After a night bus from Nagpur, first sleeper bus, actually got a bed.... which had it's own TV, I managed to get a few hours sleep and made it to Aurangabad.... checked into the hotel... quick shower/blogging/skypeing and I was off to book a tour!! A nice new Tata, I was the first client... we headed off to Ellora... visiting a fort along the way, (see the pictures), at this stage, I hadn't had anything to eat since the previous day.. and forgot to take a bottle of water with me!, after the fort in Hyderabad, had a nice drinks store at the top... not so with this one!!.... this fort had some interesting defences, the hill it'self, was honeycombed with passages.... pitch black.... and filled with BATS! Little guys.... not sure if they were vampire or not! My little torch.... honestly dosen't cut it!
Anyway... I made it to the top... checked out a couple of huge cannons at the top.... with amazing views around the valley.... (note.... it was Damn hot! And I didn't have anything to drink...... ugh...)... anyway... made my way down.... Easter going down than up... altho the dark passages were a little. Hard to navigate with my tiny torch... finally found a store outside... brought a couple of bottles of water!,,,
Next was another Hindu temple, no sure what the name was... no photos for this one...kids were a bit of a pain... only English they knew was "money please" temple was similar, entered... and noticed all they guys taking there shirts off... ok... I exposed myself... taking off my shirt and entered... milk/flowers and other offerings were put over the shrine... after a quick sit down.... I was off... being harassed by doo many kids.... "money please" 'money please'
Next was Ellora... got the normal foreigner tax, 250 rupees... $5nzd entered.... the main cave didn't look too much form the distance.... until you entered... you need to remember this was carved out of one single peace of ROCK!.... I believe there was 32 after visiting, and walking around up top... (not many people seemed to do that.... and it's even more impressive from the top... here in India there are no safely rails... or rules.... I continued on my walk.... from the top... without water... visiting other caves on the way.... I got to around cave 27 or so... before the path was blocked... barbed wire... I was really in need of water... so walked back to the entrance... and looked at some more caves... down a bit... some where unreal... how accurate they had been carved.... heavy Buddhist
Influence, caves were cool... and. Some had an amazing acoustic values....
Also note.. hopefully I will be able to find a picture...I believe these temples were originally painted... they must have been amazing and awe inspiration in there prime...
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