Sunday April 12 - Elora Caves

We were up this morning at 5 a.m. and on the road at 6:00 a.m. - everyone nodding off in the Truck; the mood was "sleep". After 2 hours of driving we stopped for breakfast at a roadside restaurant. It was in a delightful small town and people were very friendly and curious. Dragoman had not taken this route before so I guess the Truck and the travellers were a curiosity to the locals. The route was pretty as we drove through valleys, farming lands and hills and crossed rivers and admired the doeful-faced cows, as the sun rose slowly in the blue sky. The country side was dotted with small farmsteads, many thatched houses both roof and walls, or baked brick walls and thatched rooves. Simple but full of character. The chai was even better than yesterday, but the wada ( I think that's the right name) (potato and bread bun) didn't excite me. The "slum housing" was greatly reduced but as we drove we wondered whether life in a slum in the city would be better or worse than life on a slum in the country, but didn't come to any conclusive answers. Around lunch time we pulled into Elora, grabbed lunch, and then took off to see the Elora Cave-Temples, a World Heritage Site.

The 34 caves were constructed in 600 AD - 1000AD on a 2 km stretch of escarpment as temples, chapples and monasteries for Buddhist, Hindu and Jain monks using only a chisel, a hammer, and a pick-axe. There are a profusion of intricately sculptured figures and scenes depicting the religion and way of life of the Buddhists, Hindus, and Jain.The Hindu temple Kailasa which is dedicated to Shiva is remarkable, and is apparently the world's largest "monolithic" sculptures. It is incredible to image that the design of this huge artistic structure was contained in the heads of those who worked on it, and the linear precision achieved is amazing. We also pondered at the number of monks who must have prayed there, and speculated what it would be like to be in a "time capsule" and visit those times.

The bats in the Kailasa Temple were fun to watch too - I think they were probably sleeping until our flashes startled them and a few made some swoops of protest around the inner chamber of the cave.

I had a little moment of panic as were leaving the temple at the end of the day because I went back to take a picture of the elephants around the outside of the temple and when I turned back the group was gone. I couldn't find the way out for about 10/15 minutes, but all was well, despite my vision s of spending a night locked up in a Hindu cave-temple.

After the caves we made a short drive to Aurangabad and our hotel Altithi where we arrived around 7:00 p.m. Ray and I went out to find an Internet Cafe from which to call Alanna and wish her happy Easter but unfortunately their mike didn't work so we were unable to do so. Then we cam back to the hotel, had a delicious meal of I don't know what - goat or mutton...?, sat and chatted with some of the group and bed around 11:30 p.m.

We are coming to understand India more and more each day. It was a delight to be in the countryside on tiny little bumpy roads and being out in Aurangabad tonight we met some really nice people. Apart from the rickshaws no-one followed us, no-one begged for money, and no-one tried to get us to buy something!