Indiana Jones, the temples of ellora n rock from outer space

[darth_lucifer]

* ing:
Temples of ellora= as themselves
Rock from outer space=Lonar meteor crater
Indiana Jones =

I am back from 1125 km solo trip visiting ajanta,ellora and lonar crater from mumbai

Complete trip log would be available by tommorow(100% sure)

Some teaser pics for now:


Lonar Crater:


Ajanta




A 2000 year old painting in ajanta ....much more valuable than monalisa

[Prasham]

Great Pics man...

Welcome back from Long trip....

[Yogesh Sarkar]

Welcome back, waiting for the complete trip log

[Sunilg]

my favorite subject.......ancient buildings..........can't wait for more.....hurry up......

[darth_lucifer]

Ah temple big deal!!!we got plenty in india...wait and read this
|
|
V

If you like buildings u should see this...

This is a architectural marvel

Presenting kailash temple at ellora(a sneek peek)

This temple took 150 years to build and 7000 workers worked in shifts.WAIT HOLD YOUR BREATH...

THIS TEMPLE IS A MONOLITHIC STRUCTURE(CARVED OUT OF A SINGLE ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)...u can see the rock from which it is carved(surrounding the pic).Workers chiseled away the rock to build this temple .The started from top and carved the way to bottom.That way no scaffolding was required!!!

Amazing aint it(couple of non copyrighted pics )
|
|
|
V


CHECK OUT THE ROCK ENCLOSING THE TEMPLE...ITS CARVED OUT OF THAT ROCK



If there is anything which comes close to Taj in India this is it...maybe it even surpasses Taj coz of the complexity required to build it.....and its a monolithic structure(more pics coming up)

[anupmathur]

Originally Posted by darth_lucifer

If there is anything which comes close to Taj in India this is it...maybe it even surpasses Taj coz of the complexity required to build it.....and its a monolithic structure(more pics coming up)

IMHO, it does surpass the Taj. The problem is that it not so ROMANTIC!
The marketing also has been poor!

[darth_lucifer]

3rd November:

Little OT:There was a diwali party in my ex-office on 3rd Nov and I was invited.Ofcourse riding rakes over high prority over posing with chics wearing Sarees and grabbing attention of all single men but I decided to skip it anyways

Ride:Couldnt sleep previous night.Got up from bed and started at around 4:30.Went to ghatkopar and took the NH-3.NH-3 is really bad after outskirts of mumbai where it becomes two laner

Crossed kasara and clicked some pics at Igarpuri(Powerlines are all over the place and really hard to miss in pics)


Reached Nasik and stopped to eat misal pav for breakfast at a fast food joint.Followed it up with Idlis
Checked my watch.It was 10:00 and I was still in Nasik.

Picked up my Bike and started speeding on NH-3.

On map there is a road which goes to aurangabad via malegoan and u have to go till Malegoan on NH-3.But just 2-3 Kms after nasik I saw a road sign which showed turn right for aurangabad.Obviously a shortcut but that meant going off a highway into small road I have never been on and did not know about.

There is a small statue of man playing drum on right side of NH-3 in Nasik and this is where you turn right.

Man playing drum(Pic taken after turning right)


I decided to try that road for a few kms and return back if it didnt work.A couple of kms into the road I saw signboard for aurangabad




I continued on the road and there were road signs which led me to aurangabad.Sometimes I stopped and asked locals for directions just to check.

Passed Niphad,Yeola,Vaijapur(take a left near ambedkar statue in Vaipur or ask locals ) and after shivoor this road joins the road coming from Malegoan.

U turn left and u reach ellora which comes 25-30 kms before aurangabad.
There are signboards for ellora turn.

Reached Ellora at 2:00 ish.A neat 340 kms from my home in mumbai.Checked in a Hotel Kailash(Recommended by lonely planet and seemed best place in ellora).It had rooms for 900 bucks onwards.I asked if there are any economy rooms.He replied we have a little arrangement for 400 bucks and he took me to small economy rooms.Okayish stuff and I decide to checkin.The manager tells me I can park my Bike on side of room



No Hot water or TV for room of 400 bucks(Must be available in higher end rooms)

[darth_lucifer]

Day 1 Continued........

Having reached ellora and checking in at hotel I still had some time before sun-down and decided to check the caves(I would be visiting them in detail tomm)

Took a ticket(No ticket taken for still camera)

Went straight to Kailash Temple which is bang in front of ellora entrance.

Some more snaps of Kailash:

Ravana lifting kailash parbat with shiva n parvati(Later shiva crushed him with his foot)

[praveenkm]

Oh Super cool more more...

[bhuwan singh]

Cool Pics - was it a 0ne day ride. Your pictures (of bike) show that there was no luggage.