It was only a one hour flight, and by 8am we were being picked up from the hotel for the tour for the day: Ellora Caves, carved over a couple of centuries between the 9th and 11th centuries I think. Pretty impressive. The centerpiece is the worlds largest monolithic sculpture, carved from the.top down.
Mind, there's only so much "culture" you can absorb in 38 degree heat. When our guide suggested lunch and a cool drink somewhere we sighed with relief with visions of a nice long cold beer and a light lunch in air conditioned comfort. What we actually had was a vegetarian cafe on the tourist strip with plastic table tops, overworked ceiling fans and toilets with a rating of 2.
Oh dear ... is this a good idea?
Still feeling hot and tired after our 2am start, we are treated to one more sight: a mini Taj Mahal: a mausoleum for the wife of the grandson of Emperor Shah Jahan who built the Taj Mahal. Much was made of plaster and was crumbling. I'm afraid we couldn't appreciate it in the extreme heat of the middle of the day. We also felt a little uncomfortable being somewhere off the beaten track for tourists and were openly stared at!
Some of the local tourists made interesting pictures though.
Again we were asked if they could take photos of us, and I took one in return. Try as I might I couldn't get them to smile: this was serious business!
As we pass through the lobby on the way back to our room one of the staff proudly informed us that British royalty was checking in: the Duke of Wellington. Not that I would know him from a bar of soap!
Back in our room we find that the pile of dirty washing we left strewn over the couch had all been neatly folded, included dirty socks!! And proudly sitting on the coffee table was an elephant elaborately created from towels!
Oh dear how embarrassing! We'll have to behave in a more royal fashion from now on!
A long day!
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