I apologize for taking so long to post again. I have been taking my turn with computer difficulties, so my laptop has been in someone else’s care for the past few days. But finally I have it back, which makes me very happy. Anyway, the only way this really affects you is that this post will most likely be much longer than you would rather read. I apologize for that as well, but as I am not forcing you to read my blog, I will go ahead and write as much as I want to and trust that if you get bored, you will just stop reading.
So... last weekend, our group went to visit the Caves at Ajanta and Ellora. They were truly the most spectacular sights I have ever seen in my life. I just wish you could have all been there to see it with me because, again, it is impossible to describe them through either photographs or words, but I shall do my best.
We left on Thursday and had a private bus for the drive to Ellora (which just stayed with us the entire weekend) because it was several hours. The rain began sometime during our bus ride, so by the end we had rain leaking through the windows and ceiling on part of the bus (the bus wasn’t completely water-proof; suffice it to say that several of us just gave up on the return journey and wore our rain coats most of the way back). The rain continued pretty much around-the-clock until yesterday (that’s about seven days...) so now it’s only raining about half the time and fortunately the heaviest rainfall is now at night. Although we were definitely more than tired of the rain by the end, it definitely gave the caves a sort of beauty that we would not have been able to see with the sun out. The “hotel” that we stayed at actually consisted of a beautiful little compound with a dozen little cottages, a walking path, green lawns, palm trees, a partial view of Ellora, and our own personal pack of monkeys. Unfortunately, the monkeys were a little territorial, which rather discouraged us from making friends with them. One sent about six of us running and screaming in terror when it almost leaped from our roof onto us the first night (admittedly, we were a little too close), so we kind of avoided them for the rest of the trip. Now that I’ve alarmed at least my mother and the nurse from Passport Health who expressly told me to avoid the monkeys, I would like to say that I did stay at least six feet away from them at all times and that one did not actually come off of the roof... we ran far enough away to pacify it. But anyway, the hotel was beautiful, the food was great, and we basically had the entire place to ourselves. If you ever go to Ellora, stay at the Hotel Kailas, it is fantastic.
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| My cabin... later on it had about a dozen monkeys jumping around on the roof. |
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| Part of the semi-circle of caves at Ajanta. |
Friday was spent at Ajanta, which is phenomenal. Tucked deep into a lush green valley with a river flowing through it and a waterfall at one end, the caves are exquisitely detailed. The caves at Ajanta fall into two sets: the first dating from the second to first century B.C. and the second from the fifth to sixth centuries A.D. Here we even got to see a few caves which were left unfinished when the caves were abandoned after only a short time. None of us could figure out why on Earth they would leave that place... we were all ready to just stay and become monks ourselves. However, it was rediscovered in an interesting way: in 1819 a group of British soldiers were hunting when one named John Smith (not the John Smith from Pocahontas) saw a tiger disappear into one of the caves (which was very overgrown and hidden by greenery by that point). Curious, he followed and discovered these masterpieces... I can’t even imagine how incredible that must have been. It was so beautiful... I really don’t know how to describe it; it was just amazing.
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| Some of the carvings at Ajanta. |
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As amazing as Ajanta was, however, Ellora was my favourite of the places that we saw over the weekend. The centrepiece of Ellora is Kailasanatha Temple which... is amazing. I should mention that all of these architectural wonders are carved out of the rock that is already there; nothing is built, so everything is one piece. Along about half of the edges of the cavern that has been left by the creation of this monolith were dug further into the mountain and are halls lined with pillars on one side and highly skilled motifs of Hindu mythology. It was truly an achievement to take one’s breath completely away. Some of us went up to the highest point of the cavern directly behind the end of the temple and just sat there marvelling at it. Commissioned by king Krishna I at the request of his wife in the eighth century A.D., it took 100 years to remove the approximately 85,000 cubic metres of excess stone from this 81x47 metre complex! Can you even begin to imagine that? An amazing story that we heard about this place is that the architect who carved the main tower, after seeing what he had created said “I never designed this, it was designed by god and I merely took away what was not the temple; I did nothing of consequence.” As a result, no one knows who the mastermind behind the masterpiece was. In my opinion, Ellora should absolutely be named as one of the wonders of the world. Obviously, I haven’t seen anything approaching the entire world, but I think that anything more stunning, sensational, and skilled than this might just kill me... I am not really kidding; this place was spectacular enough to rival anything ever created.
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| Kailasanatha Temple from the top. |
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After our official tour, we got to go back and explore Ellora more at our own leisure, which was absolutely the best part. Since the crowds at the main temple were very thick and we are making very conscious efforts to avoid large crowds (which I will explain later), we walked further down the line of caves to see some of the others. The caves at Ellora fall into three groups: Buddhist (caves 1-12, seventh-eighth centuries A.D.), Hindu (13-29, which includes Kailasanatha as number 16, seventh-ninth centuries), and Jain (30-34, ninth century). It was amazing to just go at our own pace and get to explore every detail of any new cave that struck our fancy. For most of the time, there were just three of us, and we ended up just sitting in one of the caves for a few hours that was mostly empty and soaking in the wonder of the place that we had found ourselves. It’s funny how excited one can get thinking about history. Our most-used phrase by the end of the trip was “Can you imagine...”. We found ourselves desperately wishing that we could see all the people who created the caves we were sitting in and those who used to live there, put faces to the names and see them go about their daily routines. The longer we sat, the more details jumped out at us and the greater our curiosity was piqued. We speculated what each unknown discovery would have been used for, and this was much more interesting than hearing the facts from a guidebook. It was amazing. We didn’t get to see near everything that we wanted to, though, so some of us are hoping to take a weekend and go back to do more exploring.
Sunday, we headed back and stopped by Daulatabad Fort on our way. To be perfectly honest, the architecture paled in comparison to Ajanta and Ellora, but it was built for defence, not beauty, and their ingenuity of design was amazing in its own right. To begin with, there were four concentric walls and a triple gateway surrounds the inner fort. Fourty-two (I think) sets of fake gates are placed throughout the compound to confuse invaders. The gates were not aligned or at enough distance for elephants to get sufficient starts to batter them and were covered in metal spikes just in case they tried (apparently, the invaders were just as brutal and would put camels up against the doors, sacrificing them instead of the elephants). I lost count of how many water moats there were which were filled with crocodiles and all manner of dangerous creatures and how many places one would emerge from a door only to get his head severed by an enemy soldier lying in wait.
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| Ruins of Daulatabad Fort. |
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One element that I need to mention is a series of dark passageways and stairs that was intended to be a trap for enemies. It’s been kept authentic, so there are still no lights, and “for fun” we went through it the same way that they would have done. Let me go just a bit further to paint this picture... the floor was, for most of the way, covered in moss due to an inch of what we decided to call “cave water” to avoid thinking about what it might actually be, there were very obviously millions of bats lining the ceiling (which gave it a not-too-pleasant aroma), it was the darkest space you can imagine, there were stairs up and down at unexpected places, the walls were prone to give way on either side, and a group of us lost the main group. It wasn’t a terrible experience, but not necessarily one I would like to go through every day. We kept wondering what would happen to soldiers who forgot their way through their own labyrinth. After this experience, we got to climb all the way to the very top of the mountain where there remains a building which I think was the primary watchtower or something. The view from there was amazing, like the mountains at home but higher and much greener everywhere. Sitting up there made it seem as if all the problems we had in life were inconsequential and everything unpleasant melt away. Yes, I do realize how cheesy that sounds, but I am being completely serious... it’s an experience that I don’t think any of us will forget for a long time.
Unfortunately, the weekend wasn’t fully relaxing. Anyone who has been abroad to a place where foreigners are not necessarily common will be able to understand this. Those who have not experienced this will not understand; it’s something you need to experience first-hand. To explain it politely, we all gained a new sense of great sympathy for celebrities. People were constantly snapping photographs directly in our faces (which, apart from being rude, is just highly irritating) and even if we said “no photo” quite insistently, most would ignore us. Others would ask for photos with us, which... you know... is difficult to decline without feeling rude. I am so very thankful that I am not blonde, although it truthfully didn’t seem to matter all that much; I’m still white. It was exhausting and very frustrating, at least for me. Some people dealt with it better than I did, but we were all irritated by the end. We tried to avoid crowds. We tried very hard. It didn’t usually matter. Even if there were only two people around, they would usually take photographs. We even got a couple people who followed us around, snapping multiple photographs during that time. Everyone, regardless of whether they were taking photographs or not, stared at us very openly (sometimes with their mouths open as if they couldn’t believe what they were seeing), making us all even more uncomfortable. At Ellora, we drew quite the crowd during out tour; people were even leaning over the balconies around the edge of the cavern to get a better view of us. We had a few staff members from our school, the tour guides, and people who worked at the Caves who would make them leave if they got too noisy or overly-irritating.
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| This isn't related to anything, really, just a fun photo. There were so many monkeys! |
Another crowd-related adventure we got to take during this trip was boarding an Indian bus. Between the parking lot where our bus had to stay and the actual Caves at Ajanta, we had to take the public bus. The way there was fine, but the way back was... not so much. We didn’t have any warning as to what to expect and were told to form a line, so we did, just like the polite and orderly American school children we are. The problem with that was that the line kept forming, but in front of us, and we didn’t understand that we would need to push people out of the way very insistently in order to get on the bus. I’ll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that we got to see all of our staff get irritated both with us for not being pushy enough and with the native tourists around us for not letting us on the bus. We were all quite traumatized by the time we finally got on... not really an experience that I would care to repeat. It was not fun by any stretch of anyone’s imagination (I hope... if you enjoy that type of thing, I think I would question your sanity a little).
Before loading said bus on the way out to Ajanta and after disembarking on the way back, we had to walk through a set of shops which thrives solely on the tourism that comes through there. The vendors were, to put it politely, overbearingly persistent. We got “gifts” on the way in of stones and crystals apparently from the area and were told the names and stalls of the vendors who eagerly escorted us from our bus to the other one. The names that I had branded onto my brain were David, Jay, and Santiago, or something like that. Since they were all Indian, we made a guess that these weren’t their real names. One of the students went around telling them that his name was Harrison Ford, which was amusing to watch (they didn’t know who that was). We had to be careful about using one another’s names, because as soon as they heard a name, they made certain to remember it and would use it to their fullest advantage. On the way back, they remembered exactly who they had talked to and attempted to guilt us all into coming to their shops because they had given us gifts. It was another traumatizing experience... most of us wanted to find a way to evade the vendors and sneak to our bus, which isn’t possible, there are too many. Anyway, they followed us all the way to the bus and knocked on the windows, trying to sell us things, because we were waiting for the last of our group for about twenty minutes.
And then official classes began on Monday... just like that. It’s a bit surreal to be doing regular schoolwork, actually. We aren’t used to it yet. This past week was the toughest I think most of us have had yet, actually. Round two of computer problems hit, leaving us frustrated, and our American professor left, which I think is affecting all of us a little more than we realized it would. There are always several people feeling under the weather, and one of our guys has even been at home for a few days now. I’ve been really lucky and only felt ill a few times and, for the most part, I’m fine now. Hopefully that won’t be for much longer. But some things are improving. After a few weeks of frustration regarding cell phones, we finally got them and they went online on Thursday, so we are revelling in the fact that we can contact one another so easily.
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| At the festival... we got scarves and flowers and the bindis painted on our foreheads. |
Friday night, we, along with the other foreign exchange students in the city, were VVIPs (yes, there were two V’s on the sign by our seats) to an annual festival that marks the beginning of the Ganesh Festival (a ten-day Hindu holiday in celebration of their lord Ganesh... I’ll explain more about it at the end of the ten days). There was quite a bit of speech-making and formalities (which, admittedly, were slightly boring and we couldn’t understand most of them), but we got a magnificent display of Indian music and dance and got treated very well (the boys got turbans and we all got scarves and front-row seats). I don’t think any of us will ever hear quite as well as we did originally, but the music was amazing enough to make up for that.
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Aren't those turbans great? |
The best way any of us has been able to think of for describing this trip so far is “an experience of extremes.” The high points are sensational and more amazing than we could ever hope for while the low points are very difficult and sometimes almost devastating. But it’s helped that we’re all going through the same thing and that we’re in such close quarters that we can’t really help the others seeing if we’re having a bad day and burst into tears, which means there are hugs from every direction. At least that’s the case for the girls, I guess I haven’t seen any of the guys burst into tears yet... they just get frustrated and we know to give them space. Homework is made easier since we’re all in all the same classes and we’re all naturally interested in what we’re learning. Class discussions have turned out to be great. We’re figuring out the city: where to find bland food when we need it and clothes so that we don’t stand out quite so much, and places that we can spend Saturday nights in groups. A group of puppies showed up at our school this week and that’s helped us all quite a bit, actually. They are ridiculously cute and know us all at this point so they come running when they see us. We’ve named them all and they just hang out behind our building or across the street all the time now. Yes, they do have fleas, but we’ve all held the puppies and none of us have picked the fleas up yet so... you know. We have determined that they are too cute to have rabies (something else to horrify my Mum, I suppose). Anyhow, they’re proving crucial for our sanity.
Just a few short tips while I’m thinking of them, and then I will end this absurdly long entry.
16) A few items to add to the packing list that I seem to be building: toilet paper and hand sanitizer. Trust me... they are very important. Also important is an industrial-strength rain coat. Get one of the rubber ones... bright yellow if you need to and as thick as possible... because the “breathable” ones don’t actually do all that much good here if you’re out in a deluge all day. You and your belongings still end up soaked. Those may not be the classiest things to wear, but at the end of the day you would rather be dry than look good (which you won’t anyway). And, honestly, it doesn’t matter what colour you’re wearing because you’re going to be stared at anyway. Umbrellas are useful, but perhaps not the best accessory in a crowded situation. More than one of us nearly got our eyes taken out by umbrellas. Waterproof backpacks are a good idea or everything will get drenched, regardless of whether or not your have a rain coat or umbrella.
17) When confronted with something amazing, be certain to take the time to appreciate it as fully as possible. Marvels such as Ajanta and Ellora cannot in any way be fully appreciated even if one lived there, but just sitting and staring at these masterpieces was a great experience. Don’t be so schedule-oriented or stressed out that you miss these opportunities.
18) Try not to let yourself get overwhelmed when things go wrong. Honestly, sometimes that’s impossible; you will break down every once in a while. But do your best to try and be fluid. We’re learning to operate on “India time” and, while it’s really difficult so far, once we get to that point we will be so much better off. Those last two pieces of advice work just as well at home as well, by the way.
Speaking of getting overwhelmed, I hope that didn’t do so and that you enjoyed reading it. If you made it all the way through in one sitting, congratulations. The next entry will be shorter, I promise. I hope that everyone is doing well!
