We leave Mumbai to go backpacking in Aurangabad, the closest city to the Ellora caves. "And what is that ?!" you will be wondering ...
... because they are a group of caves, a world heritage site, which for more than five centuries Buddhist, Hindu and Jain monks and devotees chiselled the stone carving statues, temples, chapels and altars. The set, overall, is of incredible beauty. We were surprised that he was not so famous!
Ellora has a total of 34 caves: 12 Buddhists, 17 Hinduists and 5 Jains. We begin the visit by buddhist caves, that apart from some without much interest, they left us flipped: how can man have created something so beautiful and visionary? Of the stone !? And the most impressive: all in a single mega-stone, little by little from top to bottom ...
The one we liked the most was the cave nº 10 with a huge seated Buddha and the ceiling full of arches carved in the stone.
We begin to walk through the hinduist cavesYes, but before continuing, we went to eat... well the stomach was getting hysterical! So marching a malai kofta and a jeera aloo for both backpacks. Mmm, how delicious he was!
With a full belly we visit the Kailasa temple, perhaps the most beautiful of all, and not only because of its greatness: the architectural details and the sculptures left us amazed.
We continue the excursion through the other Hindu caves, one of more than one floor ... with such a ladder we hope to have lowered the malai kofta!
And it was time to visit the Jain caves, it will be that we were tired (very tired) of walking, going up and down stairs (ok, there are not many, but it was very hot :-p) but we were not excited like the others. The only one that seemed beautiful was the nº30, what they call "little kailasa" And while we took pictures in "Japanese" quantity, the excursion Indians took pictures in the least thoughtful and least characteristic places: near a tree, in front of an empty wall, on a rock ... the truth is that they are funny! We also had another paparazzi session, if for each photo they had given us 10 cents now we would have a little money saved!
But if you plan on passing through Aurangabad there are other worthwhile visits: the caves of Ajanta (which we discarded for time), the fort of Daulatabad (which we saw from the bus towards Ellora) and the Bibi-qa-Maqbara (for the Baby Taj Mahal friends). There we were, well, Arshall, the owner of the hotel where we stayed, took us, and the Indian hospitality here is great! The resemblance to the Taj Mahal is surprising: if we had not gone to Agra and someone had told us that it was the authentic we would have believed him. Of course, now that we are experts in "TajMahalismo" we know that this is smaller, with less detail and poorer. Still we found it very beautiful!
In Aurangabad we also spent the last night, eating chicken tandori, rice, naan and fried fish in a Chinese restaurant under the hotel ... we spent about 400 INR, something like € 2 per head, with drink and everything ... I think it was December 31 Cheaper of our lives 🙂 We are heading to our next destination: go go finally touch beach !!!
USEFUL INFO
How to get to Aurangabad?
We arrive from the Dadar train station in Mumbai. The ticket (second sitting) cost us 150 INR each. The trip lasted about 6 hours.
Where to sleep?
We spend the nights at SPARKLING PEARL
Visit to the Ellora caves:
- How to get: the bus leaves from the bus station of the MSRTC (everyone knows it as a central bus stand) every bit. The ticket costs about INR 30 and takes about 45 minutes (it is 30 km but the road is regular at the beginning). To get to the MSRT there are shared tuktuk that cost INR 20 per person, much more convenient than a private tuktuk. We made the return by shared jeep (35 INR) that leaves in the same MSRTC, it took a little longer (hour and peak) for the traffic. If your budget is more generous, you can rent a tuktuk in Aurangabad and it will cost you about 500-600 INR (round trip and stops in the different groups of caves).
- Entry: 250 INR (no student discounts, no camera / video paid).
- How to visit the caves: we visited them on foot and we did not regret it. We made the journey from cave 1 to 34 with stop to eat (in total it took about 4 hours, but there are people who do it much faster). To get to cave 29 the road is cut, so you will have to go back on your steps to cave 24 and make a stretch along the road (about 5 min, no problems). The only time you can consider taking a tuk tuk is to reach the Jain caves, although there is a path of less than 1 km, which takes you directly. To return just take the main road and in 15 minutes (or less!) You are at the entrance and you have saved a little money!
