Ajunta Caves & After

14th June.
Difficult to leave the accommodation at Allora Caves as we had a cottages overlooking the caves. The big thing was it was well maintained and very clean. Not so some of the places we have stayed.
The Ajunta Caves were just over 100kms from Allora but built much earlier. These are only Buddhist caves and many are over 2,000 years old. They have less carving but are full of paintings depicting the life and times of Buddha. The artwork of many of them is still striking after all that time. Flash cameras are not permitted inside making it difficult to capture the fine work displayed on the walls. We shared a guide with a couple from Hyderabad we got talking to. I have spoken about the discrepancy between what the Indian nationals pay and foreigners at these sites. The locals pay the equivalent of AU30c while we pay over $8. Still, it lets the locals see part of their history and the $8 to see such places is not excessive.
An Indian Snippet as reported in the latest edition of “India Today”: The Indian Parliament building in Delhi was being invaded by a group of Rhesus Monkeys who stole the food, scattered and tore up important papers and generally caused mayhem. All methods of deterring them proved fruitless until a young bloke offered the services of his Hire-a-Monkey business. His was a different, larger type of animal that scared the living bijeesus out of the Rhesus troublemakers. Did the trick it seems. It could only happen in India.
16th June Ratlam.
Two days of driving with a break this morning to visit the ghost city of Mandu. The driving yesterday was not fun. The road we were on used to be a major route between Delhi & Mumbai but a new dual lane highway has been built further to the west. The surface was patches over patches, the trucks were thick and the driving the worst I think we have seen. We saw 4 accidents including a vehicle going over the side of a high bridge. We did 330kms taking almost 8 hours to cover that distance. I was quite drained at the end of it.
However Mandu was a surprise, we had been told about it at the Ajunta Caves and it was really worth the discomfort. Built on the top of a range of hills its heyday was between the 13th & 15th centuries. Many of the buildings are still in very god shape the most famous of them is the Jahaz Mahal, commonly called the Ship Palace as it looks like a ship's bridge with a lake on either side of it. I believe it used to be the harem. The hotel we stayed overlooked a deep ravine with swirling mist racing up its sides at dusk. It was a haven for the night.
We left Mandu about 11am and travelled to Ratlam where this is being written. A town not in the guide books and, by the antics of the locals, doesn't see many white faces.