The India Chronicles 2000-2001

Ellora caves

Hi once again from the land of sun and surf. Hope everyone is enjoying those crisp, clear winter days. We are now at the beach in Goa, but continuing on from the last episode...

We took the train from Ahmedabad to Jalgaon, a sizable town that is probably not on many maps, but is just an hour's ride from the cave temples of Ajanta. Imagine the horseshoe shaped Niagara gorge, all dried up, with 30 caves carved into the steep sides just below t he rim. That is what Ajanta looks like, except the caves were intended as Buddhist monasteries and temples and date from around 200 BC to 650 AD. We took one of the local guides up on his suggestion to get an overview of the caves and followed him across the dry riverbed and up a path to the other side from the caves. From there we had a good view of the whole gorge. We continued on, crossing over to the cliffs above the caves and walked along the periphery, looking down into some of them.

Finally, the path led down to the entrance of the caves and we toured them from the inside. They are huge and magnificently carved and painted. Most of them consist of a large central room with many columns flanking the sides or supporting the ceilings. They all have at least one figure of Buddha and several are covered in multi coloured frescoes, really tempera paintings on the rock walls. The paintings depict the life of Buddha and the columns and ceilings are decorated with geometric and floral designs. Many are still in remarkably good condition. Since this was Dec 29th and many Indians have holidays at Christmas, there were quite a few tourists, but we managed to avoid the crush and view them at our leisure.

It was just mid afternoon when we had completed our tour of Ajanta, so we decided to continue on to Aurangabad, two hours farther south. While we waited for the next public bus, we were offered a ride in a taxi picking up passengers for the return trip to Aurangabad. We hopped in the back and were joined in the rickety old cab by a young family and brother-in-law. I was glad they were in the front seat and not me, as the bumpy road keep forcing the passenger side door open. When the other passengers got out at the half way point, the driver had to stop and find a screwdriver to fix the door. It didn't work very well, but we managed to arrive safe and sound and find a convenient guesthouse.

The next day, Dec 30, our 35th wedding anniversary, we took a short ride in the bus to the second group of cave temples at Ellora. We took the public bus from town and ended up getting two tours for the price of one. The bus made an unexpected stop at the Grishneshwara temple where most of the passengers on the bus were heading to pay their respects. We were instructed by a helpful family who spoke English to just hang around and enjoy the market in progress around the temple and wait for the bus to carry on to Ellora in about 15 minutes. Sure enough, they were right, and we all re-boarded the bus and were on our way again.

Elora Buddha

Elora Jain Temple carving

Elora Elephant carving

The slope of the escarpment into which the Ellora caves are carved isn't as steep as Ajanta, so some of the 34 caves have elaborate exteriors and courtyards. The caves were built first by Buddhists between 600-800 AD, continued by Hindus between 600-900 AD and completed by Jains in 800-1000 AD. Several of the cave temples have remnants of paintings surviving, but it is the sculptures that draw the most attention. All the Hindu caves were hewn out of the rock cliffs from the top down, leaving huge rooms with the walls and multiple columns covered in sculpted scenes. We toured them all, spending the most time in the most famous and most elaborate, the Kailasa, which certainly is impressive. There weren't very many non-Indian tourists, so once again we found ourselves the center of attention and were asked to pose in family photos of their trip to Ellora. Mostly, we obliged.

For our return trip to Aurangabad, we accepted a ride in a Jeep taxi. We were the first passengers, but by no means the last. The driver kept picking up passengers until by my count we had 19 adults and 7 children, not counting the driver. Ray ended up with a small child on his lap for most of the trip. At least he was cute and very well behaved.

Our last day in Aurangabad was also the first day of rain. It was not hard rain, just drizzly most of the day. This meant we cancelled plans to visit the local fort and just made a short visit to a Himroo factory and a tour of the old part of the city. The factory was set up with government support to protect the dying art of Paithani and Himroo weaving. Paithani is a very luxurious method for making silk saris. It involves cutting threads already woven into the fabric and superimposing new designs into the material. It is done entirely by hand and it is so time consuming that the weaver only completes one or two centimeters per day. Naturally this increases the cost, so these saris are bought for wedding outfits or very special occasions and passed down through the generations. Himroo is a local weaving method, using cotton and silk. It is less complicated than Paithani, and is practiced in fewer villages every year. There were just a few looms set up for demonstration purposes in the factory as most of the work is done in private homes as a cottage industry.

We left Aurangabad headed for Mumbai (Bombay) on New Year's Eve, taking our first overnight train ride. We travelled by 2nd class sleeper coach, which means each compartment has two banks of three berths. Ray had a lower berth and I had a middle berth. We shared the other berths with three Japanese young men and two Indians. Yes, that is one extra person. One Indian man was still wait-listed when the train left, and since he did not have a reserved berth, he slept on the floor in the middle of the compartment. This was more comfortable than the space between the cars which was occupied by four or five people huddled together. I think that is termed 'platform' seating. Our berths were relatively comfortable, if you can ignore the several stops and starts and hawkers calling out there wares to sell. The lights got turned out shortly after 11 PM, but I was still awake at midnight to see about 12 young Indian girls, complete with noisemakers, parading through the car wishing everyone Happy New Year. Ray slept through the whole thing.

We arrived in Mumbai just after 6 AM, to discover why Mumbai is reputed to be the most expensive city in India. The taxi driver demanded Rs 150 to take us to our hotel. I told him that sounded like three times the price and he told me this was a night time and holiday premium rate. I found someone else to take us for Rs 100. This was still high as a later trip from our hotel to the station cost Rs 30. You have to bargain carefully.

Our hotel room, in the Colaba area, was conveniently located close to lots of good restaurants, the famous Taj Mahal Hotel and the Gateway of India in Mumbai Harbour where the tour boats leave. Our room was simple but large and a bargain for Mumbai at Rs 1045. We got cleaned up and spent the day getting organized for our onward trip and getting oriented in the city. We needed to buy train tickets to take us to Goa and we were concerned that we would not get reserved seats. For this reason, Ray fell prey to touts in the train reservation office who guaranteed reserved seats, for a price. We paid the price & got the tickets.

Mumbai is the most Europeanized Indian city we have visited, with broad avenues and European style buildings, a legacy of the Portuguese and British. It also was the least polluted, mainly because auto rickshaws are banned in the central section. We did explore a typical Indian section in the Crawford market, which included live animals as well as the usual fruit and veggies. We bumped into an English couple who had taken the same train as us and shared a beer and experiences in the bar on the top floor of the Taj Hotel, overlooking the harbour.

The next day, Jan 2, we took the tour boat to Elephanta Island, one hour from Mumbai Harbour, to visit another Hindu cave temple, constructed between 450-750 AD. It was very similar to Ellora, but there was only one main cave and two smaller ones, compared to 34 at Ellora. The sculptures were interesting and we also walked up the surrounding hills to view the other islands in the bay. On our return boat trip, we talked to an Australian family, who had seen the Everest Trekking Nepal badge on Ray's backpack. Apparently their older daughter, a University student in Australia, was on a trek to Everest Base Camp last November. They told us the Nepal end of Everest Trekking made the arrangements for the group of students and it was a great success.

That afternoon we toured the Prince of Wales Museum, where we bumped into the Aussie family again. He said he didn't think he had ever seen such a poorly organized museum. Most of the collection seemed to have been donated by the Tata family, one of India's wealthiest industrial families, and no attempt had been made to relate one part of the exhibition to another. I just thought it was typical. Textile design and beautiful crafts are Indian strengths, but organizational skills are not.

On our last day in Bombay, we made a trip on the suburban train system to see the Dhobi Ghats. This is where about 5000 men and a few women wash all Mumbai's dirty laundry by hand. You look down from a bridge over the railway tracks to a sea of washing lines and large stone tubs filled with soapy water. The Dhobis soak the clothes in the tubs, rub soap on the clothes on an adjacent stone slab, and slap the clothes against a stone slab in the middle of the tub to beat the dirt out. I don't think my clothes could survive too many such washings.

We returned to the central city, stopping on the way to walk along Chowpatty beach. It was not a pretty sight. The tide was out, exposing all the garbage on the beach and the smell from several drainage outlets was powerful. Swimming would definitely be hazardous to your health. We couldn't leave Mumbai without climbing a hill, so we followed a long, steep set of stairs up to the Nehru Gardens, looking for a restaurant shown on the map in the Lonely Planet. We never found the restaurant, but we found another and the garden was pleasant and a favourite of Indian families.

We took the earliest train yet on Thursday, Jan 4. It left at 5:15 AM for an11 hour trip to Goa, and we were at the station one hour ahead of time. We checked the reservation sheet and seatings when the train arrived, and sure enough, we did not have seats together. Thank goodness the conductor was able to easily make the change and we had very comfortable seats together in the 1st class A/C coach. We spent the time reading and eating snacks we brought or purchased from the many vendors who circulate through the train selling everything from chai to full meals. We were headed for the town of Panaji, which is the capital of the state of Goa. We thought that since this was termed an express train, we were going to have to get off at Margao, south of Panaji, and take a one hour long bus ride back to Panaji. Luckily, since the train was making several stops not on the printed schedule and we were almost two hours late, we found out we could get off in Old Goa, just 9 K away from Panaji, and take a rickshaw the rest of the way.

Panaji is a small town on the banks of the Mondavi River and still retains the looks and feel of its Portuguese roots. Like Diu, all of Goa, plus Daman, another town north of Mumbai, were Portuguese colonies until 1961. That means that Christianity is still alive in the area and the Portuguese left a legacy of large cathedrals in Old Goa, the original capital of Goa. We took the local bus the next day to visit several of the churches. Three of the largest , all built in the 16 th and 17th C, are in the center of town, almost right next to each other. The Church of St Francis of Assisi has many painted murals depicting the life of St Francis, Goa's patron saint, and the floor is covered in tombstones with coats of arms of the Portuguese families. The huge Se Cathedral, right next door in the middle of the same large gardens, is still in use. Both churches look very Mediterranean with their red tile roofs and yellow painted exteriors.

The third, Bom Jesus, across the street in its own gardens, is the repository of the body St Francis Xavier. The preserved state of the desiccated body is considered to be miraculous. Every Dec 3 there is a huge procession when the body in its silver coffin is carried from the Bom Jesus to the Se Cathedral across the street. The body is apparently missing several of its parts as pieces have been removed over the years and distributed as relics to several other Asian churches. Somewhat ghoulish.

We walked from the churches to the riverfront nearby, where we watched a local ferry, reminiscent of the Cumberland Ferry, make trips back and forth to an island nearby. We returned to Panaji and that afternoon I took a walk to the Altinho area, which is up the hill behind our Guesthouse. Panaji is the most tropical looking town we have visited yet, with its palm trees, rich vegetation and warmer temperatures. It is also a government town, which means it is quite prosperous looking and has a nice laid back atmosphere.

Our timeshare was due to start Saturday Jan 6, so that morning we took the local bus south to Margao, where we transferred to the bus going to Benaulim. The second bus took a little longer than we expected as it drove from the bus station, just outside of town, to the main town square, where it circled the square three times, picking up passengers, until the driver considered he had enough passengers to make the trip worth while. At Benaulim, we took a ricksha w to the Royal Goan Beach Resort, which we found out is about 2 K south of town. It is a typical timeshare arrangement built to Western standards, with a huge living/dining room with a kitchenette, a huge bedroom and a large bathroom. All the rooms are arranged around a pool with one bedroom units on the ground floor and two story two bedroom units on the upper floor. The only disadvantage is that the resort is blocked from beach access by the brand new, very large, five star Taj Exotica Resort. That results in a 10 minute walk around the Taj resort to the beach, but the walk is worth the effort.

The long, sandy beach stretches for more than 5 K in both directions and our section never has many people on it. There are several small restaurants on the beach that offer free lawn chairs and umbrellas and we quickly staked out our favourite, the Seagull, for lunch and sunning. The water is nice and warm and clean with breakers just large enough for beginner body surfers. We walked into the town of Benaulim via the beach and rented 'no gear' mountain bike style bicycles to get around on. We haven't done much more than go to town and up and down the beach on the bikes. We haven't even made it all the way to either end of the beach. Most of our time is spent at the beach, swimming and soaking up the rays.

The beach is also home to several local fishing boats that sell their catch to the local restaurants each morning, so we are able to sample excellent fresh seafood at our meals. Thanks to low Goan taxes on booze, the beer is also cheap and plentiful, so we are taking advantage of that. We had our one meal at the Royal Goan on Tuesday evening and were not impressed, but the entertainment was great. We had a so-so Goan meal, for two or three times what the surrounding restaurants charge, while we watched an exhibition of excellent Indian dancing.

Wednesday we took a ride in a local dolphin spotting boat. We didn't have to motor more than 1/2 K from shore before we spotted a pod of about 4 dolphins playing in the waters. We spent more than 1/2 hour watching them jump and dive through the waves, always keeping a discreet distance from our boat.

We will be sorry to leave the Royal Goan and end our 'chill out' week this Saturday, but our time is up and we must travel on. This time we will take an overnight sleeper bus to Hampi, another of India's historical temple sites.