just enough time for dinner and then bed. We are on the road again tomorrow morning at 7! Ajanta caves is 100km from the hotel so we need an early start in order to fit both Ajanta and Ellora caves and make it back to Pune at a reasonable hour.

The road to our plant in Jejuri

Monday Feb 21
I love our drive to work. It’s long and rather exhausting because the road is pretty rough. But the scenery is so fascinating to me. The area is mountainous and rural and not nearly dirty and chaotic as delhi. It takes us an hour and 15 minutes to work and over an hour and a half home because of traffic. In order to start our interviews at 9 we have to leave the hotel by 7:30 in the morning. At least I can use the time to prepare for the interviews that day.

I am busier this time since I am the lead auditor and am also training Raf on supply chain topics. We had a good opening meeting on Monday. It was a packed room of at least 40+ people with only 3 females including me! I’m used to this and don’t let it intimidate me. The people are super nice and I am able to understand all of them, thank goodness! On our first day at the plant they presented us with a beautiful flower bouquet, now that's a first!

On Friday we were invited to join the production crew of 15 for a “sunrise meeting”. They spend about 5 minutes taking about the day’s schedule and then join hands as each of the workers give thanks and make a pledge for a productive day. Raf and I were included in the circle and held hands with everyone. Your left hand is turned upward as to receive and your right hand is turned downward as to give or pass along. Their pledges were in the local Marathi language but a worker would say something and making a pledge and then she would chant something and the others would repeat it. In the end they all say “jai hkl, jai jejuri” which means “go hkl, go jejuri”. How cool is that?! We should do this everywhere!.Maybe it will motivate some people.

Lunch is a fantastic affaire. There is a canteen here where they hire an outside company to cook the meals. It’s a sitdown meal where they serve you your meal. You typically get 3 dishes served in small bowls along with chapatti which is their local bread. It’s made of wheat and looks like a tortilla but freashly made and tastes way better. You tear off small pieces to use to scoop up the food..Raf and I use our hand to eat just like the local. The only thing is that I haven’t gotten the hang of using my forefinger to anchor the chapatti and the rest of the fingers to tear off a piece. You do not use your left hand! Instead I have to use a fork with my left hand to anchor the bread and tear off a piece with my right hand. We are in the state of Manarashtra and the food is different from what I ate in Delhi. Again most of the dishes are not any I have had in the states. The food is fresh and locally grown. Our lunches are vegetarian since most of the people here are vegetarians. I found that I did not miss eating meat. Raf likes it that there is always a sweet desert that is served along with the meal, versus after your meal. Our desert is a milk based sweet that a different color and flavor each day. I can’t describe it but it sure tastes good. Towards the end of the meal the server would ladle some rice to our plate and we get a small bowl of thin curry, almost like a soup. You pour this on your rice to eat. After your meal they put a small bowl of water with lemon so that you can rinse your fingers.. I look forward to our lunch everyday because it has been different everyday! It seems that there is always a colleague fasting and we learned that with their religion a person can choose to fast one day a week or a month. I will see someone at our table eating just a scoop of barley rice and a banana. I couldn’t believe it when they told me that there are over 300 million gods in India. They even choose a day in the year when they give thanks to the production machine, although I don’t think it’s considered a god! No kidding, one day a year food is laid in front of the production line and they give prayers of thanks. That’s crazy!

Exploring the hood on our first day

Sunday Feb 20

I was happy that this time around I was able to get a decent amount of sleep and got up at 5am. Maybe it won’t take me a week to get used to the hours. Rafael arrived at the hotel around noon and we decided to venture to the Central Mall which was a little further than where I went yesterday. It wasn’t so scary crossing the street this time because I had someone else with me. We had a heck of a time finding a restaurant and found out later that we were just going the wrong way. Had we turned left when leaving the hotel there would have been plenty! We walked around the perimeter of Korageon Park which was a very pretty large residential area lined with large rubber trees and bamboo. We had the world famous Osho meditation center and saw everyone wearing long red tunics which were the uniform of people staying at the meditation center. There were quite a few westerners. Finally found a nice peaceful vegetarian Italian restaurant nearby.

Late afternoon we went up to the gym with the intention of using the rooftop pool afterwards. I remembered the peaceful atmosphere of the pool when no one was in it the day before. Instead I saw a mob scene of young people and found out that on Sunday there is a brunch of unlimited food and alcohol all day on the rooftop pool area with DJ music. There were drunken kids everywhere smoking and drinking. Not my idea of a relaxing time! We did go back up that night to the rooftop restaurant to enjoy a nice meal. Damn but Raf can eat! I think he’s barely 30 and is very enthusiastic about Indian food.

And I'm back in India again!

Saturday Feb 19

This time my audit takes me to the southwest of India, a short distance from Mumbai. Pune is known as a university town and a little more prosperous. I didn't know exactly what to expect with Pune but from what I've read it will not be nearly as crowded as Delhi, thank goodness! I think I'm still a little traumatized!

It's a long flight this time. I had connections in Denver and in Frankfurt. The Pune airport was way smaller than Delhi. Our flight got in at 3:30 in the morning (1hour early) so the airport was almost deserted. Within half an hour I got my luggage and went through passport & customs.

I think my biggest fear coming here was the heat and humidity. It's 20 degrees warmer here than Delhi in the north. The heat is supposed to be unbearable in the summer. When I checked the weather I saw that it was already up to 90 degrees here. It actually felt nice when I got here so that was a big relief. I don't do humid very well and sweat like a pig.

It's only about 5km to our hotel and I immediately saw the difference. The buildings look old and run down but hardly any trash! There were a lot of big trees throughout. The scenery reminded me of Vietname. There was hardly anyone out so I was optimistic that the traffic won't be crazy like Delhi. Once again, heavy security to get into our hotel. At the gate the guard checks under the hood and in the trunk of our car, even though it was a car from the hotel! Then my bags and purse had to go through xray machine and I had to walk t hrough a scanner, exactly like the airport. My room was nice. Above I posted a picture of the red sunrise outside my hotel window, inside my room and yes that's a bathtub sitting out in the open so you can bathe and watch TV at the same time. Last picture was from inside the little tuk tuk. Which brings me to what I did today. First you have to know that I have this stupid fear of crossing a busy street. At home I hold on to Gary sleeve when we cross the street. In India Laszlo put up with the same.

On the plane from Frankfurt I sat next to an Indian lady who advised me that the best way to battle jet lag is to not sleep when I get to the hotel and to keep myself busy by going shopping. At breakfast I asked the concierge if there was a mall nearby and if it was safe to walk there. He assured me there are sidewalks and it's safe to walk around here. But when he gave me the simple directions all I heard was " you have to turn left and cross the street". I had misgivings already. I remembered Delhi. Even with a traffic light it was still too crazy to cross mainly because people don't follow any traffic rules here. When I walked outside the hotel I immediately saw that it was WAY busier than it was 4 in the morning! But as luck would have it, I saw a caucasian girl walking ahead of me and hurried to stay close behind her. Maybe she's going my way. Where else would a foreigner be going besides the mall?! My biggest fear was crossing the damn street. I was supposed to turn left and cross the street and was watching where the girl was going. I was distracted for a few seconds but it was enough for her to pull ahead and suddenly merged into the traffic to cross the street. I hesitated enough to be left behind. I was by myself and was too freaked to cross the street! Mopeds, cars and the tuk tuks were everywhere I was convinced I would get hit. I didn't want to look stupid standing there paralyzed with fear so I casually turn right so I didn't have to cross the street. I was only able to go one block on safe sideway before I was confronted by a busier street. Shit! I wanted to just give up and return to the hotel but would have been embarassed to return 5 minutes after I left! I then saw a waiting tuk tuk and got into it. I knew I was going a very short distance but who cares. THe guy drove me literally 500 yards but he got me across the street! He didn't care because I gave him 100 rupees out of guilt. The mall was litterally across the street even though I didn't see it before. Again, had to go through "airport security" to get into the mall. It's small but had enough shops for me to spend money. It was a much more fruitful shopping expedition than in Delhi. I bought some clothes for work and then found a nice traditional store where I bought a modern version of the saree and a punjabi. Both were beautiful and I have to think of occasions to wear them. The less fancy punjabi was nice enough to wear for a night at the theatre. I need to find a shop to buy a punjabi for Gary but haven't found it so far. After the mall I found a tiny little store next door to stock up on drinks and snacks. While inside I was eying the street wondering what to do. I could walk back to the mall entrance and see if there was a tuk tuk but the hotel was so close it would be embarassing. When I walked outside I saw there was a young guy waiting to cross the street. In a moment of genius I rushed up to casually stand next to him and followed him as he crossed the street. I made sure to stand on the right side of him so that if a vehicle hits us it would get him first! Can't wait for Rafael to get here tomorrow. I will be feel better with someone else to explore the neighborhood.

The hotel has some really nice facilities. They have a fantastic rooftop pool and bar. I did a workout at the gym and then had a great massage. I had a moment of fear when my masseuse hopped on the table on her haunches so she could apply more pressure on my back. I would have been out of there in a second if she started to walk on me! Actually she was so good I kept nodding off. I didn't want to fall asleep and miss the enjoyment of a great massage. For all I know she could be sipping a cup of tea while I snore away! Just kidding, she was really good. Afterwards they steered me into the steam room and shower and into a relaxation room with a cup of tea. Hopefully all this will help me sleep at a regular hour tonight!