In India

I'll continue composing the Ellora and Ajanta stuff, it's taking me a while to edit some of the photos...

Back in the present , I have a long weekend coming up, so I thought I'd swing by Mumbai again.
Mumbai is the big city, and kind of gets me over missing New York.
So, I pick up a copy of TimeOut-Mumbai to get a feel for where some stuff is.

What's on the cover?

"New York-London summer getaways!"

Inside:
5 pages of restaurant reviews in Manhattan.

Led off by a full page picture of a dude sitting out on the f!@#!@# Brooklyn Promenade....

Why Time Out editors? Why do you mock me?

Ellora
Not done yet, about an hour later we headed to Ellora. This is why you should travel kids. This is totally amazing.It's a set of 30 some odd caves carved by Bhuddists, Hindus and Jains, and it's about 1000 years old.

Cave 16 - Kaliash.
Kailasha is lord Shiva's mountain in heavean. This monument to it is unreal. The whole thing is carved into a hillside, actually the hillside is whittled down into a free standing temple. and several side sturctures.

I don't have a good shot of the whole thing, this is it from the front, it's immense.

You go through that entrance ( which as you can see is flanked by 15 foot murals).

As you enter there are these tremendous pillars, flanked by 20 foot high stone elephants.

I didn't get a picture of those elephants here are the pillars:
There is a large building in the middle, with a shrine. It's totally freestanding, about 3 stories tall.

It is supported by an army of elephants

Those elephant statues, they're abou the size of...oh..... elephants.

More on the main building in a bit. Because around it are two floors of side caves, each filled with statues and wall reliefs.

Here's the first level that surrounds the main building. See those pillas, yeah there's somehthing like another 15 foot wall relief behind each one, anywhere else and that would be pretty extrodinary, here it's does'nt even rank. ( I got the people in there for scale)

And It does'nt rank because here is what the elephant's are holding up. the tremendous central shrine.

This is lord Shiva's mountain.

The imesity of it s overwhelming. Every nook is crammed with more murals of gods and heros in battle with demons. Every foot on the way up is covered with more carvings.Most of them are stories of Shiva or Vishnu.

This is one cave of 30! I still have more pics of this one... simply amazing stuff. More soon.

In Auragabad, Daulatabad is a fort built on a hill,
inside a hill built in the fort build above a fort on a hill in the other fort...

Dear lord, apparantly someone wanted to protect something really badly.
The story goes that whoever built it eventually lost it in a siege, because the stores salt instead of food in their granereis (simply brilliant) . The tour guides seemed to know less english here, we hired one guy later on...I'll get to that.

Hawkers favorite line:
"Not about seeing, about hearing,you will need a guide to understnd the psychological impact of the fort"
No you don't , you get in and immediatly enter a pavillionwith 10 gold cannons aimed at you, this is followed by numerous stairways, the peak is in view, but so far up the hill

Every turn is lined with towers and moats.It took us an hour toget up there, in the blazing Maharastra heat.

I guide!

Unforgetable experience.....At one point on your trek to the summit there is a darkened tunnel that goes to the top. You have the alternative of this, or another 1/2 mile road that goes around the edge ( and looks very, very narrow). Also, It's about 20 degrees cooler in the tunnel, unfortunatley it's pitch black.

Quite a dilemma what are you to do? Don't worry you're in India, there's bound to be guy selling flashlights around here somewhere.

Even Better.

We paid this guy (who eventually won us over with "sir this is my dinner") to take us through, he had a can of kerosene in his hand, and guided us through with the torch.

He expalained where soldiers would hide, little 12 inch crawlways where enemy troops would try to crawl thorough and be decpitated. And how boiling water or oil would be poured from various points in the cieling.

We finally got to the top, and gazed out at the dry as dirt Mahrastra countryside. The overwhelming color of yellow.

Aurangabad is in central Maharastra. Aurangabad makes Pune look cosmopolitan.

How ghetto is Aurangabad?

Marlboro hasn't quite gotten here yet. I had a rough time finding a full pack of cigarettes at the local paan stand. Lots of looseys. And wierd brands, these tiny little things callrd '4-square' and 'navy cut'.

How ghetto is Aurangabad?

Arrived at the Maharastra State Tourism Beurau ( http://www.maharashtratourism.gov.in/)Being a tourism center

You'd think someone here might:

• Speak english well enough to understand tourists.
• Have information on the local forts in English.
• Try to get that urine smell out of the lobby.
  

Aparently the target is toursits from within India. They have cheap hotel rooms...like $15 a night. It's exactly what you'd expect for that much.

How ghetto is Aurangabad?

The main attraction in Auragabad is the Bibika-Maqbara or "ghetto-Taj". This was at night and my flash was dying.

Actually the tour books call it the mini-Taj. Years after Shah Jahn built the real Taj Mahal out of the finest marble, his grandson Azam Shah (son of Aurangazeb, for whom the city is named...more on him later he's downright evil) .....But he didn't want to spend so much.

This was for his mother. There are tour guides who will show you all the wonderous, clever corner-cutting of the mini-Taj.

"See....only looks like marble....just wood and plaster"

Truly a monument to one man's cheapness.