The Westside story VIII – Ajanta Caves

Here goes, my second post for this blog…..

After a night of disturbed sleep I got up at 0300 hrs. We were scheduled to reach Aurangabad, around 0400 hrs. We got off at Aurangabad station at 0430 hrs and managed to get an auto to the army mess booked.

It took us a bit of time to freshen up and have breakfast, so we decided to arrange a cab. The bhaiyas at the mess were clued up about these things, and got a cab to our rooms at 0900hrs for Rs 1,200 bucks- for the entire day.

Ajanta Caves are closed on Mondays, while Ellora is closed on Tuesdays.

Left for the 105 Kms away Ajanta caves around 0930 and were there by 1100. The highway (Maharastra SH-8) is a two lane road, with a few rough patches. The highway continues on to Jalgaon. Toll of Rs 18, a few Kms after Aurnagabad.

Once at Ajanta (or Ajintha as the Marathi signboards along the highway said), we got our car parking ticket (Rs 15) and individual entry tickets for Rs 7/person.
A walk through the car park towards the Bus Bay- for the 4 Km shuttle service to the caves takes you to 12-15 small kiosks selling all kinds of “touristy” stuff – Water, Bags,Post cards,Guides, VCDs, Stones, Art work. Food items are of course, over the MRP. Threats of speaking to MTDC and complaining were in vain- I really should follow this up.

Anyway, once our tickets were checked, we found a few Green “Maharastra Unlimited” tourist buses, packed with tourists. It’s an 8 minute drive up, to the caves-a we saw some school kids walking up to the caves though.

By the way, the Rs 7 tickets bought at the bas just get you to the bus bay! Once at the bus stand you need to buy your ticket on the shuttle bus service (Rs 7/person), and once on the top you still need to pick up tickets for the caves (Rs 10/person) + Rs 5 for “lighting” per “group” …hmm!! – and why they don’t do all tickets at once, I don’t know!!

There is a small MTDC Restaurant near the ticket counters and there are Palkhi’s available for people who cannot climb the slightly steep stairs leading up to the caves.

There are 30 caves at Ajanta- not all of them are accessible/open/complete. It is advisable to take a tour guide on top, unless you have a pictorial guide book for the caves. We got an over-priced tour guide for Rs 400 who showed us around the “important caves” , the “famous paintings” etc :)

I have only word for the Ajanta caves- fantastic. The way the caves would have been cut through solid rock nearly 2000 years ago is beyond my imagination.
Avoid Ajanta in the summers- You’ll be vaporised.

After spending around two and half hours at the caves we headed back and had lunch at the MTDC restaurant. Don’t bother going through the menu- half the things are unavailable and the rest take a “lot of time”. All you can be assured of are the “thalis” . Have them-they aren’t bad! :)

Walked to the bus bay and caught a shuttle back to the car parking. Though, muthana slept through the short 4 Kms bus journey she managed to break the straps of BOTH her slippers…..!! :D The whole of Ajanta Caves could not do to her slippers what she did to them in sleep mode!
Anyway, we managed to find a mochi near the car parking and we headed back to Aurnabgabad. We left around 1630 and we were there at Aurnagabad by 1830.

We headed to a place called “Panchakki” which literally means “Water wheel”. It was used to grind grain by rotating a big fan powered by gushing water from a series of canals drawing water from river.

After browsing through a few shops close by we drove through Auragabad (It wasn’t as small a city as I thought-has quite a bit of traffic, 70 second red lights, Big Bazzar (: )) , Vishal Megamart etc!) and headed to a handloom shop and picked up a few things. We saw a few Himroo Sarees being weaved – a single saree takes months or sometimes even a year to complete! (Weaver pic)
Its amazing how these guys manage to weave complex patterns without error and perfect symmetry.

After the handloom shop we headed to a place for dinner- “Tandoor” was our pick.
I don’t why the theme of the restaurant was Egyptian when we’re at such a historic place as Aurangabad- but anyway the foods okay and not too expensive.

We were done by dinner by 2130 hrs, headed to the mess, and had a chat before retiring for night around 2355 hrs.

- By Danish Contractor