India 2003, Page 2

Before our trip, we consulted with the great Gary Kleiner, who gave us maps, books, and all the information we would need for our excursion. Since we were going for 2 days, we were able to see some extra things besides the caves. One of these included the Mini Taj which, since we weren't going to see the real Taj Mahal, seemed only appropriate. Bibi-ka-Maqbara, as it is called, was built in 1679AD and was built by the last of the Great Mughals, Emperor Aurangzeb, in memory of his wife, Rabia-ud-Durrani. It was modelled on the Taj Mahal (obviously) which was built by Aurangzeb's father, Shah Jahan. Apparently, it's an inferior copy of the Taj but whatever.. me and Mercedee thought it was super cool. :)

The Mini Taj
Luckily, we got there early enough so that we were practically the only people there. And even though the fountains weren't on, we thought it was quite a structure.

One of the things I love the most about visiting foreign lands are their signs. This one reads:
"THANK YOU FOR NOT SMOKING SPITTING AND THROWING GARBAGE"
Because we all have those problems at tourist attractions, I suppose.

"WE CARE FOR YOUR LIFE. PLEASE DONOT SIT ON STONE RAILING"
As I was reading this one (they were all over the place, these signs), I see Mercedee trying to be all slick and pitch herself over the side.

We arrived at Daultabad Fort energized and ready to explore. It would have been a better idea to arrive there tired and hungry, but alas, it was not to be. When we arrived we asked our wonderful driver, Afzal, how long he thought it would take us to see the fort. He said around 30 minutes. Okay, sounds good. 30 minutes, however, was not on the menu it seems. A Hindu temple, some stairs, barren lands, some more stairs, a pitch-dark cave with lots and lots of bats, more stairs, Indian tourists who took their picture with us, and then ... more stairs. This last set of stairs was advertised to us plainly - "You can climb up to the top, but it's 435 stairs". Somehow, this seemed like a good idea at the time. Some 300 stairs into it, however, we realized that we should gone back to the car when we had the chance. So up we went, saw the sights, viewed the car which seemed miles and miles away, and realized that we had been in the fort for over 2 hours. And we still had Ellora to go (which had been explained to us as wonderful, exhausting, and full of climbing). So down we went, got to the car, couldn't find our driver (who was apparently out looking for us and cursing the fact that he had let us go on alone), got rid of weird Kama-Sutra postcard selling guys, found a phone, located our worried driver, and off we went. Nothing like a relaxing way to start the day.

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FORT
(scroll down if you hate history)
Originally erected in the 9th century, the fortress gained fame in the 14th century when Muhammad Tughlag, the whimsical Sultan of Delhi, decided this was the spot for a capital. Rather than leave the development of a thriving city to chance, the not-so-savvy sultan marched the enture population of Delhi 1000km across India to people it. The small proportion of the deportees who did not die on the way greeted life in the Deccan with a resentment not conducive to prosperity. The Sultan abandoned his project after only eight years and marched the few survivors back home. Nevertheless, Daultadab did grow to be an important city, and the fort itself is considered India's second most impregnable, after the Amber Fort in Rajasthan.

Real slick.

The Bharatmata Temple, a 10th century Hindu structure.
I really liked it in here.. it was calm, peaceful, and we were the only people within the hundreds of pillars. A nifty experience.

The plan for this picture was, I would sit on the ledge and Mercedee would set the camera with a timer. Then she would run over, and the photo would be taken. Somehow, though, I forgot to mention that the ledge was quite high. So she flailed about for a moment and pulled herself up just in time for one of our few photos together on our two-day trip. Hehe.

The view from the stairs up to the top. The minaret is supposedly the Chand Minar built in 1435. The pillar of victory was built by a king to commemorate his conquest of Daultabad. Kind of like a triumphal arch, only smaller. :)

As I said on the previous page, Mercedee was always ditching me to run ahead or change directions. At one point on our hike up the 435 stairs, she was waaaay ahead of me (who knew that my legs would start yelling at me minutes into the climb?). As I came around a corner, I leaned heavily into the weed-infested wall and there was Mercedee, camera in hand. If this was a close-up, I'm sure I would look quite irritated with the current state of events.

Our ultimate destination of the day were the Ellora Caves which are a set of caves spread out and embedded into the mountain's side. A total of 34 caves were carved out of the volcanic basalt rock by several generations of artisans between AD600 and 1000. Unlike the caves at Ajanta (which we were to see the next day), Ellora's Buddhist, Hindu and Jain caves reflect the rise and fall of religions in India. Afzal, having lost us at Daultabad, was determined to follow us diligently through Ellora... poor thing, we made him climb all over the place. Equipped with camera in one hand, flashlight and guidebook in the other, and several bottles of water, we plowed through Ellora like women on a mission. And it was awesome!

I always thought that some of the poses that statues got themselves into were just silly. Until I saw Mercedee doing them all over.
Who knew?

Afzal took this picture of us sitting on a great big lion (probably one of those things we weren't supposed to do, but you know how it is when you're tourists... gotta destruct things).

Afzal tried to get us back to the car several times, but we were like No! Let's climb over there! And he'd follow us looking all worried about our safety. This is him under a waterfall we located through a small doorway, down some stairs, and across a narrow path on the side of the mountain.

After a climb into one of the caves, we came across an Indian family also touring about. They wanted, as many people we came across did, a photo of themselves. They got ready for their professional photo - the man fixed his hair and the woman appeared with necklaces from her purse. She put a necklace around her neck, went to put one around Mercedee and noticed that Mercedee's shirt was not up to Indian standards. She put the necklace aside for a moment and proceeded to button the top buttons of Mercedee's shirt (apparently, Mercedee was too risque for the shot). On went the necklace and click went the camera... a stunning family portait. With Mercedee :)

Cave 16, known as the Kailasha, has a conglomeration of structures enclosed within its walls. One of them was covered with reliefs and statues, including this one which seems to dance right through the wall. A fascinating structure.

Although Mercedee disagreed, it was respectful to take one's shoes off before entering the temples. Outside of each doorway, therefore, was an array of the current fashion trends in shoewear.

After the grueling day of the Mini-Taj, the Daultabad Fortress and the Ellora Caves, we were ready to plop down. But there was one more thing on the agenda - the Valley of the Saints. Since Afzal didn't really speak English, we weren't really sure what the deal was with the place, but we climbed up another mountain, saw great sights and lounged in the peaceful hilly lands.

By the end of the day, we had been everywhere. Afzal was off driving around somewhere, and we were suddenly bombarded by a herd of girls who appeared out of nowhere! One of them, a 17 year old, had just gotten married and still had the henna designs on her hands and feet. The girls were quite energetic as well, and before I could blink, one of them had my sunglassed on and another had my camera in hand. It was a commotion!