Hi! It's Sloan.
On January 6th we had a gross night in Jalgaon. Dirty hotel room, dirty restaurant. Mom was miserable (see photo but the rest of us didn't think it was so bad.
The next morning we got a nice driver with a van to drive us the few hours to the Ajanta Caves.
Of course, as soon as we got out of the van in Ajanta two Indian men in white clothing ran toward us. They gave Hailey and I each a crystal and told us that the bus to the Caves was leaving soon. They walked us through the shopping area and got us on the next bus, and told us that we should come to their shops (stalls # 47 and 71) after seeing the caves. We now know that they were only telling us that the bus was leaving so that we wouldn't stop at any of the other shops.
When we got off the bus we got in line to buy tickets for the Caves. Mom started to talk to everyone so we got delayed.
Just outside the first cave a tour guide offered us a tour for 600 rupees. There was a whole school ahead of us and their teacher overheard the guide and told us to say "no." The teacher and the school kids were very nice and the teacher helped to explain everything to us.
All of the caves were almost pitch black, and they were carved out of one piece of rock which I thought was pretty cool. The bad thing was that most of the caves were alike.
There was one that had 3 floors, lots of paintings and had some poles that were also like a musical instrument. If you bang on them then they make a sound. It's really cool.
We asked a woman to take a picture of us, and then all of the school kids started to take pictures too. It was a free for all. One thing that bugged Hailey and I was that the school kids were wasting their film , instead of taking pictures of the caves they were taking pictures of us.
Some other adults got a little overwhelmed seeing American 'midgets' for the first time! They were grabbing Hailey and I (mostly Hailey) and then saying "picture." Hailey got really annoyed so she hid behind me, then she told dad that she wanted to go but of course someone else grabbed her.
When we were going back toward the shops and the parking lot we met some Canadians. The woman's name was Sophie and the man's name was Pankaj, he is originally from India. They teach yoga and have a web site.
Unfortunately the men from the shops (stalls #47 and 71) remembered us and took us right away to their shops. The crystals were real and very nice, but also expensive so we left. We started to walk back to our van with Sophie and Pankaj, hoping to sit down with them and have a cold drink or chai, but a man from one of the stores kept following us holding a set of crystals in his hand that mom had looked at.
He kept lowering his price until he got to 50 rupees which is about $1.
So we bought them. I enjoyed the caves.
copyright 2009
1 comment:
Hi Sloan:
I just wrote you a long post, and GOOGLE ate it! What a drag....I'll be brief.
Right, Mommy does not look happy!
The caves blew me away- all carved out of one rock...WOW
Today is the Superbowl, so you know what every guy and some girls (not me) are doing. I am going to the Guggenheim . It probably will be less crowded because everyone is glued to the tube. Still freezing, but no snow as predicted. Sounds like India is fascinated by Western children! Perhaps you should buy those glasses you had, and be Harry Potter! You could come home a millionaire, and we could make the Americamn version of Slumdog Millionaire, which I saw last night. It was really great, a bit violent in parts, but a very happy ending. My sister is a teacher, and some of her kids are learning about India, so they are reading your blog. Happy travels and my beat to all! Charna
Post a Comment