India 2004  -  continued                                                      

                                                                                                                                                               Monday 09/02/04
I checked out of the hotel at 12.00, and paid 3360 Rs on my visa for the first time, as up until then, it had been cash. I'm never too sure about using my credit cards abroad, but it all seemed legit enough, and I had no problems. I caught a rickshaw down to the station, and dumped my bag in the cloakroom. Went for a walk around the town of Sawai Madhopur, but to say that it is nothing to write home about is to give it more credit than it's due! After my wander around the town, i settled into my station waiting routine of patiently waiting for the next train, whilst observing the fascinating goings on all around me. The only entertainment I had, was a cup of chai, a packet of biscuits, a packet of cigarettes and a lonely planet book I must have read a hundred times. Your mind tends to drift when you've got nothng to do, on family, friends, the future. The only thing that I seem to remember though, is that over the last couple of weeks, I had seen more and more pigs at the stations. They seem to serve no purpose other than to eat the rubbish that the monkeys, cows, dogs and rats found beneath them. I never saw pig on the menu.
  Tuesday 10/02/04
It was a long wait for the train, but a reasonably interesting journey. It was a 'Rajhdani Express' which is Indias fastest and most famous train. I shared the compartment with an Indian doctor from England who was in India visiting family, and a brother and sister. To make a change, their English was vry good, and so there were some interesting conversations. The meals on the train were free, and the only minor problem was that I didn't get a good nights sleep. I arrived in Mumbai only half an hour late, and was accosted by a taxi driver, who seemed to be under the deluded impression that i would spend 1500RS for a taxi ride. After telling him where to shove it, i got another taxi at the correct price of 100RS. The hotel was a bit cell like with a shared bathroom, but its in an expensive city, and only cost 364RS a night. Had lunch at a Subway, and then went back for a nap. Looked around some of the stalls on Fashion Street, and decided to buy a couple of T Shirts. Had dinner in a lovely restaurant, where I ate a whole Tandori Salmon to myself. It was the most expensive meal I had in all India, but it was definately worth it. On the way back to the hotel, I noticed that the taxi divers don't use their headlights in the dark. Very odd!
 Wednesday 11/02/04
Not a particularly good nights sleep. The room, as I said, was very cell like, with half the walls not being solid but cast iron grilles. This meant that noise carried! A lunatic Indian next door decided to blare out crap Hindi songs until two in the morning, A french couple decided to swap hotels at about two thirty, and other people were constantly talking and shouting. After breakfast, I left the hotel with the intention of taking a trip over to Elephanta Island. I took a photo of India gate, and the massive Taj Hotel, but because of lack of sleep, and didn't have the patience or energy to deal with the constant bombardment of hassle by the touts and beggars, and so gave the trip a miss. I wandered around, looking at very impressive Victorian buildings, and had lunch in the Subway again. Afterwards, a bought a book and a T shirt, and checked the net.
  Friday 13/02/04
After breakfast, I checked out of the hotel, and left my bag at the train station. I had a bit of time to kill, so I went to the cinema, and watched 'The Last Samauri' which was suprisingly average. Afterwards had lunch, checked the net again and made a couple of phone calls. Caught the overnight train to Aurangabad, and shared a compartment with the district magistrate - amazing who you meet! Arrived at the ungodly hour of 4.40 and caught a rickshaw to the hotel. Lazed around, and then ordered breakfast and put my laundry in before hiring a rickshaw so that i could do a few errands. I booked the Ajanta cave tour for the next day, and the Ellora tour for the day after.
  Saturday 14/02/04
The Ajanta trip was very interesting. There was another English guy from the hotel on the same tour, so there was some half decent conversation as well!


The guide was reasonably insightful, and explained some of the history behind the Buddhist temples carved into the rock face. It would have been quite a large complex, before it became abandoned for no adequately explained reason, and then it lay forgotten and undisturbed until the British rediscovered them in the early 1800's.
Sunday 15/02/04
There was some initial confusion at the beginning of the tour to Ellora. It was due to start at 9.30, and five of us sat on the bus until 10.15. Somebody then came up to us, and said that there weren't enough people to warrant a bus, and that a taxi would take us. I pointed out that including the driver, it would actually make six people in the old Ambassador on offer, and that we were'nt going to fit. A jeep was then produced from nowhere, and we all got into that. They then tried to tell us that we would have to join up with another tour and pay an additional fee to use their guide. I said no way, as our price included our own guide. We then pulled away in the jeep, drove twenty metres up the road, did a U-turn, and returned to where we had started. They then asked us to board the bus again, which we did, and were joined by a guide before we left, only just avoiding killing a motorcyclist on the way. Excellent stuff!!
The first stop was Daulatabad Fort, which was very different to the forts that I had seen so far.
This one was carved out of the mountain itself. Surrounded by seven walls, with no aligned gates, there was also a moat which was filled with water and crocodiles (sadly absent nowadays!), and a labrynth before reaching the palace. We then visited a Shiva Lingam temple, where a phallus had allegedly grown out of the ground by itself.
The Ellora caves were outstanding, and in my opinion, far better than the Ajanta caves. The temples, again carved out of the mountain, had very detailed sculptures, and were of Hindu, Buddhist and Jain origin.
After lunch, we visited Aurangzebs tomb (pointless), Bibi-ka-Maqbara (a poor mans Taj Mahal), and Panchakki (a feeble water wheel driving a mill).
All in all, a good day though!!
  Monday 16/02/04
Michael and I (the English guy from the hotel), decided to visit the Ellora temples again today, and it was certainly worth the effort. We looked at some of the temples that the guide didn't show us the day before, and they were even more impressive.

   There were some good carvings of the skeleton God, and Shiva stomping on demons. Some of the carvings reminded me of Egyptian statues, and it got me thinking to what links there may have been between the two cultures. The word Ra for instance occurs throughout India in relation with Kings, ie.. Rama, Raj, Rajas, Rajasthan, Raj etc.

                            

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