A trip to Aurangabad, Ajanta and Ellora

I visited Aurangabad, Ajanta and Ellora on the weekend of 1st August’s 2008 and it was heavenly awesome trip. Sharing my experience for the place, might be useful for the people who are planning to visit this place on some weekend.

I caught Ajanta Express from Secunderabad (6:10 PM), it reached Aurangabad around 4:15 AM. There I met two other Microsoft fellows Sandeep & Ankur and we three decided to visit Ajanta first as it is 100 Kilometers far from Aurangabad. We freshed up there at station itself and started for Ajanta by bus. Taxi folks were asking Rs.1400/- for both side but we did not find it justified so caught a bus for Ajanta. Remember while travelling in the bus, ask conductor to drop you at Ajanta CAVES otherwise he will drop you in Ajanta village. Generally it is a big confusion for the tourists.

Ajanta caves are slightly in interior. To reach there, first you have to get the tickets from MTDC counter which is near to highway. Inside this place, there is small market from where you can get eatables and souvenirs. From this place, buses are available (A/C or non A/C, you have to purchase a separate ticket for that) to the ASI counter of Ajanta caves (4 KM far from there). From the ASI counter, you can get the actual tickets for Ajanta caves (so many tickets :-). Near the ASI counter, one MTDC hotel is there which is having limited option for food but quality is decent. One Sulabh complex with bath facility is also available there, you can fresh up there and put your luggage in the clock room.

It is advisable to keep some Biscuits, Namkeen or Juice canes with you because once you start your journey to Ajanta cave, there you will not get anything to eat. If you are an art lover, it might take some extra time to explore all the caves of Ajanta :-). There are around 31 Bodhh caves in Ajanta (26 are accessible). Some of the caves are finished and some are unfinished. Guides are available in Rs.450/- for all the caves. If you find that guide charges are too expensive, you can try alternative option, and the other option is to visit important caves and ask the information from the staff inside the cave by paying some money. The staff inside the caves are actually proper guide provided by government and it is their duty to educate you about the stories related to the caves without any charges (later I came to know this) but they will tell you the information only when you will promise them to pay something (Corruption!!). Anyway, if you are going for the latter option then my suggestion is not to pay more than Rs.10 /- in any caves, they will accept it without any argument. I paid Rs.30/- in starting, then Rs.20/- and then Rs.10/- and was surprise that they are happy in whatever money you give to them. If you are an art lover and interested in all the Jatak tales painted there, it will be good if you read Bodhisatva and Jatak Tales before visiting Ajanta. If you want to completely understand the paintings and sculptures in the caves, there is one very good guide available in Ajanta. His name is Bharat (+919370749188). Contact him one evening before reaching there because his phone is accessible only in the evening due to network problem in Ajanta caves. This guys does not charge too much and I think you can negotiate him for the charges around Rs.300-350/- for all the caves in Ajanta. This guy will tell you even very small things and hidden meanings in the painting and sculptures which normal people generally ignores. One important thing, you can take pictures in the caves but flash is not allowed (the ultraviolet rays of flash is harmful for painting’s chemical). So you can use a YELLOW LIGHT TORCH with your camera to capture the snaps. I forgot this and could not capture some of the beautiful art piece there :-(

After covering all of the caves you can take down staircases to enjoy the waterfall near the caves. The stair case going in upward direction will lead you to the first view points. In the rainy season view from the first viewpoint is awesome. U shape of Ajanta caves looks very beautiful between green mountains. The second view point is the place from where “British Jon Smith” first saw the Ajanta caves (he discovered it in year 1819). This view point is on some height and stair cases are available to reach there. This viewpoint has one nice garden there and one restaurant. But restaurant will actually start functioning in next few months. From this viewpoint you can enjoy greater view of Ajanta’s U shape and green mountains. In rainy season, the view from this point in simply superb.

After visiting Ajanta caves we returned to Aurangabad by bus and settled in a Hotel call “Sai Residency”. Avoid to stay in this hotel even by mistake (blacklist it). We stayed there because they promised 24 hour power back up (now days huge power cuts in Maharashtra!!). Staff is bad, facilities were not good. And they will load you with all false charges while checking out. Really very bad hotel!

One more thing in Aurangabad we struggled for good food. But finally we found a good restaurant called “Kailas”, which is around 1.2 KM from railway station and around 1.5 KMs from bus stand. Food is decent but there you will find a long waiting queue (at least we find it every time). So keep some extra time to have meals there.

Coming to the main topic again, next day morning we started our Aurangabad tour. ITDC buses (Guided tour) are available for Rs. 200/- per head which covers 6 viewpoints including Ellora caves. We missed this bus so we hired an Auto (yes, auto rikshaws are also available for city and Ellora tour). Auto people charge Rs.450/- and covers same 6 viewpoints as covered by ITDC bus. City tour in Auto was a good experience, the best thing is that there is no time bounding to visit any place. You can spend as much time as you want to spend at any place.

The first tourist place we covered was PANCHAKKI. I read a lot about this place in guide books so was excited to check it out but was very disappointed to see that this place is not at all maintained. Place is in such a bad condition that you will not find anything special there. For me it was a time waste, you may skip visiting of this place and can spend some more time in other spots.

The second point was Bibi Ka Makbara (Mini Taj of Deccan). It is really a beautiful monument resembling Agra’s Taj Mahal, good place to try your hands on the camera in different poses :-)

Third place we visited was Daultabad Fort. It’s a HUGE fort. In first impression you might not find it as good as Golkunda Fort but once you explorer it more, you will find it more interesting than Golkunda. But the disappointing thing is that, no proper guides are available there. Some local people will offer you guidance at the cost of Rs.350/- but those are waste. The most important and most interesting part of fort is “Bhul Bhullaiya”, there many guides are available just in Rs.50/-. While showing you the secretes of Bhul Bhulaiya, same guide will give you a brief idea of fort’s structure and history. And that is enough to explore the whole fort. At the highest point of the fort, one huge gun is settled. The view from the peak of mountain is amazing and you can see whole Aurangabad city from there.

Next destination of the tour was Aurngjeb’s Tomb. It is in the way to Ellora and you can visit it in 5 minutes only. If you are expecting anything special here then this place is not for you. You might feel surprised to see such a simple tomb of last great mughal. But that is the interesting part, as per Aurnajeb’s will, his MAJAAR is made with sand only (using the money which he earned by writing Quran verses).

Second last destination was Elllora caves and it was really a superb place. The art work of the caves cannot be expressed in the words. There are caves related to three religions in Ellora: Hindu, Jain and Bodhh. Proper guides are available there and they charge Rs.450/- for all the caves and Rs.150/- for any one religion’s cave. Guide charges are standard and very less possibility of negotiation because this place is always OVER crowded with the tourist. In the middle of all caves a big Hindu temple called “Kailasa temple” is there in cave#16. This place is world’s biggest monolithic structure. You will feel amazed after visiting this place. Simply mind blowing art work!!

Last tour point was a very famous temple near Elllora caves. It is known as Ghrishnewar temple and it is one the 12 Jyotirlingams of India, having a lot of pilgrimage value for the devotees. But we could not cover this temple due to heavy rain. In fact we could cover only half of the caves in Ellora as it was rain started with full pace :-(

Other attraction in Aurangabad are Aurangabad Caves (caves-caves everywhere!!) and Paithan garden (around 60 KM from Aurangabad), we could not explore them because of time limitation.

After checking out from the hotel and having our supper @ “Kailasa” we caught Ajanta express around 10:45PM and reached Hyderabad next day morning near 9:30 AM. It was an awesome trip with all good experience except HOTEL. Warning again, don’t go in hotel “Sai Residency Aurangabad”, its seriously a junk hotel.

I am planning to visit Aurangabad again to explore the tourist places which I could not cover this time. I will post more information after my second trip.

Some of the pictures of my tour are available in following albums:

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/mohitdayalmathur/Ajanta

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/mohitdayalmathur/Aurangabad

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/mohitdayalmathur/Ellora