Ajanta Caves

Ajanta is about 350 km. North of Pune. I have included some pictures of the signs posted at the caves to explain the history instead of me duplicating them here. The pictures that follow the signs are not all from the same caves as there were to many to cover them all. This is just some of the highlights. Flash photos are prohibited as the light damages the paintings so we used a slower shutter speed to capture these low light images.

Bibi Ka Maqbara

The Taj Mahal? No, locally known as the poor mans Taj. Not to shabby regardless. The level of detail in the stone is fantastic. This was the first of 4 incredible stops we made on this long weekend.

Karla Caves

India's history is so long and so diverse we have to pick what we want to see next. When you hear about "caves" you think of a hole in the cliffs. Here the Buddhists and then the Hindu's had another idea. Here they carve them out of the rock and with magnificent artistic effect. Karla and Bhija caves are located close to Pune and Mumbai cities making an easy day trip.

Goa, Off to the beach

We made for the west coast to the very popular beach state of Goa. Down at sea level the humidity in the 100 deg. heat was intense. In Pune we are so far inland and high up into the mountains we have a very dry heat with cool nights. I booked the hotel with a standard room and had to wait to arrive to ask for a better room. They told us no problem....well this is the upgrade they gave us. Trudy was not very happy with it but wanted to eat after the long trip before asking for a real room. Buy that time they were out of rooms so we were stuck with the hut. We were close to the beach with the beach bar/ restaurant right in front of us. We were able to order drinks right from our porch. We did move to a real room the next day that had walls thicker than palm fronds.The beach was lined for about 2 miles with restaurant bars and resorts. Lots of people, jet ski and boat rides and paragliding. What it lacked were sea birds, there were zero sea birds. there were ravens, stray dogs and even a cow here and there but no sea birds. We strolled town in the morning and while having coffee this elephant came strolling down the street next to where we were sitting. We visited the Tibetan market and did some haggling with them for some keepsakes. Things are very cheep here but they double the price and you have to work them down. If you reach a stale mate walking away opens a new round of talks right away.