Today, we finally got a chance to sleep in a bit (7:30) before heading to the airport.  Off to Ellora by way of Hyderabad, Mumbai & Aurangabad airports followed by a 1.5 hr cab ride to Hotel Kailas, recommended by Tom Bender who visited Ellora long before it was a common destination.

The drive through Aurangabad and out into the hills is my first indication of change.  While the traffic resembles that of Vizag, the cars are a bit larger and there seem to be a few more western cars, specifically we pass a GM dealership.  Taqi, the driver, zips is along at a great rate, and there are a few moments where I wonder about my life…  Taqi agrees to let us explore Ellora tomorrow and return the next day to take us to Ajanta.  Furthermore, with no prepayment, he will arrange a guide for Ajanta and pick us up bus tickets from Aurangabad to Pune as well.

I’m sure I’ll have more to say tomorrow, but as soon as we see the hotel we are sure we’ve made a good decision and the food seems to agree!

Day ten dawned just like any other day…  OK, that isn’t true, this one is our anniversary AND it dawned with Sridevi and I following a local guide into the hills near the Borra Caves on a jungle nature walk.  Truly, not like any other dawn for us!

The walk lead us (and a Bengali family) up a track through groves of mango and bamboo, past a tribal village.  The nature part of the walk turned out to be two birds, briefly glimpsed in the distance,  but the views were stunning.  The high-point was that we got to go through the huts that make up a small family farm, complete with goats, cows and the requisite dog.

After a leisurely breakfast of idly we placed our lives back into the hands of Satish (the family driver) and off we went.  Along the way we even got to see the local highway crew, basically a large family working by hand to move stones off the roadway.  As we approached the city, both the road and the traffic congestion grew, until we were back in the thick of it, so to speak.  The whole trek was about an hour, start to finish.

The afternoon was a perfect chance to rest up for the evening’s festivities.  In fact, it also gave me a chance to move the 762 photos from the previous day and a half onto the computer, and sort, cut and post them.

This was my first Indian Pudja (loosely a prayer ceremony) as we prayed to the gods for health, wealth and prosperity.  It was also about learning to sit cross legged on a hard surface for more than an hour and a half.  Luckily, my back and ankles held together and I made it through.  This priest seemed to have a good sense of humor and although he only appears to be about 30, it turns out he has kids in college.

We used liberal amounts of cotton, turmeric, cyan pepper, ghee, flowers, coins, rice and beetle leaves & nuts to feed and cloth the gods.  The ceremony is in Sanskrit which is a very interesting language to hear.  I’m not sure if it is only in prayer, but the prayer is a chant that is somewhat mono-tonal and pleasing to the ear.

The family elders play a large role and we received their blessings, along with those of the priest.  All-in-all, an amazing feeling to be surrounded by such good will.  An integral part of the festivities was a meal served on banana leaves eaten cross-legged on the floor.  This is for sure the culmination of the digression; moving from tables, chairs, plates and silverware all the way to the floor, no plates and our hands.  While I’m not giving up silverware for good, I do understand a connection to the food that comes from using our hands.

Tomorrow, off to Ellora and Ajanta…

From India Trip – Day 3

This day starts VERY early, as I awaken 5 minutes before the alarm at 4:10 AM.  Sridevi even got up without much complaint!  We have to make it to the train station early to get tickets and catch our 6:30 train to the Borra Caves.  Basically we are off to a set of caves that have been under way for more than a million years.

Our trip to the station is almost surreal, as I haven’t seen these streets empty before.  Basically, there is no hustle and bustle at 5:30 AM.  In fact, the streets are bare.  People are beginning to stir, but they haven’t made it en-mass to their cars, scooters, bikes or even their trucks and buses…

The sheer crush of humanity that is India explodes to a whole new level as we enter the train station though.  I’m not sure what Nanna paid to get us good seats at the last minute (They were GREAT seats), but the actual ticket was about 32 rupees (about $0.80) for the both of us.  Until he pulled that off, I was actually sitting in the overhead luggage rack.  I’m not huge, but I am 5’9″ and I do weigh nearly 190 lbs…  And there I was.  I’ve begun to learn about these crowds though.  They will push until pushed back, and if you want to get through, you just have to push through.

Finally though, we had seats in the AP Tourism car and I had myself a window view as we chugged through about 40 kilometers of city and rice paddies and then up another 50 or so kilometers of mountain climbing (about 35 tunnels too).  One of the benefits of the “flexibility” that a few hundred rupees can supply even got us 10 kilometers in the cab of the train.

Basically on a handshake agreement, the guy that “arranged” for the window seat, followed up by ushering us forward between the train and another parked train at one of the stations. When we got to the front, Sridevi and I clambered up about six feet into the cab and met up with another five brave souls who had parted with their hundred rupees each as well.  You’ll have to see the photos (there are a LOT for today, more than 180 I think) to decide if it was worth the $4.00 that we spent on it, but we sure enjoyed it.

It was about 10:00 when we pulled into the train station that serves Borra Caves and we had gotten there before Nanna & Amma, who were driving.  Imagine my surprise (ok, fear) to find that a local villager was “inhabited by a god” and along with the rest of the tribe, pulling random people from the crowd in the parking lot to beat them about the face with a branch to drive the “devil” out.  I’m still not sure if this was “staged” for the tourists (while I was the only white guy, there were hundreds of Indian tourists there).  At any rate, we backed up and waited by the tracks.

Luckily the whole thing seemed to calm down, and in about 15 minutes when Nanna arrived, we felt safe enough to skirt the lot and made it to the car safely.  It was about a 5 minute drive from the station at Borraguhalu to the caves and each second seemed to take us further into tourist country.

Once there though, I got to see my first monkeys and the caves didn’t disappoint.  It turns out that William King, a british geographer, located the cave in 1807.  A local cow had fallen through the ceiling and washed out into the river (still alive) FAR below.  This at once made the cow AND the cave famous (at least according to our guide).

A quick note about the new lens that I got for this trip.  If I haven’t said it before now, WOW.  WOW.  There was NO light in the cave (at least by camera standards) and I was able to get tons of good pics, I even managed to get a formation and it’s reflection in a pool.

The climb out began to remind me that we hadn’t eaten but a few small sandwiches for breakfast, so I was glad to be part of the decision to push our way to the hotel (Jungle Bells of all names) and eat our lunch which Amma had prepared from home.

Driving in the mountains here is something that you actually have to experience to understand.  As you approach a hairpin curve, you sound the horn repeatedly, and so hopefully does the oncoming driver.  Passing on a tight roadway in the mountains anywhere is an experience, but here, with bikes, scooters, motorcycles, trucks, buses and cars (not to mention the cows, goats and pedestrians), it should be spine tingling.  Truly though, it doesn’t end up that way, which makes it all the more surreal.

We pulled into the hotel and met in Amma & Nanna’s “cottage” for lunch, after which, a nap was just right, followed by a quick walk down the hill to the train station where even more photos were taken.  Our arrival back at the hotel coincided with the arrival of the evening’s entertainers, a group of local “tribals” who gather twice a week to perform local dances for the guests.

While the light was truly challenging, I did get an amazing array of photos.  The group was clearly having fun performing and even let Sridevi and another guest join in.  The music was a mixture of hide drums (tuned & tightened over a campfire on the spot) and a relative of the trumpet (think snake charming) which in the dim light was just the right accompaniment.  I culled MANY from the more than 200 pictures that I shot and even combined 48 of them into a video …

Other than the “wall lizard” that pretty much ends a full day…  Stay tuned for tomorrow which will start with a 6:00 AM guided “Nature Walk”.

From India Trip – Day 3

The eighth day of the trip is a bit special.  Today, Amma & Nanna (Sridevi’s parents) are throwing us a party!  If you remember, we struck out on the gold front yesterday, so today, we try again.  This time, we are after a gold necklace for Sridevi and a simple ring for me.

We have to get Sridevi’s sari altered at the store that made it, so we stop in at the family gold jewelry store again and in fairly short order, make our decision…  Although we will bring Amma in for advice before making a final selection, it is after all, her favorite Jeweler.

We also found a simple gold ring for me as well, so it is off to home to get ready for the party (plenty of finery to climb into for sure!).

Back home, we take care of the mundane and get the new US based phone that we installed last night up and running, requiring several phone calls to get account changes made

In no time, it is 5:30 and we are in the car on the way to the hotel for the party.  One quick stop on the way to collect our jewelry and right on time we get to the party.  Of course that means that we are 15 minutes earlier than anyone else, but that gives us time to primp, prime and worry.

Sridevi is especially gorgeous in her deep red sari.  In fact though, the finery on display is amazing.  Her mother and grandmother stand out as well.  The colors span the range, from bright hues to dark, rich colors.  This is India at its most colorful.

This is a chance for the whole community to look me over.  Everyone from the family lawyer to almost every teacher who works with Amma arrives.  Along the way, it slowly dawns on me that I’m not only the only white guy in the room, but I’m also the only male in the room who has been put into a full Indian outfit.  Every woman in the room is in a sari and every male but me is in “Western” outfits.  I guess that makes me the lucky guy in the room.

In the middle of the party we exchanged our gifts and Sridevi wore the necklace and earrings, after placing the ring on my finger…

At any rate, we dined well and made
our way through a very enjoyable evening and in no time we are beginning to usher people out the door as they make their goodbyes.

The truth is that I met about 80 people who hold Amma & Nanna in high regard and are truly making sure that I’m a good choice.  Luckily, I think I have passed muster, not a minor thing for me as the only westerner in the city of 2.8 million souls, or so it feels at times…

Back home, we are soon off to bed, which is a good thing, because we are to be up at 5:30 to catch a train to the mountains…