Day 8

While loading up the rickshaws, a local noticed that ours sounded horrible and our muffler was bouncing around a lot. Apparently the nut that held on the muffler had fallen off and the bolt was busy being worn down to nothing. After a bit of poking and 5 Rs., we had a new bolt and a quieter rickshaw for our drive to The Poor Man’s Taj Mahal. It’s got the big dome, four towers, and looks cute and manageable. It was nice going early in the morning so that we had the place mostly to ourselves. Next we headed for Ajanta, one of two sites in India famous for their cave temples carved into the cliffside (the other is Ellora, but it was closed Tuesdays). They charged for parking the rickshaw, walking through the tourist shops to the shuttle bus, the shuttle bus to the caves, bag check, admission, the bathroom, and the bus back to the parking lot. But despite all that it was totally worth it. Lonely Planet can give you the full rundown on the history of the cave and the artwork they contain, we’ll just stick with saying whatever the history is – Buddhist, Hindu, Jainist – they look very impressive! Some highlights – a huge reclining Buddha, a bunch of ‘spider’ Buddhas in one of the temples holding up the ceiling, and two story caves…

After the caves, we came to what, I suppose, was an inevitable decision point: do we go to Agra or not? The original plans, had us going to Agra simply because you really can’t go to India and not see the Taj Mahal! Then we got to Kochi, talked to everybody else, heard over half were going directly East, and how long they thought the drive was going to take… and figured we had to skip Agra in order to stick within our timeline. Wildly guessing on a map, Ajanta is 1100 km from Varanasi directly and 1400 km via Agra, so for the price of one extra day driving we get to see the Taj Mahal Friday! Two hours of driving in, Lonely Planet brings an enlightening discovery: the Taj Mahal is actually closed on Fridays. (Side Note: why in the world is the Taj Mahal, the greatest tourist attraction in all of India, closed? Ever?) Another brief conversation on the side of the road later, and we’re going anyway – we can just spend Friday in Agra, see the Taj Mahal at sunrise on Saturday and still leave for Varinasi before noon, which could get us there in time to spend most of Monday there (with some good fortune in terms of roads conditions, traffic, etc.)

Trying to push some extra mileage in the evening we tried to take a back roads short cut around Jalgaon, against the advice of the locals. That didn’t work out so well. We also ended up being commandeered as a taxi cab for the chief of police of Erandol, who told us his town didn’t have any decent lodging. Not sure if he was just trying to run us out of his town or telling the truth. But we embarked on our first stint of highway night driving to get to Parola for the night. It’s pretty scary when you can see the potholes better by the light of oncoming traffic (in your lane since they’re passing someone) than you can by your own headlights…