{it's got mountains, it's got rivers, it's got sights to give you shivers}

"i bought a ticket for the long way round. the one with the prettiest of views. it's got mountains, it's got rivers, it's got sights to give you shivers. and it should would've been prettier with you."

This past weekend we took our first trip outside of Loni. We went to the near by city of Aurangabad and some scenic places around the area. It was great to get out of Loni and out of my room. There is not a whole lot to do here; I was starting to become a little stir crazy after being here for 2 weeks and not doing much of anything during the days and then sitting even more at night. The time difference makes it hard to talk to people at home all the time and so I try to find things to occupy myself during the evenings.

Our trip was so much fun. We were able to see some really cool things and we even made it through a couple of the road bumps that we encountered. We were only gone for a night but we filled the 2 days we had out to the max. I'll give you all a little recap of our events.

We left early Saturday morning (6am) and drove 3 hours to our first location of the Ellora Caves. There are a total of 34 caves. We were able to see 1-22 or something like that. Some of the caves required taking a small little vehicle to get to due to some construction on the path (aka fallen rocks). We opted out of seeing all of the caves as we were hot and tired of all the walking, plus we were headed to see more caves at another location. Some of the caves were more ornate than others but overall it was amazing to think that people at some point carved these caves out.

While at Ellora we had our first experience being a white person in India. People were taking our picture left and right as if we were the main attraction. Many people asked to take pictures with us or my favorite was when we asked a guy to take our picture, he said yes and then walked away. We assumed that he did not understand until he all of a sudden appeared with a bunch of his family and friends. They lined up with him with their own cameras and literally took our picture... I snapped a picture of them taking our picture. I now have a slight idea of what it feels like to live in a zoo or be a celebrity who has paparazzi follow them around.

Our next stop of was the Ajanta caves. These caves were carved into the side of a mountain. We were able to see almost all of the caves. These caves were more preserved. Many of them still have parts of the murals that had been painted on the walls and ceilings. We were required to remove our shoes for each of the caves and were not allowed to use flash photography. The caves were at least lit a little bit with lights to allow us to see the details of the carvings and paintings. They were amazing. Again we were hot and sweaty after all of the walking and stairs.

We headed into Aurangabad after eating at a restaurant at the Ajanta caves. It was our first time eating off of campus. The food was actually really good and not very spicy. Once we made it to Aurangabad we checked into our hotel which was a challenge since none of us brought our passports which little known to us was required to stay. Luckily they let us stay anyways. Our hotel was very nice. We had an american style meal (which was SO good) and then headed to beds in actual comfortable beds.

Sunday morning we started early again going first to the Bibi Ka Maqbara, the mini taj mahal. This was also very cool. It was so intricate and ornate. It was built by the son of the man who built the Taj Mahal as a replica in memory of his wife. Her body still lies in it, and some people throw down offerings to her corpse... which is super weird.

After the mini taj we headed to the Daulatabad fort. It is a bunch of old ruins or forts. You start at the base of the mountain working your way through the various forts build during different times climbing all the way to the top, about 200m high. Let me tell you, it was not a day to forget my inhaler. With the altitude and the uncountable number of stairs we took by the time we made it to the top we were exhausted. The view at the top was amazing though, totally worth the climb. Coming back down was a bit of a challenge as well as some of the stairs were steep or crumbling. So glad we did it and got our exercise though.

We decided we were done with our calorie burning activities for the weekend and headed to the Prozone Mall. It is an american style mall. We did a bunch of shopping and then hit the food court for some food. We ate at KFC, which was very similar to American food, Thank God! We did a little bit more shopping purchasing Indian style clothing that we would wear back home, got some ice cream from Baskin Robin's and jumped back in the car for the 3 hour drive home.

By the time we had it home, I was exhausted and wanted to shower. I am so glad that we were able to take our trip, and having a weekend filled with many Americanized things was fabulous, little pieces of home. We were able to see some amazing things!


Here are a few pics. You can see more here:  Aurangabad weekend pics