Snoozing until 6:45am, out the door by 7:05am, and a quick rickshaw ride later, we enter class at 7:25am. Though 10 minutes late according to our timetables (which we quickly learnt have no relation to the actual beginning of class!), we are still some of the first students to arrive. I pass the time waiting for the professor by looking at the dog sleeping beside me while Emilie plays a game on my ipod Touch. I listen as the other students give up hope that the professor will show up and in fact, it turns out our professor has decided to skip his Monday morning 7:15am class (Ahhhh India!). Take two, we go to our Labour Laws class and there at least the professor has shown up and we at least get half an education today. We head over to the library to see if our student cards are ready but the librarian isn’t there. We’ll try tomorrow. Home for movies and it’s worth mentioning the delicious baked fruit supper we have. To date, our restaurant hasn’t seized to impress.
Tuesday
Today our blind professor does show up. A highlight of the class is the continued presence of my dog companion, who again sleeps beside my desk in the aisle. To my great disappointment, the caretaker escorting our professor shoos the dog out of class but minutes later he returns through the back door and takes his place beside me and sleeps the rest of class. After our second lecture, we again head to the library to try and get our ID cards. Once again, the librarian is still not there and no one else can help us. This is a frustrating thing we will continue to experience throughout the week: If a task is not in someone’s job description, they are either incapable or unwilling to help you in any way… though it’s not much better when the task does fall within their job description! Discouraged, we walk out of the College and run into Mrs. Sakalkhar. She informs us that school will likely be extended by a week or two but they are still waiting for confirmation from the University.
Back at the hotel, Vaishali calls us and tells us she is taking some of the other Canadians to the police headquarters to get registered. She’s not sure how the process works or whether we even need to do it but invites us to come along if we like. Thinking it’s better to do this with her than alone, we agree. For the sake of a comprehensive blog, I’m going to focus now on the hoops and ladders we jumped through over the span of a couple of days, all in the hopes of registering as foreign nationals at the police HQ.
First Vaishali dropped by to talk to our hotel manager about the “A Form” they had. When a foreign national resides somewhere in India, the owners of that place must immediately fill out this form, register it with police, and then keep it with them in case the police were to drop by and check up on them. Vaishali wasn’t sure if we needed the original or not, but either way we needed a copy of the form. The assistant manager sent a member of the staff out to the nearest Xerox center on the street and came back with a copy for us. Vaishali asked if we could also borrow the original but the assistant manager wasn’t sure about this and referred her to the manager. She said she would call him later that night and hopefully when she came to pick us up the next day, we would be able to bring it with us.
The next day we were indeed able to borrow the original form, meet with Vaishali, and together we drove to the International Center at the university where we also needed another letter from the University confirming our registration. With that letter in hand, Vaishali drove us, Aisha, Kathleen, and Michelle to the police HQ. Vaishali wasn’t quite sure where it was though and we spent some time looking for it. When we finally found the police station, it turned out not to be the right one. From there we walked to another building about 10 minutes away, which of course turned out also not to be the right office. This one was where that “A Form” was registered but of course that wouldn’t be where foreign nationals would register. We were redirected to another office but since Michelle had a class to attend, we first drove her back to the University and Vaishali decided to leave her car there and that we should just take rickshaws to the Police Commissioner’s Office since she wasn’t sure where that was. It turned out it was just further down the way we had already gone, and retracing our steps once again, we made our way to the HQ (witnessing a small road accident along the way).
And by small road accident, he means a school girl riding a bike who smashed into a van who stopped suddenly!! But it turns out she seemed ok and after getting back on her bike, she was on her way again.
At the HQ, we registered with security at the entrance, found the appropriate building, passed security, and stopped in front of a hallway filled with foreigners, all bunched together and trying to enter a doorway. We asked around and the “C Form” we needed to fill out was inside that door. Thankfully someone was able to make their way through the scrum and pull out some forms for us. We headed back out of there to find the nearest Xerox machine (4 copies of the form are needed) and of course there were no photocopiers in that building. We located a Xerox place (there are a LOT of these everywhere in Pune) where we proceeded to fill out the form asking us about our citizenship, how it was acquired, where we arrived from, what we were doing there, height, eye color, etc. etc. etc. etc. Kathleen and Aisha also took passport photos as those were required on all 4 copies of the “C Form” and then just for shits and giggles, we decided to make copies of our passports, visas, and “A Forms” 4 times each just in case. Back at the HQ, the scrum of foreigners informed us that the doorway was indeed where you dropped off your forms, but that this could only be done between 11-1:30pm, and given it was now 4pm, we were shit out of luck. This meant two things, first we essentially got nothing accomplished today, despite 6 hours of running around, and secondly we would have to come back at least two more times: once simply to drop off our forms and then again another day to pick up our registration documents. Ahhhhh India! Defeated, we headed back to the University, from where Vaishali drove us back to the hotel. Later that evening the manager made sure we gave him back the original “A Form” as he would be in a lot of trouble if they were caught without it.
Not eager to repeat that marathon and a little under the weather the next couple of days, we only headed back to the police HQ after school on Friday. By the time we arrived, a sizable lineup had already formed and we patiently waited our turn as one or two at a time, foreigners were allowed in through the door to deposit their forms. During the wait we met a nice German girl recently arrived who was to study English and complete her thesis. Several Africans, Europeans, Asians and Middle Easterners (mostly Iranians) were also there and then Kara, Kathleen, and Aisha also showed up to drop off their forms. A half-hour later my turn came up (the wait having been made longer by an impromptu tea break taken by the employees).
I squeezed into the room and politely handed over my documents. 5 staff members chatted in Marathi, joking around and laughing, sometimes seemingly about me… The woman dealing with me was quite rude…
She: “Where is your “A Form”? This is not the original.”
Me: Oh God… “Yes I know, the hotel manager did not want to give it to us, but this is a copy. You can call him.”
She continues flipping pages. “Passport”
I hand her my passport and she flips through it. “This says you arrived August 3, why did you write 2nd?”
Me: “We arrived the second at night, but before midnight”.
She: “This says third, you write third”.
I correct the date on all four forms. And then the real fun begins…
She: “You had to register within 14 days of arriving. You have to pay late fee.”
Me: “But we couldn’t come sooner. We received the letter from the University just this week.”
She couldn’t have cared less. The fact we had just received the letter we needed from the University didn’t matter. The fact it was closed because of swine flu didn’t matter. This was our fault, we had to deal with it, and we had to pay the fine regardless. She was however generous enough to offer us a discount on our fine! Should we go to the bank, we would have to pay a fee of Rs 1,500 each, but if we paid right now, in cash, we would only have to pay Rs 1,000 each (i.e. pay her a nice bribe under the table and this would be taken care of). Several things bothered me about this, a lot! We were being forced to pay a significant fine for something that was in no way our fault and the only thing we could do was to pay, or pay a slightly less sizable bribe, at the POLICE commissioner’s office!!! We refused to pay, they refused to take our forms, and we left angry. On our way out we spoke to the girls who weren’t sure themselves what they were going to do. Once again, we had accomplished nothing and weren’t getting any further ahead in this.
I must say, this was the first time that I was fuming about how things work in India…I’ve been frustrated before but having to pay late fees for decisions made by the GOVERNMENT (i.e. to close the school) was definitely not our fault and we shouldn’t be penalized for it! But clearly, they didn’t care cause they were making money off of this!
Adding to our frustration, on the way home our rickshaw driver took us on a shortcut which actually turned out to be a longer detour. We argued with him and after paying him Rs 60, we walked off. He actually had the nerve to drive up to us and ask for Rs 3 more! I yelled at him telling him he was lucky I was paying him that and walked off. He continued following us, now wanting Rs 10. We ignored him and kept on walking and he finally gave up and drove us.
Now quite angered by the day’s scamming, we hid in our room and vowed not to come out until supper, lest someone else try to cheat us. A few hours later Vaishali called us. She had spoken with the other girls who had called her from the Police HQ and after speaking to the woman there (the one asking for a bribe), she told us we were right not to pay her because there was no guarantee anything would actually get done and we would have received no proof of payment. She then gave us more good news: After speaking with the coordinator of the German exchange program to Maharashtra, she found out that if our Visa was valid for less than 180 days, we didn’t even need to register as foreign nationals! We looked at our visas and in very fine print, it was indeed written that. Not surprisingly, everyone at the HQ had forgotten to mention this to us! And with that, several useless frustrating hours, pointless rickshaw rides and useless photocopying later, our experience registering as foreign nationals was over.
Sadly, this wasn’t the only administrative hell we had to deal with that week. By Saturday, we still had not received our student cards, which we needed both to take out books and to use the computer room. After visiting the library on a daily basis (the librarian was never there), the desk where all students go to get their cards and to the man in another office who had taken our forms 3 weeks earlier, we still didn’t have our student cards. The most entertaining illustrations of what we had to deal with follow.
We went to the library and they directed us to the desk down another hall where all students get their cards. There we asked for our cards, showing the forms we had gotten with our rolls numbers: C-112 and C-113. They ask us for our roll numbers. Despite having already given them the form and pointing out the number, we repeat it several times. They start looking through a box of student cards. Nope, no card there. They direct us to the librarian. When we’re told at the library a few days later to go back to that desk, we ask again for our cards: C-112 and C-113. They look through the box once again and pull out a card. I take the card and look at it. Well let’s see… I’m not in first year… That’s not my name… I’m not Indian… Oh and I’m not a girl! When I point this out to them, without blinking, they point at the number and say “112”. “But I’m C-112!” “112” they reply, pointing again at the number on the card. The worst thing is, they don’t want the card back. I literally could have walked away with my card and who knows, maybe if someone asked me for it, it could’ve have worked if I just repeated robotically “112”?! Maybe I really should’ve just done that… Instead I pointed out once again that this clearly wasn’t me and finally, one of them gets up and slowly, OH SO SLOWLY, shuffles his way along to the library with us in tow. There the librarian has decided to make an appearance. We speak to her about the card issue. At one point, she picks up the phone and starts talking about our cards. We realize soon after that she hadn’t actually called directly to whoever needed to be spoken to, but had instead phoned the assistant librarian, who was one desk away, and had asked her to call to find out what was happening… A few minutes later, a man walks over and he hands the librarian… no, not our cards, but the forms we had filled out 3 weeks earlier, still untouched and unprocessed. The librarian promises they will be ready by 4pm, but we know better, and vow not to return until the middle of next week.
Just one final story to show that the robotic “112” incident wasn’t a fluke. We went to the reading room to look at textbooks we needed for our classes. Unfortunately this is located in the same place as the desk with the student cards. When I ask for certain books, one of those same men asks me for my student card… I show them the form we received when we paid, which Sakalkhar had told me to give them, and ask for our books. He looks at the roll number and begins searching through the box of student cards. He finds one and pulls it out, hands it to me. You guessed it, it’s the 112 Indian girl’s card!!! Once again I show him the photo and my face and try to explain the librarian is taking care of our cards and that Mrs. Sakalkhar said the form would be ok for now. He grudgingly takes the form. He then begins looking for the books I’m asking him for. Among the four books I need is “International Economic Law” by S.R. Myneni. He returns with the books and Emilie and I begin to look through them. We notice that the Myneni book he gave me is actually “Economic Order in India”. Ok, honest mistake. I go back to the man and show him the book and the name of the one on my syllabus. “Myneni” he says pointing at the author’s name. “Yes but this is not the right book. I’m looking for International Economic Law, not Economic Order in India”, clearly pointing out the two titles. “Myneni” he repeats, pointing at the name. “Yes but not the same title,” I reply. “This wrong,” he says. I plead with him, “but this is the syllabus for the class, and I need this book. I’ve seen other students with this book.” He finally gives up, points to a shelf behind his desk with books on economic law, and invites me to come around. I walk over, see the right book, grab it, look at him (his face is completely uninterested), and walk back to the desk, wonder how on Earth this college can afford to employ robots as staff members.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Day 23: Hanging out with the Canucks
As we were chilling in our room trying to figure out if we should just chill out or go do something, Aisha called us to let us know that the rest of the gang was going to the German Bakery. She wanted to know if we wanted to join them and then go to their place to watch a movie. We were debating going to the German Bakery since we had already been (and it’s not that spectacular!) and the rickshaw ride there would be pretty expensive (for our new standards anyways!). So we declined going to the bakery but agreed to meet them at their place at 5pm to watch a movie. Lucky for us, they have internet at home so we’d also be able to fix my computer…or try to anyways!
So around 4:30pm we made our way over, met up with the gang and we all went out for supper at the little restaurant across the street from their place. We went back to their place and while Aisha and I watched HP, Yan and Kathleen traded pictures and movies and Yan also started fixing the computer. We went back home at around 10:30pm and of course had to argue with a rickshaw driver again who wanted to charge us Rs250 to bring us back to the hotel (when to get there we paid no more than Rs60) because it was dark outside!!
Some drivers want to charge more at night, either asking for a fixed much higher price or to go with the meter but charge at 1.5 times the regular rate. Usually there are enough drivers around that you can find one to drive you at a reasonable price but in this case, the other Canadians live in a more upscale neighborhood where all the drivers expect to be able to charge more. We finally settled on Rs100 (about $2.50) with a driver for this ride.
We made it home and prepared ourselves mentally for the early morning since school was starting, for sure this time, tomorrow morning.
So around 4:30pm we made our way over, met up with the gang and we all went out for supper at the little restaurant across the street from their place. We went back to their place and while Aisha and I watched HP, Yan and Kathleen traded pictures and movies and Yan also started fixing the computer. We went back home at around 10:30pm and of course had to argue with a rickshaw driver again who wanted to charge us Rs250 to bring us back to the hotel (when to get there we paid no more than Rs60) because it was dark outside!!
Some drivers want to charge more at night, either asking for a fixed much higher price or to go with the meter but charge at 1.5 times the regular rate. Usually there are enough drivers around that you can find one to drive you at a reasonable price but in this case, the other Canadians live in a more upscale neighborhood where all the drivers expect to be able to charge more. We finally settled on Rs100 (about $2.50) with a driver for this ride.
We made it home and prepared ourselves mentally for the early morning since school was starting, for sure this time, tomorrow morning.
Day 22: Escape to Pune
This morning we were greeted by a few dead cockroaches lying around on the floor. Apparently those chemical incense sticks really work a number on those things. Now let’s just hope the “non-toxic” label really means it! We packed up our stuff, looking over it thoroughly for any survivors, and then bid our cockroach palace adieu. We stopped for another ice cream type drink for breakfast (it was a great drink that was basically frozen strawberries and cream with a little bit of ice cream in the middle…My grandma would be so proud!!) and caught the next bus out to Pune. The ride back offered more great views of the countryside as we made our way down the mountain and back to our beloved Hotel Rudra. Happy to be home, we relaxed the rest of the day and enjoyed good food at our yummy restaurant and the cockroach-free environment!
Day 21: Mountain views, monkeys, and cockroaches
We woke up this morning ready for another day of exploring beautiful Mahabaleshwar. Although we were a bit tired after having slept with one eye open, we carefully got out of our cocoon so as to not step on any cockroaches, quickly got ready and headed out the door. Trying to figure out what to eat for breakfast, we headed to a general store, bought a bottle of water and a bag of cookies…yup, breakfast of champions!!
We decided to walk to Old Mahabaleshwar to visit a couple of old temples, catch some good views of the mountains and to get some fresh air and exercise…little did we know, we would have to walk for about 1.5 hours before even getting there!! As we walked (before even getting to our destination), we decided that we would need to pay up and hire a taxi in order for us to be able to see all that Mahabaleshwar has to offer!!
The village of Old Mahabaleshwar has two ancient temples: the Panchganga Mandir which is said to contain the springs of five rivers including the sacred Krishna River and the Mahabaleshwar Mandir which has naturally formed lingam. Once we were done touring the temples and the rest of this little town, we found a taxi offering to take us to all the major points for Rs 400, only thing is that we would share this taxi with an Indian couple. Turns out they were from Pune as well and we got along great!! We got in the taxi, happy that we were going to be able to see all the major points.
We started off by stopping at a site with three different points that were within walking distance of each other and which included Kate’s point and Niddal Hole (Needle hole) Point. The views here were absolutely stunning. You could see all the way down the valley where the river flowed between both mountains…spectacular! When we got to the last point called echo point, there was a bunch of monkeys standing around grooming each other. One of the smaller ones kept getting closer and closer to us so we took pictures of it and it seemed to pose for us!! We moved on a bit further and he followed us. I was sad that we didn’t have any food to give it but then Yan reminded me that we may still have crumbs from our cookies! I looked in my coat pocket and as soon as he heard the bag crinkling, he moved closer with his hand outstretched to me so I finally got the crumbs out in my palm and handed them to him!! He gently and carefully took every last crumb and just as I was about to give him more, Yan told me that he wanted to feed him too. So I handed the crumbs over to Yan and just as the monkey started eating out of his hand, these two HUGE monkeys run towards Yan to get some crumbs!!! Naturally, Yan freaks out, throws the bag in the air and runs away from the monkeys!!
I wish I could twist this around somehow but really that is pretty much exactly what happened… Those things were big, mean, hungry looking and aiming to pounce!
They seemed pretty vicious and looked hungry!! Close call :) (I am purposely suppressing the other monkey story we have…if you really want to know, ask me and I will try my best to recall the memory!)
Wow, I totally would have talked about this horrifying life-altering event if I was writing today’s entry into our travel blog… oh well! :) Let’s just say Emilie and I were traumatized and we’ll never look at a monkey the same way again!
After seeing these beautiful views, we headed back to the car and stopped to see some strawberry fields (empty because they weren’t in season yet). Mahabaleshwar is known for its strawberry fields but as we learned, the strawberry plants are actually imported from California!!! We never actually knew why they began importing the plants here, but it is now the biggest tourist attraction in Mahabaleshwar! Then we made our way to Lingmala Waterfall which was pretty impressive!!! The guide then took us to another little waterfall where we got to take off our shoes and play in the water for a bit!! He even became our own little photographer! Such wonderful people!!
These guides are some of the best photographers I’ve seen on this trip :) They’ll set you up in poses and everything, really great people! And to think they just standing around at the beginning of these paths, waiting on the off-chance that some driver will bring him tourists to this point! And all they expect for taking you around and showing you the site for at least a half-hour is a Rs 30 tip.
Our third stop was a small temple called Shri Ganesh Manir, where we saw our travelling companions perform the appropriate ritual: ringing the bell, praying at the shrine and then circling it before making your way out. From there we climbed up the mountain to Plato Point and King Chair, with beautiful views of green belts and forests where tigers reside!! Not the type of place where you would want to accidently fall over the edge! Our last stop was Wilson Point, the highest point in Mahabaleshwar. You could even feel the difference in temperature here! Much colder and cloudier! We then all made our way back to the market of Mahabaleshwar and thus ended our tour!
We decided to have snacks for supper so we went to a cart selling grilled corn and masala corn. We had one of each (Yan had never had grilled corn and I had never had masala corn…turns out both are delicious!) and then went to a fast food joint for a strawberry milkshake…soooo good!! When we made our way back to the hotel, our first reflex was, of course, to look for cockroaches…bad idea!! Yan had seen one go behind the corner cabinet and he had tried to kill it with no success…so we decided to move the cabinet!! Behind it, we saw about 10 more cockroaches!! I think I would’ve rather lived in blissful ignorance!!! No such thing tonight so Yan went to work trying to kill them…in the end, 6 cockroaches died at the hand of the cockroach Jedi Master and 2 died from the poison we were burning to kill them!!
We had stopped at the reception and as we paid, the guy opened a drawer and I saw something against cockroaches. When he left to get change, I opened it to see what it was. They were some kind of incense sticks you burnt (non-toxic apparently) and within 3 days your place was supposed to be cockroach free! When the guy came back I told him we had seen a couple of cockroaches and he offered us the sticks and went and got some matches for us. I think he was pretty amazed we hadn’t freaked and left already but at that point we had only seen the two… And we figured we’ll likely stay in more places like these during our trip so we might as well get used to it! Anyway the incense really seemed to work! Downside is it brought out the cockroaches but they were slower and easier to kill. We’re well on our way to become expert exterminators now. Oh and I did end up killing that huge cockroaches whose antlers we had seen the night before. And he really was huge, about 5 inches long…
We, of course, slept in our cocoon again to protect ourselves during the night!
**Cockroaches WERE hurt during the making of this blog**
We decided to walk to Old Mahabaleshwar to visit a couple of old temples, catch some good views of the mountains and to get some fresh air and exercise…little did we know, we would have to walk for about 1.5 hours before even getting there!! As we walked (before even getting to our destination), we decided that we would need to pay up and hire a taxi in order for us to be able to see all that Mahabaleshwar has to offer!!
The village of Old Mahabaleshwar has two ancient temples: the Panchganga Mandir which is said to contain the springs of five rivers including the sacred Krishna River and the Mahabaleshwar Mandir which has naturally formed lingam. Once we were done touring the temples and the rest of this little town, we found a taxi offering to take us to all the major points for Rs 400, only thing is that we would share this taxi with an Indian couple. Turns out they were from Pune as well and we got along great!! We got in the taxi, happy that we were going to be able to see all the major points.
We started off by stopping at a site with three different points that were within walking distance of each other and which included Kate’s point and Niddal Hole (Needle hole) Point. The views here were absolutely stunning. You could see all the way down the valley where the river flowed between both mountains…spectacular! When we got to the last point called echo point, there was a bunch of monkeys standing around grooming each other. One of the smaller ones kept getting closer and closer to us so we took pictures of it and it seemed to pose for us!! We moved on a bit further and he followed us. I was sad that we didn’t have any food to give it but then Yan reminded me that we may still have crumbs from our cookies! I looked in my coat pocket and as soon as he heard the bag crinkling, he moved closer with his hand outstretched to me so I finally got the crumbs out in my palm and handed them to him!! He gently and carefully took every last crumb and just as I was about to give him more, Yan told me that he wanted to feed him too. So I handed the crumbs over to Yan and just as the monkey started eating out of his hand, these two HUGE monkeys run towards Yan to get some crumbs!!! Naturally, Yan freaks out, throws the bag in the air and runs away from the monkeys!!
I wish I could twist this around somehow but really that is pretty much exactly what happened… Those things were big, mean, hungry looking and aiming to pounce!
They seemed pretty vicious and looked hungry!! Close call :) (I am purposely suppressing the other monkey story we have…if you really want to know, ask me and I will try my best to recall the memory!)
Wow, I totally would have talked about this horrifying life-altering event if I was writing today’s entry into our travel blog… oh well! :) Let’s just say Emilie and I were traumatized and we’ll never look at a monkey the same way again!
After seeing these beautiful views, we headed back to the car and stopped to see some strawberry fields (empty because they weren’t in season yet). Mahabaleshwar is known for its strawberry fields but as we learned, the strawberry plants are actually imported from California!!! We never actually knew why they began importing the plants here, but it is now the biggest tourist attraction in Mahabaleshwar! Then we made our way to Lingmala Waterfall which was pretty impressive!!! The guide then took us to another little waterfall where we got to take off our shoes and play in the water for a bit!! He even became our own little photographer! Such wonderful people!!
These guides are some of the best photographers I’ve seen on this trip :) They’ll set you up in poses and everything, really great people! And to think they just standing around at the beginning of these paths, waiting on the off-chance that some driver will bring him tourists to this point! And all they expect for taking you around and showing you the site for at least a half-hour is a Rs 30 tip.
Our third stop was a small temple called Shri Ganesh Manir, where we saw our travelling companions perform the appropriate ritual: ringing the bell, praying at the shrine and then circling it before making your way out. From there we climbed up the mountain to Plato Point and King Chair, with beautiful views of green belts and forests where tigers reside!! Not the type of place where you would want to accidently fall over the edge! Our last stop was Wilson Point, the highest point in Mahabaleshwar. You could even feel the difference in temperature here! Much colder and cloudier! We then all made our way back to the market of Mahabaleshwar and thus ended our tour!
We decided to have snacks for supper so we went to a cart selling grilled corn and masala corn. We had one of each (Yan had never had grilled corn and I had never had masala corn…turns out both are delicious!) and then went to a fast food joint for a strawberry milkshake…soooo good!! When we made our way back to the hotel, our first reflex was, of course, to look for cockroaches…bad idea!! Yan had seen one go behind the corner cabinet and he had tried to kill it with no success…so we decided to move the cabinet!! Behind it, we saw about 10 more cockroaches!! I think I would’ve rather lived in blissful ignorance!!! No such thing tonight so Yan went to work trying to kill them…in the end, 6 cockroaches died at the hand of the cockroach Jedi Master and 2 died from the poison we were burning to kill them!!
We had stopped at the reception and as we paid, the guy opened a drawer and I saw something against cockroaches. When he left to get change, I opened it to see what it was. They were some kind of incense sticks you burnt (non-toxic apparently) and within 3 days your place was supposed to be cockroach free! When the guy came back I told him we had seen a couple of cockroaches and he offered us the sticks and went and got some matches for us. I think he was pretty amazed we hadn’t freaked and left already but at that point we had only seen the two… And we figured we’ll likely stay in more places like these during our trip so we might as well get used to it! Anyway the incense really seemed to work! Downside is it brought out the cockroaches but they were slower and easier to kill. We’re well on our way to become expert exterminators now. Oh and I did end up killing that huge cockroaches whose antlers we had seen the night before. And he really was huge, about 5 inches long…
We, of course, slept in our cocoon again to protect ourselves during the night!
**Cockroaches WERE hurt during the making of this blog**
Day 20: Off to Mahabaleshwar!
This morning we set out for Mahabaleshwar, a hill station up in the Western Ghats. Mahabaleshwar itself is a small town of 13,000 but the area offers stunning views of the surrounding valleys. While it attracts hordes of visitors during the holidays (summer school holidays, Christmas and Diwali), it apparently shuts down during the monsoon season when an average 6 meters of rain falls on the region. We weren’t sure what to expect since on the one hand, we are still in monsoon season, while on the other everyone’s told us this has been uncharacteristically dry season. Either way, we knew the views were still there waiting for us!
To get to our destination, we first took a rickshaw to Swargate bus stand. The driver naturally asked a little extra from us since we were travelling and he figured us as easy prey… he figured wrong. Swargate is on a bustling road with a bus stop for city buses in the middle of it and dozens of rickshaws lining both sides of the road waiting for passenger arriving from all over. Add to that the typical heavy Pune traffic of any main road and you can consider crossing this street intact as an accomplishment for the day.
The bus station itself is an open roofed area with seats in the middle and little shops to each side. The signage was strictly in Marathi and we had to ask around to know from which gate our bus would depart. One of the employees pointed us to the right gate and told us the next bus was at 10:40am and tickets were Rs 105 each. Since a private bus would have cost us 3 to 4 times that amount, we were quite happy with our decision to stick with government buses. We sat down, read to wait patiently, but soon realized this would prove a little trickier than first thought. Buses were coming and going from our gate every few minutes. As soon as a bus stopped, it was swamped with passengers, filled, and off on its way. Each bus had a sign in Marathi only and so I would quickly get up at every new arrival to confirm whether this was our bus. Thankfully at one point another guy told us he was also taking that bus and could let us know when it arrived. Thanking him, I then watched as he rose every time a bus arrived to check with the driver whether it was the right bus! Apparently the number of buses and confusing signage isn’t much less confusing to the local.
On a little “ahhhh India” side note: On our way back from Mahabaleshwar, about 20 minutes into the trip came across an oncoming bus. Both buses stopped as they passed each other and the drivers took down the signs they had on their windshields and exchanged them through their windows. Maybe it’s a good thing we can’t read Marathi!
When our bus arrived, we hopped on and took a seat at the back. We were of course the only non-Indian travelers onboard. Just as on our trip back from Aurangabad, men with trays of food/water/newspapers walked along the side of the bus selling their goods. Some would even enter the bus and walk up and down the aisle. An added twist here however, was the entertaining infomercial some salesmen provided. One in particular, selling a juicer, stood at the front of the bus and for about 5 minutes, spoke about his product and demonstrated its use. I literally felt like changing the channel! As we finally took off, we noticed one downside to the government buses: some, like this one, could be a little stinky. Emilie was lucky enough to have the window seat and meanwhile put my mask against swine flu to good use, warding away N1H1 and the smell all at once!
FYI, I NEVER have the window seat!!!
The trip itself was pretty uneventful and Em slept some of the way while I read from beginning to end a book called Sold by Patricia McCormick. It’s a very poignant account of a 13 year old Nepalese girl, who is sold by her stepfather and taken to a brothel in India (Heartrending enough, the book was made all the more real to me days later when we stumbled upon a street in downtown Pune. There we saw several women, but also dozens of young girls, standing at doorways and waiting for clients…).
The journey to Mahabaleshwar offered some stunning views of the landscape as we made our way up into mountains. Almost 4 hours later, we arrived at the bus terminal in Mahabaleshwar and after escaping all the taxi drivers offering to take us on tours or to bring us to a hotel or restaurant, we figured out where we were on the map and headed over to the Hotel Blue Star, advertised by our Lonely Planet Guide as offering the cheapest beds in town, “but you certainly know it!” Boy can we ever confirm that out! As we looked at one of the rooms, the clerk quoted us a price of Rs 500 per night. When we showed him the price indicated in our guide, he immediately lowered the price to Rs 300 per night and we agreed.
After setting up our stuff, we set out to explore the main street, which we quickly dubbed Little Indian Las Vegas. Old slot machines and arcade games filled many shops, with restaurants, souvenirs shops, shoe/sandal stores, and stores selling jams and fudge (known in the region) making up the rest. We stopped at one shop to buy fudge and as we sampled some (they had a large selection of strawberry, chocolate, and nutty kinds), I saw a blur run across the aisle. I looked at Emilie and she informed me it was either a mouse or a rat (ahhh India!). Fudge in hand, we made our way to Bombay Point, which our Lonely Planet told us offered some stunning views of the sunset. Unfortunately, all it offered us on this day was a stunning view of a wall of clouds and mist. We next headed to the Tiger Trail, which cut a path through a forest and offered a few viewing points of Chinaman’s Falls. All in all it was a nice hour and a half long stroll through the forest and despite comically faded and crumbling signage that was impossible to read, we managed to make our way out and back into town before complete darkness hit. After a final stop at a restaurant for supper, we were ready for a good night’s sleep. And that’s where the real fun began…
As we opened the door to our room, we spotted a cockroach at the foot of the bed. A pretty big cockroach I thought at the time (oh how innocent I was back then!). I was designated cockroach killer (later renamed “the cockroach ninja”), slipped my shoes onto my hands (I was wearing sandals at the time) and while Emilie snapped photos, I smooshed my first cockroach! So that wasn’t so bad, one little cockroach is nothing to worry about right? Indeed, one cockroach is nothing to worry about. But then when we moved the blanket covering the bed, and we saw a second cockroach fall off and scurry under the bed, well that is a little bad (since when do cockroaches climb unto a bed anyway?!? That is off limits!!!). Well this bastard cockroach climbed up into the inside of the frame of the bed and no kicking would get it to budge so we grudgingly gave up, declared a truce, and instead started building a fort on our bed for the night (after going through all our stuff to make sure it was cockroach free!).
Ps: I was taking pictures because Yan asked me too. I guess he needed proof that all this was not just a nightmare but was actually happening! (Actually I wanted proof of my extreme braveness and manliness).
Thankfully we had packed our mosquito net and these liners in which to sleep. As we were ready to enter our makeshift cocoons, I spotted another cockroach… This would turn out to be the most horrifying cockroach of all… From a crack between the corner cabinet and the wall, one to two inch long cockroach antlers (or ears or whatever you call them! I do believe they’re called antennas…) were sticking out and wiggling around… You couldn’t see the actual cockroach but only imagine in horror just how large it had to be given the size of those things. With nothing to do but hit the cabinet and make that thing scurry further down into its crack, let’s just say we slept with one eye open most of that night…
Day 16-19: Back to Pune and a failed attempt at getting an education
We woke up Sunday morning, a little before our 9:00am checkout time, quickly got dressed and ready to go and headed downstairs. On our way down, a guy who worked at the hotel asked us for the key so we left it with him and as we were making our way out the gates, one of the guys at the office called us in. Yan and I looked at each other and figured he just wanted to ask us something or offer us a tour of some sort so we go into the office…where he announces that we have to pay taxes!!
Here’s a little background of our first day there. He was charging us Rs 350 if we stayed there 2 nights instead of Rs 500. Not a bad deal!! We had agreed to stay there two nights, and had made sure that the price he was charging us was going to be the only thing he was going to charge us. After having paid, he even gave us a receipt (a handwritten receipt on a notepad, very professional looking!).
Naturally, I argued that we were never told that we would need to pay taxes or anything extra. Yan and I both tried to argue with him to no avail when he announces that he’s going to call someone from the government tax department to explain it to us…DOES HE THINK I’M STUPID?!?! It’s Sunday and clearly, it’s not open!! So he calls some random dude and tells us to wait that he’ll be here in about 10 minutes. I’m getting impatient at this point and ask the guy how much taxes are. He tells me it’s 10%!!! Having looked up taxes in our Lonely Planet, Yan had told me that at the time of printing, the tax was 4% so I proceed to argue with him that there’s no way it could be higher than 6% but he continues to say otherwise. Yan and I look at each other and discuss (in French) what to do and decide that we will not pay this and we’ll just go grab our bus. We tell this to the guy who then tells us that we have to sign a piece of paper that indicates we refused to pay the tax. Yan decides to explain clearly what happened and the reason we didn’t pay and leaves our phone number in Pune and his e-mail in case some government official really does care about his 75 rupees.
The guy had threatened that they would be able to put something on our records and we would then have issues with our passport and getting out the country.
We get out of there and on the way to the bus stop we stop at another hotel to ask how much the tax is and what they do if somebody doesn’t pay it. We are assured that they cannot really do anything and that they were just trying to scare us that it was also poor taste not to tell us about the tax until the end. So we walk over to the bus station just in time to get on the bus back home!!!
The bus ride back went pretty smoothly and we got back to Pune in one piece.
We decided to take a government bus for the trip back instead of a private bus. There’s about a 270 rupee difference between the two for each ticket so we thought we’d give it a try. Turns out those buses are just as comfortable, at least the ones they use for the longer journeys, and the only real difference is no AC. That was actually fine with us since we wouldn’t freeze and I could open the window for better photos. Plus it’s pretty entertaining when the bus stops in different towns because then a whole series of salesmen will walk alongside the bus and even enter it to offer you food, drink, newspapers, and various gadgets. They’ve got their trays of items and it actually reminds me of a hockey or baseball game.
We hop on a rickshaw to head back to our hotel. Once we get to our drop off point, the guys tries to scam us by saying that we have to pay him not only the fee indicated by the meter but another half of that as well because he has to drive back to the bus station with no passengers!!! Since when is it our responsibility to pay for a cab to go back to its starting point?!?! Yan isn’t quite sure why he wants us to pay more and at this point, I’m really really ticked off!!! I tell the guy that his logic just doesn’t make sense and that it’s not our responsibility to pay for him to get back to the bus station and that we will not pay anymore than what the meter indicates. I tell Yan to pay and we walk off (me being really really pissed off and Yan still trying to figure out why he wanted more money).
This was another one of those occasions where I had no idea what the guy was saying… I thought he’d said something about a sign at the station indicating we needed to pay 20 rupees more in fees. Emilie actually understood the guy to be talking about the lack of customers for the way back as his reason and had I known that, I would’ve laughed in his face… but anywho, thankfully Emilie is there to translate! And this is just one of many cases of rickshaw drivers trying to get more money out of us. It seems there’s some days where they just all pile on. They’re also particularly bad when taking you to or from certain tourist locations or bus/train stations because they think you’ll be an easier to exploit traveler.
We were happy to go back to our hotel where nobody ever tries to scam us!! We asked the hotel manager about taxes at hotels and he said that some cities charge taxes and the amount charged depends on the price paid for the room but that for rooms under Rs 700, the tax rate is 4% while high end hotels can charge up to 10% for extra amenities…clearly, our hotel was NOT a high end hotel and did not provide us with ANY extra amenities (not even drinking water!). Yan and I were both more at ease with our decision but still pissed off at always having to be on guard for people ripping us off.
We were definitely happy that there wouldn’t be trouble for us related to our passports and getting out of the country!
We go to bed a bit sad that we have to wake up extra early tomorrow to get to school since it’s supposed to start again today (after the swine flu scare) and set our alarm for 6:40am…ugh!!
We wake up, still really tired and grab a rickshaw to go to school. As we get there, the school seems a bit empty so we head to the main building to see if there are any notes about school not starting. At the main building, where all the doors are locked, we find a nice sign stating that school will be closed until August 24 :). Happy to hear this news but a bit peeved that we had to wake up this early, we head back to the hotel to chill out, sleep and plan our next trip!
On Tuesday morning, Yan wakes up feeling a bit under the weather. I assure him that it’s probably just a little cold from the fan at the hotel in Aurangabad (since it was set to a high speed with no way to control it, it got a bit cold at night there) but he insists that he not only has malaria from all the mosquito bites he got in Aurangabad but that it must also be the swine flu on top of this cold…such a DRAMA QUEEN!!! So I babied him and nursed him back to health…yes he did only have a cold!! But nevertheless he spent the day in bed watching movies and sleeping it off insisting that he in fact had malaria/swine flu/cold!
Fact
We had decided that we would leave on Wednesday for Mahabaleshwar around noon, and on Wednesday, after having packed and all, we got a call from Vaishali letting us know that the other girls from Canada were going to her friend’s place to buy material and asked us if we wanted to join. We agreed to delay our trip for a day and she told us she could pick us up to show me where the tailor was. We went to the tailors where the woman took my measurements for the sari I was getting done, we took a quick look at materials and then headed back home. Around 3:30pm, we headed out again to go meet Vaishali’s friend as well as the other Canadians. We all met up at the India Bulls Megastore, a mall that is actually closing and we all made our way to her friend’s apartment where she not only gave us mango juice, but also cookies and snacks!!! She even ended up giving the rest of the pack of cookies to Yan cause he said he liked them so much and when we asked her for the direction to the bakery where she buys them (they really were good!), she offered to buy some for us!! We kindly declined and told her we would try to find it but that if we didn’t we would definitely call her! She was so sweet to us! I didn’t end up buying any material because I couldn’t find anything I liked but some of the other girls bought some.
We quickly stopped by the Megastore to see if we could find any deals since it was closing and Yan ended up trying a couple of shirts and some traditional outfits on and actually bought a really nice shirt for $4! We rickshawed back home and enjoyed the downtime, ready for an early morning departure the next day to Mahabaleshwar.
Here’s a little background of our first day there. He was charging us Rs 350 if we stayed there 2 nights instead of Rs 500. Not a bad deal!! We had agreed to stay there two nights, and had made sure that the price he was charging us was going to be the only thing he was going to charge us. After having paid, he even gave us a receipt (a handwritten receipt on a notepad, very professional looking!).
Naturally, I argued that we were never told that we would need to pay taxes or anything extra. Yan and I both tried to argue with him to no avail when he announces that he’s going to call someone from the government tax department to explain it to us…DOES HE THINK I’M STUPID?!?! It’s Sunday and clearly, it’s not open!! So he calls some random dude and tells us to wait that he’ll be here in about 10 minutes. I’m getting impatient at this point and ask the guy how much taxes are. He tells me it’s 10%!!! Having looked up taxes in our Lonely Planet, Yan had told me that at the time of printing, the tax was 4% so I proceed to argue with him that there’s no way it could be higher than 6% but he continues to say otherwise. Yan and I look at each other and discuss (in French) what to do and decide that we will not pay this and we’ll just go grab our bus. We tell this to the guy who then tells us that we have to sign a piece of paper that indicates we refused to pay the tax. Yan decides to explain clearly what happened and the reason we didn’t pay and leaves our phone number in Pune and his e-mail in case some government official really does care about his 75 rupees.
The guy had threatened that they would be able to put something on our records and we would then have issues with our passport and getting out the country.
We get out of there and on the way to the bus stop we stop at another hotel to ask how much the tax is and what they do if somebody doesn’t pay it. We are assured that they cannot really do anything and that they were just trying to scare us that it was also poor taste not to tell us about the tax until the end. So we walk over to the bus station just in time to get on the bus back home!!!
The bus ride back went pretty smoothly and we got back to Pune in one piece.
We decided to take a government bus for the trip back instead of a private bus. There’s about a 270 rupee difference between the two for each ticket so we thought we’d give it a try. Turns out those buses are just as comfortable, at least the ones they use for the longer journeys, and the only real difference is no AC. That was actually fine with us since we wouldn’t freeze and I could open the window for better photos. Plus it’s pretty entertaining when the bus stops in different towns because then a whole series of salesmen will walk alongside the bus and even enter it to offer you food, drink, newspapers, and various gadgets. They’ve got their trays of items and it actually reminds me of a hockey or baseball game.
We hop on a rickshaw to head back to our hotel. Once we get to our drop off point, the guys tries to scam us by saying that we have to pay him not only the fee indicated by the meter but another half of that as well because he has to drive back to the bus station with no passengers!!! Since when is it our responsibility to pay for a cab to go back to its starting point?!?! Yan isn’t quite sure why he wants us to pay more and at this point, I’m really really ticked off!!! I tell the guy that his logic just doesn’t make sense and that it’s not our responsibility to pay for him to get back to the bus station and that we will not pay anymore than what the meter indicates. I tell Yan to pay and we walk off (me being really really pissed off and Yan still trying to figure out why he wanted more money).
This was another one of those occasions where I had no idea what the guy was saying… I thought he’d said something about a sign at the station indicating we needed to pay 20 rupees more in fees. Emilie actually understood the guy to be talking about the lack of customers for the way back as his reason and had I known that, I would’ve laughed in his face… but anywho, thankfully Emilie is there to translate! And this is just one of many cases of rickshaw drivers trying to get more money out of us. It seems there’s some days where they just all pile on. They’re also particularly bad when taking you to or from certain tourist locations or bus/train stations because they think you’ll be an easier to exploit traveler.
We were happy to go back to our hotel where nobody ever tries to scam us!! We asked the hotel manager about taxes at hotels and he said that some cities charge taxes and the amount charged depends on the price paid for the room but that for rooms under Rs 700, the tax rate is 4% while high end hotels can charge up to 10% for extra amenities…clearly, our hotel was NOT a high end hotel and did not provide us with ANY extra amenities (not even drinking water!). Yan and I were both more at ease with our decision but still pissed off at always having to be on guard for people ripping us off.
We were definitely happy that there wouldn’t be trouble for us related to our passports and getting out of the country!
We go to bed a bit sad that we have to wake up extra early tomorrow to get to school since it’s supposed to start again today (after the swine flu scare) and set our alarm for 6:40am…ugh!!
We wake up, still really tired and grab a rickshaw to go to school. As we get there, the school seems a bit empty so we head to the main building to see if there are any notes about school not starting. At the main building, where all the doors are locked, we find a nice sign stating that school will be closed until August 24 :). Happy to hear this news but a bit peeved that we had to wake up this early, we head back to the hotel to chill out, sleep and plan our next trip!
On Tuesday morning, Yan wakes up feeling a bit under the weather. I assure him that it’s probably just a little cold from the fan at the hotel in Aurangabad (since it was set to a high speed with no way to control it, it got a bit cold at night there) but he insists that he not only has malaria from all the mosquito bites he got in Aurangabad but that it must also be the swine flu on top of this cold…such a DRAMA QUEEN!!! So I babied him and nursed him back to health…yes he did only have a cold!! But nevertheless he spent the day in bed watching movies and sleeping it off insisting that he in fact had malaria/swine flu/cold!
Fact
We had decided that we would leave on Wednesday for Mahabaleshwar around noon, and on Wednesday, after having packed and all, we got a call from Vaishali letting us know that the other girls from Canada were going to her friend’s place to buy material and asked us if we wanted to join. We agreed to delay our trip for a day and she told us she could pick us up to show me where the tailor was. We went to the tailors where the woman took my measurements for the sari I was getting done, we took a quick look at materials and then headed back home. Around 3:30pm, we headed out again to go meet Vaishali’s friend as well as the other Canadians. We all met up at the India Bulls Megastore, a mall that is actually closing and we all made our way to her friend’s apartment where she not only gave us mango juice, but also cookies and snacks!!! She even ended up giving the rest of the pack of cookies to Yan cause he said he liked them so much and when we asked her for the direction to the bakery where she buys them (they really were good!), she offered to buy some for us!! We kindly declined and told her we would try to find it but that if we didn’t we would definitely call her! She was so sweet to us! I didn’t end up buying any material because I couldn’t find anything I liked but some of the other girls bought some.
We quickly stopped by the Megastore to see if we could find any deals since it was closing and Yan ended up trying a couple of shirts and some traditional outfits on and actually bought a really nice shirt for $4! We rickshawed back home and enjoyed the downtime, ready for an early morning departure the next day to Mahabaleshwar.
Day 15: Ajanta: More caves and beautiful surroundings
Plan: Day tour of Ajanta
Today we continued exploring the beautiful sites of India with a tour of the Buddhist caves of Ajanta, another World Heritage site. Ajanta is 100km northeast of Aurangabad and its caves, date from between 200 BC and 650 AD, are known as the Louvre of central India. The caves were actually abandoned and forgotten for over a millennium until a British hunting party stumbled upon them in 1819. We stumbled upon the caves ourselves after a 2.5 hour bus ride from the MTDC resort in Aurangabad.
Before exploring the caves however, we had to cross a little bazaar of shops (which I dubbed Wonderland), where merchants jumped you immediately to try and make friends. They established which country you were from and then in whatever language you felt most comfortable (English, French, etc.), did their best to make nice. We received a free gift (a shiny rock), they of course made sure to identify which shop was theirs, and then promised to see you upon your return from the caves. Emilie and I each made a friend in this way. After making our way through this little bazaar, we were herded unto another rather spacious bus (two rows of seats with plenty of room between for more tourists to stand on busier days) that shuttled tourists from the parking lot to a location closer to the caves. Arriving at our final destination, we stepped off the bus and started walking up hill following our guide. For those feeling a little lazy, the option of hiring a couple of men to carry you up on a padded throne-like chair was readily available! Completing the short climb, we were greeted by the sight of a horseshoe-shaped rock gorge along a river, with caves dotting the hillside. For the next hour and a half, we followed our guide as he showed us the artwork of 6 of Ajanta’s 30 caves.
From the beginning, Ajanta had a different feel than Ellora. Whereas in Ellora it felt like we were exploring the ruins of exotic caves and temples, Ajanta, though in a similar setting, had a more museum-like feel to it. Here we were surrounded by a large amount of tourists from all around the world while in Ellora there were fewer tourists and almost all were Indian. The style of the visit was also more organized, as we followed our guide to hear his description of the various paintings and carvings in each cave. In certain caves, guards were there to limit the amount of people entering at any one time, making sure none of them took flash-photography, and shooing us along if the line outside got too long. All in all though, it was actually nice to know that someone was taking proper care of this place and helping to preserve it for future generations. The same could not be said of some other places we’ve seen so far.
After seeing our fair share of carved figures of Buddha and paintings portraying princes and princesses in all sorts of predicaments (ogresses devouring 500 shipwrecked crewmembers of one prince’s expedition to Sri Lanka was a memorable one), our guide liberated us for an hour to explore on our own and have lunch. We opted to skip lunch and instead crossed the river to reach a viewpoint from which we could look down at all the caves at once (also the place from which the British first spotted the caves). As luck would have it, we took a wrong turn first and followed a trail that led us to another point from which to see a beautiful waterfall. After a few minutes, we headed back the other way and hiked up to the viewpoint. Pressed for time, we only had enough to catch our breath and drink some water. Before really recovering, we made our way back down in the hot sun. As we rushed back to the meet our group, we picked up a travelling salesman (or at least he became the travelling type!) that followed us nearly the entire way back, refusing to take no for an answer as he tried to sell us everything but the kitchen sink (probably because he had already sold that!). We finally managed to lose him as we hopped on the bus and made our way back to Wonderland!
Though we had only 15 minutes before our tour bus was scheduled to leave for Aurangabad, this was plenty of time for the merchant friends we had met earlier to greet us upon our return and escort us back to their shops, numbered 56 and 61. They split us up and for the next 15 minutes, tried to work their magic while showing us anything and everything they had, starting of course from the most expensive and working their way down from there. All sorts of pressure tactics were used (at one point as I made it clear I had to go, one man agreed I buy his carving while another began wrapping it and a third blocked my exit. I literally had to move the man out my way before slipping out of their grasps and scurrying back to the bus. Since not everyone had managed to escape yet, we waited outside our bus in a gazebo where I chatted up a Spanish tourist (who turns out would bum a ride with us back to Aurangabad). There another salesman tried to sell me more stuff… Poor guy even ran back to his shop to get a statue of an elephant when I mentioned the one the Spanish guy bought was nice (even though I made it clear I would not buy it!).
Turns out that these salesmen are relentless and as soon as you show the slightest interest, even just saying it’s a beautiful piece, they throw all they’ve got for sale at you in the hopes that you actually buy something.
Somehow managing not to buy anything, we finally made our way back to Aurangabad, stopping briefly once when the road was blocked by a tipped-over truck. Back in Aurangabad, we said goodbye to a pair of French tourists we had met on the trip (she had been working in Delhi for over a year and he was visiting her when they decided to visit Ellora and Ajanta) and headed for our hotel and a rest. That night we decided that since we were staying at one of Aurangabad’s crappiest hotels, we could at least eat out at one of its fanciest restaurants. While the prices did reflect the fanciness and the food was quite tasty, the price-to-quantity ratio and lack of service (I had to fill my own glass and serve my own plate… oh the humanity!!!) made us appreciate our hotel restaurant even more. Somewhat fed, we called it a night and rested up for the next day’s trip back home.
Clearly, we’ve been well taken care of in Pune and we will obviously miss the service and food once we leave this wonderful paradise!!
Today we continued exploring the beautiful sites of India with a tour of the Buddhist caves of Ajanta, another World Heritage site. Ajanta is 100km northeast of Aurangabad and its caves, date from between 200 BC and 650 AD, are known as the Louvre of central India. The caves were actually abandoned and forgotten for over a millennium until a British hunting party stumbled upon them in 1819. We stumbled upon the caves ourselves after a 2.5 hour bus ride from the MTDC resort in Aurangabad.
Before exploring the caves however, we had to cross a little bazaar of shops (which I dubbed Wonderland), where merchants jumped you immediately to try and make friends. They established which country you were from and then in whatever language you felt most comfortable (English, French, etc.), did their best to make nice. We received a free gift (a shiny rock), they of course made sure to identify which shop was theirs, and then promised to see you upon your return from the caves. Emilie and I each made a friend in this way. After making our way through this little bazaar, we were herded unto another rather spacious bus (two rows of seats with plenty of room between for more tourists to stand on busier days) that shuttled tourists from the parking lot to a location closer to the caves. Arriving at our final destination, we stepped off the bus and started walking up hill following our guide. For those feeling a little lazy, the option of hiring a couple of men to carry you up on a padded throne-like chair was readily available! Completing the short climb, we were greeted by the sight of a horseshoe-shaped rock gorge along a river, with caves dotting the hillside. For the next hour and a half, we followed our guide as he showed us the artwork of 6 of Ajanta’s 30 caves.
From the beginning, Ajanta had a different feel than Ellora. Whereas in Ellora it felt like we were exploring the ruins of exotic caves and temples, Ajanta, though in a similar setting, had a more museum-like feel to it. Here we were surrounded by a large amount of tourists from all around the world while in Ellora there were fewer tourists and almost all were Indian. The style of the visit was also more organized, as we followed our guide to hear his description of the various paintings and carvings in each cave. In certain caves, guards were there to limit the amount of people entering at any one time, making sure none of them took flash-photography, and shooing us along if the line outside got too long. All in all though, it was actually nice to know that someone was taking proper care of this place and helping to preserve it for future generations. The same could not be said of some other places we’ve seen so far.
After seeing our fair share of carved figures of Buddha and paintings portraying princes and princesses in all sorts of predicaments (ogresses devouring 500 shipwrecked crewmembers of one prince’s expedition to Sri Lanka was a memorable one), our guide liberated us for an hour to explore on our own and have lunch. We opted to skip lunch and instead crossed the river to reach a viewpoint from which we could look down at all the caves at once (also the place from which the British first spotted the caves). As luck would have it, we took a wrong turn first and followed a trail that led us to another point from which to see a beautiful waterfall. After a few minutes, we headed back the other way and hiked up to the viewpoint. Pressed for time, we only had enough to catch our breath and drink some water. Before really recovering, we made our way back down in the hot sun. As we rushed back to the meet our group, we picked up a travelling salesman (or at least he became the travelling type!) that followed us nearly the entire way back, refusing to take no for an answer as he tried to sell us everything but the kitchen sink (probably because he had already sold that!). We finally managed to lose him as we hopped on the bus and made our way back to Wonderland!
Though we had only 15 minutes before our tour bus was scheduled to leave for Aurangabad, this was plenty of time for the merchant friends we had met earlier to greet us upon our return and escort us back to their shops, numbered 56 and 61. They split us up and for the next 15 minutes, tried to work their magic while showing us anything and everything they had, starting of course from the most expensive and working their way down from there. All sorts of pressure tactics were used (at one point as I made it clear I had to go, one man agreed I buy his carving while another began wrapping it and a third blocked my exit. I literally had to move the man out my way before slipping out of their grasps and scurrying back to the bus. Since not everyone had managed to escape yet, we waited outside our bus in a gazebo where I chatted up a Spanish tourist (who turns out would bum a ride with us back to Aurangabad). There another salesman tried to sell me more stuff… Poor guy even ran back to his shop to get a statue of an elephant when I mentioned the one the Spanish guy bought was nice (even though I made it clear I would not buy it!).
Turns out that these salesmen are relentless and as soon as you show the slightest interest, even just saying it’s a beautiful piece, they throw all they’ve got for sale at you in the hopes that you actually buy something.
Somehow managing not to buy anything, we finally made our way back to Aurangabad, stopping briefly once when the road was blocked by a tipped-over truck. Back in Aurangabad, we said goodbye to a pair of French tourists we had met on the trip (she had been working in Delhi for over a year and he was visiting her when they decided to visit Ellora and Ajanta) and headed for our hotel and a rest. That night we decided that since we were staying at one of Aurangabad’s crappiest hotels, we could at least eat out at one of its fanciest restaurants. While the prices did reflect the fanciness and the food was quite tasty, the price-to-quantity ratio and lack of service (I had to fill my own glass and serve my own plate… oh the humanity!!!) made us appreciate our hotel restaurant even more. Somewhat fed, we called it a night and rested up for the next day’s trip back home.
Clearly, we’ve been well taken care of in Pune and we will obviously miss the service and food once we leave this wonderful paradise!!
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