Day 332 - 333 Mumbai

As I am writing this I am at Mumbai Airport already. Now that the trip through India really is over I start to feel a bit melancholic.
Of course there is still so much I have not seen in India. On the other hand I should give the impression collection center of my brain some rest and come back once I am yearning for new experiences. The first day in Mumbai I just relaxed from the hard ride and tried to clarify with the airline how the bicycle transport will be handled - half successful: they wouldn't let me into the Airport, so I could only call and all the lady told me was: 'come with the bicycle to check-in'.
On my last day in India (day 333 of the journey!) I went downtown. By train - finally my first Indian train ride on this trip. There I met up with Mr. Ah Keung from Hongkong, the only long-distance-cyclist I met by chance in India (exactly: in Ajanta), who happened to be in Mumbai waiting for a Pakistani visa. We took the boat to Elephanta island. A nice analogy: before I started cycling from Cape Comorin on the very southern tip of India I also did a boatride to an island. Elephanta island sports some rock-cut caves which would have been very impressive - if we both wouldn't have seen the much more impressive Ajanta and Ellora caves lately - that is exactly what I meant with my impression collection center being full now. But it was still a nice place, away from the noise and chaos of Mumbai. There were many monkeys around - probably the most dangerous beasts in India. Because they are smart. Very smart. We watched one monkey stealing a water bottle from a group of Indian tourists, opening it a few meters away, pouring out the content and starting to drink. On the boatride back, Keung received the great news that he got his Pakistani visa. So we proceeded to a joined celebration/farewell dinner. After taking the train back to my hotel I collected my luggage and Arthur and cycled to the Airport. They still wouldn't let me in as the flight is more than 4 hours away - let's see how the bicycle handling will work out...

Day 300 Ajanta

Woohoooo, day 300! I celebrated by visiting my last must-see sight in India: the buddhist caves of Ajanta. From now on I will only cycle to my well-known city of Vadodara with no sights on the way.
Compared to the Ellora caves the ones here are less and smaller, but also older and in a wonderful setting: along the ridge if a horseshoe shaped canyon. I visited the caves from last to first as I had figured the lighting would be better. So I crossed the river and took the path on the other side to the end of the canyon. Right now in the dry season there was no water in the canyon, but during monsoon it all will surely look spectacular - there would be a huge waterfall at the canyons end (or rather beginning if considering the water flow) and several smaller waterfalls right between the caves as was visible by the marks on the rock. The caves are either monasteries (a central pillared hall, a sanctum with a buddha and companions and surrounding cells [some with some beds and pillows - very comfortable]) or assembly halls (chapel like structures with a vaulted roof and a stupa or a buddha figure as a central element). In terms of size or level of detail there are more spectacular things to be seen in Ellora (though without seeing Ellora before everything here would still be very very impressive). What makes the Ajanta caves special are their age, their setting and the paintings which have survived nearly 2 millenia (the earliest caves date back to the 2nd century AD). Of course of many paintings only traces can be seen nowadays, but a couple of them are surprisingly complete - all these are only dimly lit to prevent further decay. If you plan a trip to Ajanta and Ellora it might be a good idea to go to Ajanta first - which would also be in the correct chronological order. Ajanta was abandonded and forgotten when the work at Ellora gained momentum. Interestingly there are some unfinished caves here which give a good impression of how the work was done.

Day 297 Aurangabad - Ellora - Aurangabad

Time for a short cycle trip: I left my luggage at the hotel and met up with Hadet who had managed to rent an Atlas Royal bicycle from a bike shop. The bicycle was not in the best possible condition. But we gave it a try. Did not work out for long: the back tire kept its air for a whopping 4km. So just when we were cycling out of town we had to stop and push the bike back. As it was already noon we decided to bring the bicycle back to the shop and take a riksha to Ellora instead - this turned out to be a very good idea because the way was more mountainous than expected and walking around the caves of Ellora was exhausting enough.
Yep, now I understand why the travel guides read that yesterdays Aurangabad caves are nothing compared to Ellora.
The caves/rock-cut temples at Ellora are many, huge and incredibly amazing!
There are 3 groups: Buddhist, Hindu and Jain caves. As you enter the side you directly approach the biggest of all, the megalomaniac Kailash temple - actually the biggest rock-cut monolith in the world. I thought I had seen my fair share of rock-cut sights before - places like Petra in Jordan, Lalibela in Ethiopia and several smaller places in Turkey and Georgia. But this Kailash temple here still managed to make a lasting impression on me. 20 generations of workers cut this piece of art from top to bottom out of the rock using nothing but the most basic tools. It is a huge marvellous structure, adorned by wonderfully detailed carvings including stairways, bridges,... It is simply unbelievable that anyone could possibly envision such thing and find the means to make generations work on it.
There are several smaller - but still huge and impressive - hindu temples around it. A bit down the road the older buddhist caves start, some of them monasteries with several storeys. Most impressive of the buddhist structured is an assembly hall with a remarkably chapel-like shape and a ceiling with ribs which provides for a divine acoustic. Of course I had to try it out and started to sing, which eventually led to many Indian tourist making a lot of noise because they wanted to try it, too. After the buddhist group we made a short rest and drank some 2 liters of water before taking the riksha to the smaller, newer Jain caves - where newer means 800 - 1000 AD. Which are beautiful in their own right.  Here nearly all caves are connected through small tunnels and they have very specific, very filigree carvings - some typical Jain symbols I knew (e.g. Naked standing man) and some I did not know yet (e.g. some huges chalices).
Even though we were completely overtempled already we went to one last Hindu cave just minutes before the site closed. This one was pretty simple in decoration but huge and very interesting in layout: a pillared hall surrounded by 2 open courtyards which were cut from top to bottom.

Day 286 Badami

Badami is well known for its cave temples. Nice. 18 armed Shiva, several Vishnus, many monkeys, one Jain temple including the typical naked man carvings, all this on a cliff overlooking a lake and crowned by a fort and more temples.