Wednesday 18th - Ajanta

Early start today as we have to pack and shower before breakfast. The Oberoi has been a good call and in the rather unlikely event that we return to Aurangabad we would stay there again. Our car arrives promptly at 8.00 and we set out northwards. We have a different driver today, a bit more chatty but a little less proficient in English so conversation is quite difficult.  Once we leave the city we make pretty good progress across a mainly arable area where a whole variety of crops are growing including cotton, sugar cane, bananas and corn.

A deep valley appears on our left and the driver points out the car park and shopping mall a long way below. The road winds down an escarpment and into the valley. This place is much more organised than Ellora. We have to pay a 10 rupee 'Amenity Fee' each. This apparently gives us the right to be assailed by the stallholders as we run the gamut of the mall on our way in. We then pay 15 each for the bus ride up to the actual entrance to the monument where there is a crowd of guides and porters looking to part us from our children's inheritance. D resolutely ignores them all and makes straight for the ticket counter. R is obviously weakened and targeted by a young chap who points out the benefits of having somebody to carry the water bottle and keep an eye on the shoes at the barefoot temples. His clincher is the toilet advice.  R is obviously sold on the idea of hiring this chap .

He is officially a Porter, licensed by the ASI. Some of them carry visitors to the caves along the valley in sedan chairs. Others provide water carrying and shoe minding services. Our chap has good English and throws in a bit of unofficial guiding when the licensed guides are not looking. He even takes a couple of pictures for us.

The caves/temples here are cut out of one face of a horseshoe shaped gorge. They are older than the ones at Ellora and do not have as much diversity of style. Some were started but never finished because of weaknesses in the rock or because of water ingress. There has been more effort to preserve the wall and ceiling paintings than at Ellora which means that barriers have been installed to keep the walls out of reach. Flash photography is banned but there has been some low intensity lighting installed which allows the pictures to be seen.

Our chap gives us some brief details at each cave before allowing us to explore the inside in our own time. The paintings do give an insight into how things must have looked during the heyday of the caves. The lighting that has been installed does give a bit of an eerie glow but allows D's camera, with its low light programme, to catch some of the colours. Once again extra pictures today. In a couple of caves restoration or repair work is under way.

Towards the end of the tour he tells us that we have reached his favourite cave. It is a rather austere, incomplete hall but he starts to sing to demonstrate the acoustics. As we wend our way back to the entrance gate we see an Asian Paradise Flycatcher down by the river. It is at a distance and keeps moving but its white body and extremely long tail are unmistakable. Our man is quite excited by this as he has not seen one here before, and he takes a photo of the picture in R's bird book.

We grab a very quick lunch of Veg Pakodas and head back towards the car. Our driver is ready and we hit the road for the 55km to Jalgaon, which is the nearest railway station to Ajanta. The roads are a bit rougher on this section and we are really feeling the heat so we are pleased to be deposited at the Hotel Plaza, near Jalgaon station. This hotel gets consistently good reviews as a basic, clean stopover. We are shown three different rooms and opt for a basic room with fan and bathroom for 850 rupees, less than £9. Hot water in buckets on call. Free wifi, shared with the hotel next door.The chap in charge is very helpful and draws us a little map of the main attractions in the town.

After a quck cool down under the fan we head out to check the attractions.  First up is the shopping mall,  anchored by a Big Bazaar. We need biscuits for the train tomorrow and surely a sophisticated place like this will stock 'Orange Bites'. These people have some sort of paranoia about shoplifting and the security guard tries to work out a way to lock D's camera so that he can't stash anything in it. R's handbag gets secured with a plastic cable tie. We find the biscuits, and with difficulty, the sweets. There are some multi coloured things in a hard plastic box which are descibed as boiled sweets. We take a chance. On the way out we see another rack of sweets containing ' Big Orange Slices'. Hang the expense! Let's go with both types.

Leading international retailers have not yet spotted the opportunity that awaits in Jalgaon and most of the mall is vacant. R does spot a Bata shoe shop and decides to look at their sandals. The ladies' styles do not have big enough sizes but there is one pair of men's that looks good and fits. A mere Rs799. We politely decline the offer of the shoebox.







Next up is our host's recommended watering hole where have a couple of beers before heading around the block to the Arya Hotel, his recommended restaurant.  We have a veg biryani with stuffed pepper and makhani daal. More than we can eat and change out of £3.