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 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
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