2nd April - Ajanta Caves

Up around 8 and packed up. Had a very small breakfast at the restaurant attached to the hotel and a coffee and read some of my book. I was a bit tired this morning as I could not put the book down last night... It is the "Girl with the Dragon Tatoo" and is really gripping. I checked out but left my bags and biked the 5km (in "normal clothes") to Ajanta Caves to get there about 10. The last 4km of the ride where great as there is no traffic allowed. There is a car-park and a shuttle bus which takes most people to the Caves but they allowed me through on my bike. It is great that the site has such an entrance. The area does not have any stalls or rubbish and is really remote and forested and gives the visitor the idea of the Caves being away from anything.

Where the bus stops there is a restaurant and toilets etc. I locked my bike up at the cloakroom and they charged me 40RS! Arrggg. At least I knew it would be safe there. There is then a climb up some steps to get to the caves. I did not have a problem walking up without stopping but there were several Indians which were really struggling. Made me giggle a little to see that you could hire a chair ride around the caves for 600RS. I was almost tempted to do it just for the fun of being carried around on a chair :-)

The caves really are awesome and well worth a visit. I am very glad that I changed my itinerary to include them. The caves at Ajanta are arranged in a horseshoe shape in the cliffs.






Other people are much better at explaining than I am. This is what Wikipedia has to say:

The Ajanta Caves (Ajiṇṭhā leni; Marathi), Maharashtra, India are 31 rock-cut cave monuments which date from the 2nd century BCE. The caves include paintings and sculptures considered to be masterpieces of both Buddhist religious art (which depict the Jataka tales) as well as frescos which are reminiscent of the Sigiriya paintings in Sri Lanka. The caves were built in two phases starting around 200 BCE, with the second group of caves built around 600 CE.

Since 1983, the Ajanta Caves have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The caves are located in the Indian state of Maharashtra, near Jalgaon, just outside the village of Ajinṭhā.

According to Spink, the Ajanta Caves appear to have been abandoned shortly after the fall of Harishena circa 480 CE. Since then, these temples have been abandoned and gradually forgotten. During the intervening centuries, the jungle grew back and the caves were hidden, unvisited and undisturbed.

On 28 April 1819, a British officer for the Madras Presidency, John Smith, while hunting tiger, accidentally discovered the entrance to one of the cave temples (Cave No. 9) deep within the tangled undergrowth. Exploring that first cave, long since a home to nothing more than birds and bats and a lair for other, larger, animals, Captain Smith wrote his name in pencil on one of the walls. Still faintly visible, it records his name and the date, April 1819.

Shortly after this discovery, the Ajanta Caves became renowned for their exotic setting, impressive architecture, historic artwork, and long-forgotten history.

I like the story that when the caves were discovered by Europeans there were a few local lads sleeping in the caves. They knew about the caves but did not tell anyone (including other villagers in the area) and used the caves as their secret den.

Each cave has a Buddha in the middle of the cave. I took ages trying to get good photos in bad light.

I would love to go back to the caves in the rainy season as there are 7 huge waterfalls that cascade between the caves and apparently the views are amazing. The land changes to a lush green from the current yellow-brown.

It was lovely as the 2 sets of people that I met at Ellora were also visiting Ajanta today. Both sets had planned on visiting yesterday but changed their minds and ended up seeing the caves today. I learnt a few more photography tips from the Danish Tour Guide and had a lovely natter with the Spanish guys. They spend a large proportion of the year in India and have traveled extensively. One of them warned me about the fact that I will be traveling in Mongolia in the wet season and said that certain parts may not be passible by bike. I will have to check this out (Lu - I have look at this a bit since this conversation and from the stuff on the net is seem to say that this is actually a good time to visit as it is also when the festival is - maybe more investigation needed though).

The Danish guy warned me that the board between Nepal and Tibet may well be closed at the moment and said that I should check it out! I don't think I will really be able to plan this next leg until I get to Kathmandu. It will depend on whether I have sold my house and I have any money and also the political situation at the time. I will just have to see. It is looking likely that I will meet Johnnie and Miranda in Kathmandu in any case. Should be fun :-)

I left the caves at about 3 with plenty of time to get back and get to Jalgaon before dark but I then decided to climb up to the view point which looks down on all of the caves from the middle of the horse shoe. The views were fantastic and I then got chatting to a local Indian guide who told me that there was a climb up to a much higher view point and then a walk all the way round the top of the caves and back to where I had left my bike. I did not take much persuading to go on the alternative tour via the water pools and the climb to the mountain at the back. I thoroughly enjoyed my self and my Indian guide was a lovely chap with very good English but of course it meant that I was then doing my usual kicking the arse out of the day and trying to fit in too much and I was then running late to get to Jalgaon.

By the time I had got changed and put all of my bags on my bike it was 4.30. I checked the GPS and I had just under 60km to do to get to Jalgaon - which I wanted to do before dark. I headed off on a mission and raced along. Most of the journey was flat - which I was very glad of. I only stopped once to get some water and juice. It was at a stall in a tiny village. I was there for about 5-10 mins. By the time I left the shop I had a crowd of about 30-40 Indian men gathered round to see this strange site. They were not threatening in anyway - only interested. The English speaking men asked me questions and wanted to shake my hand and wish me will on my journey when I said I was cycling from NZ to the UK. Being comfortable in crowds of people is something I am just getting used to. They are normally just friendly and interested.

I checked out a couple of places near to the railway station and they were all 600RS for a not so great room. I then found the Plaza Hotel! What an awesome place. Best value 300RS ever....
Apparently the place is in the Lonely Planet or some other guide book and it is full of tourists but it is freshly painted, has western toilets, showers and is immaculately clean. The hotel owner is very friendly and helpful and speaks very good English. Once I had checked in went for a wander round town. It felt pretty safe to be out at night on my own in this city. There were loads of other women milling around - which is always a good sign that it is safe (apparently in Deli very few women venture out after dark). It has been a while since I have had some time in a town and I wanted to find a supermarket to get some western stuff (like dental floss, cereal, sun screen etc) but I fail to find anywhere. I did however find a market and bought some fresh fruit and veg. I have been missing salads as the Indians all cook vegetables into a pulp. I really wanted some raw stuff. I bought a lentil dish and some rice from a stall and headed back to my room for about 9.30 to watch the end of the cricket game. I did not much feel like going and watching the game with loads of drunk Indian men on my own - probably not safe!

India won! Awesome! The fireworks started about 15 mins before the end of the game when it became clear that India would win. It was a very good game - I NEVER thought I would say that about Cricket but I have got into the spirit of it a bit more in India as the game is so popular.

Once the game had finished the noise outside was incredible - so many fireworks and people cheering and beeping their horns. I did not manage to get to sleep for a while (particularly as I mistakenly picked up my book again).