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Other entries in Ellora

crash.........!

Yep the inevitable had to happen sooner or later......a little prang with the bike!!  Nothing serious though....I was driving Anand my work colleague to a bar after work on Friday night and he was sat on the back of the scooter with his laptop......we went over a speed bump and his laptop fell to one side, which pulled him over....which pulled the whole bike over and we ended up on the ground...well actually I landed on his laptop!!  Thankfully all the traffic was going really slowly so we didn't get run over, but one of my wing mirrors smashed. No damage to either of us, except for cutting my hand on the glass....but it definitely made me appreciate my beer later on!!!  It also made me think I probably should invest in a helmet at some point.......if not for safety reasons then for keeping my hair dry when I get caught in the monsoon!!

The bar we went to was more like a restaurant which played rock music....which was cool!!  So I stocked up on some good linkin park, staind, bon jovi(!), metalica etc....back at the flat later on Sandeep was visiting from Mumbai (an ex-trainee) so had a few drinks with everyone there before heading to bed - needed to be up at 5:30 the next day for a trip to Arangibad....

So this weekend it was just Martin (Germany) and myself running east away from the ‘pre monsoon showers' to become a bit more cultured. Its always interesting traveling with other people - you really get an insight into their attitude towards India and life in general.. Now for me, traveling for 2 days requires approximately just 3 main possessions...deodorant, ipod and mascara. And maybe some clean underwear....So there's me with my little bag....and Martin, bless him with a huge rucksack filled with everything we could possibly need, including about ten raincoats, pillows, sleeping bag, loaf of bread, ear plugs....the works!! It was great having someone who liked to double check, and then triple check everything on the trip, like which bus we should be on, etc...but it made me realise just how unconcerned I am with planning and organizing things! Like I would happily stand for an hour waiting for our bus....trusting we were actually in the right place for it......rather than asking every person who walks past if they could help.....or sitting on the bus with a constant drip from the ceiling falling on my head rather than trying to make everyone shut the windows to keep the drips out.....but hey, everyone's different, and its cool to be reminded of that.

So we arrived in Arangibad after 5 hours on the bus and found somewhere pretty cheap to stay (I had to pretend Martin was my husband...so I was Frau Herbatsch for the weekend, as I didn't have a copy of my passport and visa with me  - yep another lack of planning there!! .) After some lunch we found another bus to a town about 10kms away called Ellora. This place is famous for these huge caves which were carved out of the rock thousands of years ago and inside them had religious carvings of Buddhas and things.....the main one (which we had to pay for...and which reminds me of a little rant I need to make about how they charge rs5 for Indians and like rs250 for tourists.....fair enough tourists are likely to be able to afford it....but not so much when you're a graduate with 12grand debt and living on an Indian salary!!! )  anyway, this main cave was really impressive, the carvings were so intricate it must have taken like hundreds of years to create. We walked round to see all of the others (about 30 in total!!), and climbed up this hill to get a great view down onto them, and of the whole landscape - its cool in the part of India we're in - you don't actually have to climb that high to see for miles and miles....On the way back round to the first cave we came across this small gulley (not sure if this is the right word) which had metal scaffolding right across to the other side.....so in a moment of madness I suggested we climb across it instead of walking the long way round....heeehee it was so much fun!!  The drop wasn't too high - I don't think we would have died if we'd have fallen, just broken a few bones probably....but half way across I suddenly realised what we were doing., and the fact I was wearing these stupid ballerina pumps with no grip and a pink skrit (not sure why the colour makes a difference but it did) and I couldn't stop laughing!! Which isn't so good when you're balancing on a pole over a 20ft drop (this is just a random guess) and you need to concentrate!!!

Still, the scaffolding held until we were across  t'otherside, so no worries! I actually think I enjoyed that more than seeing the caves.....crazy!!  I think the locals who were watching were a little baffled at us, which was quite amusing!!

We got a jeep taxi back to the main town, getting a tour of this cool little village on the way.....and it made me realise how I've got so used to Pune being so developed....it was brilliant seeing some more of the traditional India where there aren't shopping malls and guys riding round on flashy motorbikes on every street. Saw loads of wild pigs, cows, donkeys etc....

That evening we went out for some food and then collapsed in the hotel room pretty exhausted. Turned on the tv to Mr Bean re-runs!! Half on them in english, half in Hindi - which was really bizarre! But still easy to follow as mr bean doesn't really speak that much does he?!

We had planned to travel a further 3 hours to go see some more caves at Ajanta, the next day, but after realizing that would mean a total of 11 hours on buses in one day we decided to spend a more leisurely day in Arangibad.  In the morning we went to see a mini replica of the Taj Mahal. And it was so impressive! It must be, I'm guessing like a tenth of the size of the real thing, but it was amazing! It made me think the real thing must be just awesome! Should be some photos soon of it.........Later we walked up to this temple on top of this big hill...the temple was under construction so nothing special but the views of the Mini Taj were fantastic. We met some Indian guys at the top who wanted some german lessons.....we really should start charging for these things! I threw in a few French words just for the fun of it too.....

From there we went to see these caves which were pretty similar to the ones we saw the day before, only on a smaller scale. But I think as with temples, for me at least....once you've seen one, you've seen them all.....but it was nice walking around in the sunshine and getting some exercise and ‘fresh' air away from the busy town.

After lunch we chilled out in this park until the rains came - you get no warning out here, like one minute it will be sunny, then you feel one drop and whoosh! The heavens open! I had to pose for another photo, but this time complete with baby in arms....she was really cute I was half tempted not to give her back!!

We were able to catch our bus around 6pm, and this one left dead on time, which must be like a first for me in india! Reached Pune around midnight and slept so well that night!

I realised this weekend that traveling with a guy is so different to traveling on your own, or with another girl. All the people who come up to hassle you into buying things or begging for money just target ‘the man' - I guess because they think he is the boss....but quite a lot of the time it really felt like I was invisible - which was cool as it meant I could pay more attention to everything else, but in a crazy way it was also a bit like, ah come on, notice me too please!!!

All in all was a great weekend - was so good to spend some days outside in the sunshine/cloud instead of rain or office, and had lots of fun....

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