Amazing Ajanta and Ellora caves!

Travelling south towards Mumbai, i stopped to visit two more of India's most famous sites: the unbelievable cave-temples of Ajanta and Ellora...

2000 years back they dug and carved these humongous caves straight inside the cliffs, thus creating huge monolithic monuments.. it is as hard to explain as it is to comprehend but it's truly mind blowing!

Can you imagine this? 2000 years back!.. armed with nothing but chisels and hammers.. that is with exactly the same kind of equipment Indians are still using today!!

Ajanta caves...

Ellora caves...

I'll finish with these two shots of the "small Taj" of Aurangabad, or Bibi Ki Makbar..

In year something and such, king Aurangzeb decided to move his capital city from up north to a city he called after his name, near mumbai.. and when he meant moving the capital, he really meant moving the whole city!.. so as he couldn't take the Taj with him, he made a copy!... A few years back he changed his mind and moved everything back up north!

(at least that's the story as i got it.. !)

It looks pretty much alike on the photos, but don't get fooled.. there's no comparison to the real thing!

Nudge nudge wink wink say no more!

This visit of Khajurao also reminded me of some funny conversations i had in the trains..

As a single foreigner you are addressed by men painfully trying to hide their excitment and eager to know about sexual practices in "the west"..
Is sex "free" or "open"? is usually how they formulate their question.. (what do you answer to that?!!)

If anything, Khajurao suggests that pre-muslim India was a bit less sex frustrated than what it has become today! And we're lucky enough that they didn't discover this long forgotten site before the English did, or it would certainly have been destroyed like the rest..

Anyway, it's a good opportunity to encourage you to watch again this hilarious skid by the Monthy Pythons:


Man: Evening, squire!
Man with hat: Good evening.
Man: Is your...is your wife a goer? Eh? Know what I mean? Know what I mean? Nudge, nudge! Know what I mean? Say no more!
Man with hat: I-I...I beg your pardon?
Man: Your...your wife. Does she go,eh? Does she go, eh? Eh?
Man with hat: Huh, sometimes she has to go, yes.
Man: I bet she does! I bet she does! Say no more! Say no more! Know what I mean? Nudge, nudge!
Man with hat: I'm afraid I don't quite follow you...
Man: Oh, "follow me, follow me"? That's good, that's very good! A nod's as good as a wink to a blind bat!
Man with hat: Are...are you selling something?
Man: "Selling, selling"...very good indeed! You're wicked, you are, eh? Wicked, eh? Ho-ho-ho! Whoa! Wicked! Say no more!
Man with hat: Huhuh?
Man: Whoa! So your wife's interested in...in sport? Eh?
Man with hat: Ah, she likes sport, yes.
Man: I bet she does! I bet she does!
Man with hat: As a matter of fact, she's very fond of cricket.
Man: She likes "games", eh? Likes "games"? Knew she would, she's been around a bit, eh? She's been around?
Man with hat: Well, she has travelled, yes. She's from Glendale.
Man: Say no more! Glendale, squire? Say no more! Say no more! Say no more! Say no more!
Man with hat: Well...
Man: Whoa! Is your...is your Glendale wife interested in...photography? Eh? Eh? Eh?
Man with hat: Photography?
Man: "Photographs, eh?" he asked him knowingly!
Man with hat: Photography?
Man: Snap, snap, grin, grin, wing, wing, nudge, nudge, say no more!
Man with hat: Sort of...holiday snaps, eh?
Man: They could be, they could be taken on holiday, you know! Swimming costumes, candid...you know, "candid" photography?
Man with hat: No, we don't have a camera!
Man: Ah. Still, whoahaah! Eh? Whoahaah! Eh? Whoahaah! Eh? Whoahaahaha! Huhuh!
Man with hat: Look, are you insinuating something?
Man: Oh, no, no, no... yes!
Man with hat: Well?
Man: Why, I mean, you're a man of the world, squire, you know...you're...you've been around, you know?
Man with hat: What do you mean?
Man: Well, I mean, like, you've...you know, you...like...you've done it, you know...you've slept...with a lady?
Man with hat: Yes.
Man: What's it like?

Khajurao..

So the vacation is over! (and again i'm way late on this blog!)
After a month of chillin with mom and dad, i finally took off.. for the second half of the trip, through the southern hemisphere!

After two more quick family stops, I started off with Khajurao, a 9th century archeological site famous for its temples ornamented with erotic sculptures!
And i have to say the site is fabulous! At least the better preserved western side..

More than the erotic scupltures themselves -unmistakably present!- and even more than the sculptures of deities, the inner and outer walls of these temples are covered with women! Beautiful women reprensented in their everyday moves and activities with infinite charm and sensuality.. (although in these early times women would spend the better part of their everyday moves in contortions to scratch their back or remove the thorns they had planted in their delicate feet!)

If you ask me -who said "we don't!"??- i think this genuinely indian celebration of love and the grace of women should be the symbol of India accross the world, much more than the Taj Mahal, symbol of the Moghol invaders!

OK.. I can't advertise erotic sculptures and not show you any! so here it goes..

They even pushed the concept pretty far!

Vishnu's incarnation as a boar.. symbolizing that man is a sex craving pig! (although that may not be the real meaning!)

Khajurao cuties...

This morning..

.. i found a dead bat on the bed next to mine! Brrrrr...

There's a Dengue epidemic these days..

I wonder where it may come from...




(although honestly, i'm not sure there's that much more of an epidemic that before, but since the prime minister family got infected it suddenly came all over the news!)