Blondes have more fun!

Today we are visiting Ajunta Caves. The caves have incredible history. All of the caves are Buddhist at this location. The earliest was built in 200 BC so it is over 2000 years old. The latest was built maybe 700 BC, and only partially finished as Buddhism no longer was supported by the kings at the time.

We meet our guide at the hotel, and the five of us pack into the car for another two hours of driving to Ajunta. The hawkers swoop in on Karen, Barb and I as soon as we set foot outside the car. It is obvious that we are westerners (there were only a handful) and we are offered jewelry, boxes, quartz stones, cave books over and over. We stick with our very confident guide and he shooes us onto a shuttle bus that takes us to the cave location.

The caves are in a breathtaking setting. They are set around a horseshoe bend in a river, with a waterfall descending between several of the caves. The greenery is lush and there are bold splotches of colorful flowers. These caves were abandoned many years ago and rediscovered by a British tiger hunting party in the late 1800’s. In typical human style, one of the British soldiers scratched his name into a pillar – right over a beautiful mural! Our guide knew where this graffiti was, and held up a flashlight to the pillar to show us. John Smith will live on in the caves while the names of the artists and artisans are forgotten.

Our guide is extraordinary. He is from Ellora (a small village) but is fluent in Hindi, Mahrati, English, Spanish and Japanese! It is obvious he is passionate about the caves and educating us about them. He explains in great detail the stories painted into the murals, the mastery of 3-D paining and sculptures, and how each cave was carved from the front to the back and from the top to the bottom. He shows us details we never would have seen or understood without him.

I decide I am hungry and whip out a peanut butter sandwich I have brought with me. I am immediately beset by monkeys, trying to get my food. I hadn’t even noticed them before that moment, but suddenly we see that there is a group of about 20 – all watching people and waiting for chance for some thievery. Our guide scares them away and tells me to eat quickly.

There were probably only about 10 westerners present among a thousand Indians. I quickly became the most popular kid on the block. Many, many people wanted to have their picture taken with me, I guess because I am blond. They wanted pictures with Karen and Barb as well, but mostly with me. I will try not to let it go to my head! All asked politely and thanked us profusely. At one point I was surrounded by 10 teenagers, all switching off taking pictures and posing. They wanted to know where we were from – and when we said America, they repeated the word excitedly. Everyone was sweet, gentle and had incredible smiles.

In the canteen we made friends with a young woman, her sister and mother, and her daughter. They posed for us in their beautiful saris and the five year old girl again wanted to know where we were from.

We were tired from the very humid and hot day and went to bed early went we got back to our cottage.