...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.