Mr & Mrs Wanderlust : Caves, Caves & more Caves...Aurangabad

Transport

We planned to take the 2pm Janshatabdi Express train from Dadar stn in Mumbai to Aurrangabad...however, we ended up missing our train...annoyingly by 2 minutes..which resulted in us needing to book a last minute bus. In the hope of not wasting too much time we frantically searched for one leaving as soon as possible so we could avoid getting there too late and still have a full day the next day. We managed to find one and after some trouble booking and getting onto it we were able to settle down for the long journey. Typically being a private bus company they stopped alot to fill the empty seats resulting in us arriving in Aurangabad 2 hrs later than scheduled!!

Accomodation

We found a budget hotel rated highly on tripadvisor and it was literally next to the train station so perfect location for getting to and from Mumbai. Its called 'Hotel Preetam' and the staff are very helpful, the rooms are clean, Wifi is good (a rarity in india) and there are some good restaurants on the same road too. This made it an ideal base for our 2 days of visiting the infamous Ajanta and Ellora Caves.

Day 1 - Ajanta Caves

So we dragged ourselves out of bed relatively early..despite our 3am arrival and spoke with the hotel staff, who informed us that really we needed to get up earlier if we wanted to take the bus to Ajanta as it would take 3 hours, so we wouldn't arrive until after 1pm. He suggested a taxi would be the most time effective and offered to book one for us. I knew full well that the price he stated (1800) would not be the cheapest as he would have to make his cut, but exhausted from the night before and wanting our day to go well I went ahead and took it anyway.

Our driver was called Azim and he spoke very good English and the 2 hr journey flew by while we chatted with him.

On arrival to the caves you have to pay a 10rs pp 'Amenity charge' we weren't really sure what for but the driver explained it was for the upkeep of the 'tourist centre' (shopping centre with pestering staff!) you have to walk through in order to get the bus upto the caves.

The government bus costs 15-20rs each-way depending if u want a/c or not and they're the only way to get upto the caves.

Entry as in all places was a much higher price for us tourists (250pp) than locals.

We avoided the cost of a guide and instead bought a book that covered both sets of caves as well as other local sites which was great as we were able to understand what we were looking at!

The caves are beautiful and just amazing that they were created so long ago without today's technology and remain a sought after attraction today. We had a great time meandering between caves taking photos and learning about their history.

The one thing we didn't enjoy was the fact that we seemed to be a tourist attraction ourselves! Being asked to have our photo taken with every single person that walked past certainly becomes tiring after a while. This happens a lot in India but we found it to be almost unbearable here as we could barely walk 10mtr without being asked. It can be young or old people that ask and usually its just because they have never seen a white person before and are intrigued, but what actually started to upset me was that some of the younger groups of guys would try and sneak photos of us anyway even when we have said no. Gary had to get firm with one group who kept reappearing and sneakily taking photos. Having spoken with Indian people about this we have been told to be firm and say no. So we'll see how it goes!

Shopping mall

Aurrangabad has a large shopping mall called the Prozone mall. It'll cost around 250rs rtn with the rickshaw driver waiting between. We had to go for an emergency backpack shop and much to Gary's delight there was a large decathlon there. There were lots of shops and it was clean..much like a western mall. It was a great place to pick up a few bits that perhaps you may struggle to find elsewhere.

Day2 - Ellora Caves..followed by Khuldabad, Daulatabad Fort and the mini Taj Mahal!

Having met the taxi driver yesterday, he offered to take us to Ellora and also the other sights of Aurangabad for 1000rs. We looked at the bus and it costs 300rs each and wont take you to the other sights, so we decided we would take the taxi again just because it was easier.

We left Aurangabad at around 8.30am and headed straight for the caves, the journey is significantly shorter so we were able to get there by 9ish.

The caves are very different to Ajanta with them being carved opposed to painted...we were amazed at how intricate alot of the carving is and really cave 16 is special.

After the caves we had a lunch break eating a delicious thali just down the road. We then made our way back to Aurangabad where we first visited khulabad (a Muslim burial place with several tombs - specifically of interest are Aurangzeb's Tomb & The Tombs of Azam Shah and his wife) that clearly is a very special place, but we did'nt really understand very much about it until we read about it afterwards. We then headed to Daulatabad fort, it was a lovely walk around the fort with great views and the fort itself had really nice architecture....almost British (minus the elephant spikes in the door) finally to end the day, we drove to the mini taj mahal (Bibi Ka Maqbara), it was really very similar in looks although i'm sure far less grand!! But nonetheless it was nice to walk around and quite peaceful, so a good way to end the day. Overall it was a very jam packed day but we very much enjoyed it and were glad to have had the opportunity to see so many things in only 2 days.

Thankfully we made our early morning 6am train back to Mumbai. It was great to travel during the day for a change and see all of the beautiful scenery!

Ajanta Caves - famous for the paintings