I was so hyped up to see the Ajanta caves, after reading so much about them, it was 110km out of aurangabad, roads, well, full of pot holes... traffic jams, with Oxen and carts holding up the traffic, (probably the most I've seen so far in India)... and they were going pretty fast too....
Finally arrived at the Caves, I had to run the gauntlet of stores, (was a bit of a maze to get to the bus to the Caves)... one man showed me where to go, gave me a Crystal for free... and for me to visit him in store "56", talked about the cricket... anyway finally got on the bus, (Non AC)....it was only a short journey... cost like 20 cents... nice rust holes in the floors...
Arrived... brought some cave tickets.... "standard foreigner price 250 rupee" local is 10 rupee, talked to a Swede, he said it was the same in Iran and Pakistan, got to the Caves... knowing the first couple were fake... it was pretty crowded, as you needed to take you shoes off for each cave.. after seeing the awe-inspiring ellora caves... Ajanta was a bit of a fizzer.... I would recommend Ajanta before Ellora... but you need to remember Ajanta is closed Mondays, and Ellora is closed Tuesdays.... Ajanta is a lot more commercial... AC in caves... and huge crowds... Ajanta caves are a little more condensed compared to Ellora, but has still has glimpses of what the original artwork would have been like in it's prime... all and all I was a little underwhelmed, the final cave with the sleeping Buddha, probably was the most impressive... carvings, but is very controlled compared to Ellora.. where you have the freedom of being alone in the cave to suck up the "moment" without the distraction, of tourists coming in...there droves...
Next was a walk up top, to get an overview of the caves... I did notice as I went up... a guy.. "local" started to go up too... not many people seemed to go Up top... a lot of stairs... plus the be honest, part of the path wasn't really "safe"..... got to the top... thinking... what awaits me... will I be robbed?... found a guard and a few locals up there...told my photos... and started back down...noticing someone was following... so I picked up the pace.... (down hill plus I had my shoes on)... I continued on.... across the bridge... still being followed... even to the bus... I was followed.. thinking WTF is going on... got on the bus... he got on....
Got off the bus... the mad rush with people getting off... the guy headed off... next the guy from store "56" was there to. Greet me...visited his store, the guy stopped following... I had a look at his items... thinking maybe a few small items... next a girl from Korea, who was on the same bus, was in the store too! Chatted to her... while the sales pitch was going on... she had been in India for 5 months... i then found the guy that had been following me was his brother, kinda creapy, kinda pissed me off to.
In the finished I selected 4 small items... few elephant's and a statues of Shiva, out came the price for each item... he wanted about $180NZD for the items...I was aaah nope.. picked up my bag and started to leave... he then followed me to the car... lowering the price, and complaining... at this time, I had switched off... the price got down the $20, probably still high... got in the car.... had them compaining/pleading at the window.... talked to my driver.... who said.... they are a "cheat" in his limited English...
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