Sanchi, Ajanta, Ellora and Mumbai

No it's not a UFO - these are Buddhist Stuppas at Sanchi.....what??? Burial mounds of some of the earliest Buddhist followers in India. The Torano's (gate like pillars) at the entrance have detailed sculptures telling the story of the origins of Buddhism.



Ryan the Tiger and I at Sanchi


These contraptions are everywhere - sugar cane is fed through the machine to make a sweet drink - I haven't been brave enough to try it yet!

Ajanta caves used by Buddhists between 200BC and 650AD - 28 caves carved into the mountainside with loads of sculptrues and paintings. Unfortunately, due to time of year the river and waterfall were dry.

Paintings within Ajanta caves - paint was from vegetable colouring and as you can see some of them are still in good condition.

Ellora caves - these are not so old - 500-750AD - but are divided into three depending on the era Buddhist/Hindu and Jain - 32 caves in total.

Bats within the caves - there were hundreds of them and they are noisy (then again that might have been because I was shining my torch on them and taking loads of flash photo's!!).

The Kailash Temple at Ellora caves - quite impressive as it is carved out of the rock!!

A family day out - don't you love the kids hat?

Marine Drive, Mumbai

Everywhere you go there are people playing cricket - from organised games like this to the street kids - it is considered a second relioun by most Indian people....

Outside St Thomas Cathedral in Mumbai - you can certainly see the British influence around Mumbai

McDeliveries - a new approach to fast food!! And knowing the traffic here it would'n't be that fast.....

Out for dinner with Ashok a friend of Anji's in Mumbai

Ryan The Tiger's first boat trip - and he didn't even get seasick :-)

The Taj Palace (unfortunately not my hotel) and India Gate - the last sight the British saw as they left Mumbai in 1947 after Independance.

This monkey took a liking to Ryan the Tiger - when I put him back in my bag he decided he was going to go in after him - wasn't going to take no for an anwer even after I threw water over him - ended up having to move on from my nice shaded spot under the tree!! Well I wasn't going to argue with a monkey bearing his teeth at me that probably had rabies.......

Not sure if this is a Hawk or Eagle (or just a big crow!!) but there was about 6 of them flying so low above my head doing mad dives and hunting.....

A Hand Cyle - these are quite common and used by people with leg disabilities.

I can't believe another week has gone by already. I thought when I was away that time might go fairly slow and I was a little worried I might get bored!!! Certainly not so far. Always plenty to do and when I am not exploring or on a train/bus I am trying to keep my travel journal up to date as well as my blog and e-mails. How did I ever manage to work full time??? Oh and I've manged to read 6 books - long journeys come in handy for something other than meeting people and being interogated :-)

Well as you can see from the photo's since my last update I have been visiting some more historical areas of India. The caves were particularly impressive though hard work in the heat! I have no idea how those guys carved those sculptures out of rock all those years ago - there is so much detail and they are so big. I was exhausted just walking around them....

I arrived in Mumbai a couple of days ago, which I have to say I wasn't looking forward to it as I thought it would be a bigger and dirty version of Delhi, but in fact it is a lot more cosmopolitan - well the centre tourist area anyway. Rickshaws are banned from the centre of town, there is traffic control (even crossings) and you get very little hassle from touts. I have only seen one ox drawn cart and that was away from the main tourist/commercial area and no cows!! The downside is the hotels are more expensive though I did manage to find a fairly budget one, with for the first time a shared bathroom, but it is clean enough for the couple of nights I am here.

En route here I managed to get on a train going the wrong way - it's quite confusing as the trains have names and numbers on the side and the one I was supposed to be on was 3 hours late. So when a train pulled in with the same name and no. on it that I was waiting for at the expected platform and time on the information board was reasonable to assume it was mine, especially when I showed one of the workers my ticket and he nodded so I jumped on (should have known they would just say yes that is the normal reply to most things!!). Anyway, after a lot of faffing and looking hassled I managed to get a train going the right way and didn't even end up having to pay for an extra ticket or the fine for not having my ticket before getting on the train - thanks to Kevin the very nice and helpful Anglo/Indian train conductor who I think I just bamboozled.......To be honest I'm just surprised that this has only happened once so far!!

It is getting hotter every day and more humid - I managed to burn the cheeks of my butt today when I sat down with exhaustion on a very hot stone bench - won't make that mistake again!! I get the overnight train tonight to Goa for a quick stop before moving further south to Kerela - where I really want to spend some time but suspect that I will last no more than a couple of days (if I get there at all!).

Yesterday I was asked if I wanted to go be an extra in a Bollywood Movie (which appeared to be for real) as interesting as it might have been to see behind the scenes of film making the thought of standing about in fancy dress for hours in this heat for 500 rupees (6 quid) was not enough to make me want to risk missing my train and be recorded on camera looking like an overboiled tomato!! Now if I find out it is actually a Brad Pitt/Matt Damon production I will be forever gutted!!

Not sure what the internet will be like for my next few stops so don't be too disappointed if you have to wait a bit longer for the next update.....Keep me up to date with news from home - there must be some gossip your not telling me???

Jack xx

These bizarre monuments are the Budhist Stupas at Sanchi - burial mounds. The Torana's (gates) have loads of detail which tells budhist stories.