Ajanta – Delhi 1 day.

March 18th

Tick…

We checked out of our hotel early and jumped in the taxi, bags included. We drove through the coolness of the morning to Ajanta. By 10am we arrived. The heat was already stifling.

… We are driving through a small town just south of the site of the Ajanta caves. M is asleep in my lap. I am taking in the scenery. The people in the town are busy about their business. It looks like market day today. I am watching a group of young kids interacting and I am remembering the words of my friend, Lynne, telling me if I wanted to see people behaving like animals watch a bunch of teenagers. She is so right. Their hormones are controlling them completely. The guys are preening, posing and strutting around. The girls are simpering, encouraging, categorising, selecting and dismissing. It often strikes me that we have no idea of what we are doing most of the time. We are slaves to our bodies needs, our emotions, our greed, our lust. What makes us think we can aspire to be more? Is it essentially human to constantly fail in this way? Or is failure actually part of the design…

Ajanta, from first impressions, seemed to be much more extensive and evocative than the caves of Ellora. We left our cab and were immediately funnelled through a vanguard of shops and tourist tack. After which we boarded a local bus to take us to the site itself. God it was hot. We climbed up a steep set of steps and walked into the valley of Ajanta. The caves were dotted around on one side of the valley each one carved from the solid rock. Below on the valley floor a dry water-course ran. There was no water to be seen. At least each cave was inside and cool.

The caves numbered around 34. They were not, as Ellora had been, grouped in chronological order. Ok, some were, however others were updated from older temples and some were later additions; juxtaposed with much earlier work. They were stunning. More so than Ellora as many of the original paintings were still in situ, showing great stories of journeys to mythical lands in the north – in now modern Tibet - and even more fantastical lands to the south – modern day Sri Lanka – filled with strange beasts, demons, and succubi. Outside of the caves, Langurs roamed, begging for food scraps, stealing tourists items and generally being true to the nature of mischevious monkeys.

We finished up the tour around 1pm, very hot and drained. We opted to skip lunch until we got to the airport at Aurangabad where we were to fly to Delhi. Time we were moving. Time was getting impatient.

… We are sitting in the departure lounge in Aurangabad. The flight is delayed. The cafeteria is abysmal. We have had a cup of tea and something mixed between a sandwich and a washing-up sponge with vegetables in it. It took them twenty minutes to find the security attendant to check our bags through the X-ray macbine. We are going to be here for some time. I am flicking through a local newspaper published in English. I come across an article that piques my interest:

‘29 injured in bus crash.

Yesterday 29 people, including a driver, were injured in a bus accident between Aurangabad and Ellora. The accident occurred when the brakes on the bus failed. The driver managed to swerve at the last moment avoiding a head-on crash with an oncoming vehicle. Nobody was seriously hurt although many people suffered whiplash.’

And there was me thinking they need to cut down on playing chicken on public transport…

We got to Delhi late in the evening. We jumped in a taxi to the back-packing area, Parharganj. We had rang and booked a room in a mid-range hotel. The taxi driver dumped us someway off though. As we were walking around trying to find it we came across the Hotel Vivek. We enquired as to available rooms and found that for six quid each we could stay in an A/C room with an en-suite bathroom, double-bed, and plasma TV. Well… sometimes even backpackers need a break.