Oh, how time flies!

The Ellora caves were beautiful! You'll have to google it, I have added too many photos in this session, technology overdose!

From Aurangabad we bussed to Jalgaon, which is suppose to be the base for visiting the Ajanta caves. We ended up finding a train/bus combination to Omkareshwar, the town we really wanted to be in, and decided to skip the Ajanta caves so as to avoid being stuck in Jalgaon for 3 days (albeit, a side note is that the owner of the hostel was amazing, spoke amazing english and I (amaris) had a late night chat about the sociological impact of sexual repression and arranged marriages (both positive and negative).... I came out of the conversation with a much deeper understanding of the national (especially male) psyche)

We arrived in Omkareshwar in the early afternoon, and found the 1/2 hostel that we liked more. River view, a group of young Nepalese fellows running the show, and a building full of 30 + hippies and we were set. Omkareshwar is a holy city (town), as the island in the middle of the river (8 km perimetre) is said to be shaped like OM if seen from the sky. Prayer bells rang at dusk and dawn, with chanting heard throughout the day and night. Pilgrims in saffron far outnumber the tourists, and the smell of 'holy' smoking product wafts through the air. No internet, no phones, no restaurants, no liquor....

Omkareshwar was yet another personal transformation, and another example to add to the list as to how India pushes you past your boundaries. Trevor and I were feeling dragged down, tired of the rough that India has to offer. We had tentatively decided that we would cut the India portion of our trip short, and fly out to Bangkok to chase the warmer weather (it is hot during the day, but we are wearing sweaters/scarves/thick socks at night).......

Small side story. Our neighbor (we appropriately called him for the rest of the trip) was a 30 year old expat from Italy, who has lived in India for 12 years, has given up his passport/ID and is calling India home. He is part of a sect of the Hindu religion, and has lived a life of a pilgrim....
Long story short.
On the SE corner of OM island of Omkareshwar, the two rivers of Narmada and Kaveri (both considered Holy rivers) meet, and form what is considered a holy junction that is highly worshiped. We were explaining our current emotional state with India, and neighbor told us to walk to the point of intersection, to ask for what we wanted in our trip, and to dip our heads in the river 7 times (a spiritual/ritualistic significance we didn't understand). ......

The junction of the two rivers ended up being too busy, and we instead walked the perimetre of the island, discussing the entire way why we were unhappy, what we were looking for in our trip, and why we thought it was time to leave (expressing the same questions, asking for what we wanted on the trip as neighbor said to). We had arrived back to our Hostel, happily decided (unemotionally, with no anger or frustration) to make a quick end to the trip, round up what we wanted to see and skedaddle to Thailand.
We walked up to the third floor (our place of residence) and our roomates from the entire floor are sitting cross legged in front of our room (with our neighbor, but had spanned out to block our door) and we were greeted with a session of fresh baked coconut chocolate balls and REAL COFFEE MADE WITH NEIGHBORS PLUG IN PERCOLATOR.

We are now staying in India, and are on the quest for a plug in percolator.

We are on route to Bundi now, a beautiful town nestled next to a lake, also considered a spiritual place. We will update you on what India has to offer for us there......

Omkareshwar from the level of the river - 

The view of the temple at night..... this was the view from our room.

First, some photo evidence that we are actually in India! (thanks Nar and David) ...

This is us, and Nar and David, just about to board the ferry (read fisher boat) to cross the river.

This is Am and Trevor, just after Amaris crying about the monkey's and just before having rocks thrown at us by said monkeys @ Hanuman Temple....

Amaris, at relaxing Hampi reservoir .....

and trevor, on top of the world. fun fact : they have a sign on the road to this lake, that says "watch for crocodiles". as per usual, amaris feared. Nar and David laughed, saying that they had a lake with the same 'wrning' - that it was a gag for tourists. Asshole joke, if you ask me.

Stay-cation

After Bijapur we were looking for a place to relax, breathe deep and see green. We arrived in Pune, headed over to the area that the Lonely Planet describes as the 'backpackers hub' and attempted to look for hostel. No such luck, as this area is saturated with people going to the Osho Meditation retreat (google it, its good for a giggle) and all of the rooms rivaled that of the 5 star hotels in kelowna. We decided that, as we hid in our room for two days in Bijapur and were therefore drastically under budget, that we would splurge and indulge for 2 nights.

and sweet mother of god was it good.

our room had hot water (24 hours a day, read it and weep cries the mother of all things good in traveling) a COMPLIMENTARY bar fridge, 24 hour room service, a living room, large screen TV and and and and - yes, a SOFT bed. We are coming to the realization that North Americans are the only people who sleep on soft beds, and the 2 fluffy pillows each, bodies cleaned & exfoliated with hot water, soft bed and terry cloth towels while drinking complimentary mini bar beverages was just what we needed. We decided that this was our christmas present and anniversary gift combined, and convinced ourselves that we didnt need to feel guilty for living like kings on our 'backpacking trip' - and you know what? As breakfast was complimentary, we only bought dinner for the two nights and ended up being just barely over our budget!


Pune was great, a bustling city that was full and fun to wander around in... our first true city experience here, and it was difficult to find an 'Indian' restaurant.... We have confirmed that the city is not at all what we are looking for in our travelling experience here, but we wanted to visit one and see this side of India.
aaand it was entertaining to listen to the Osho 'meditation retreat' dance to bumping remixed Beyonce trance at 9 am. :) Reaching enlightenment via mandatory HIV testing and $$$. Beauty.

Refreshed, refurbished, and renewed we are on our way to Aurangabad (by bus - sitting in the front, lesson learned check!) which will be our base for exploring the Ellora caves. (actually - time warp, we are currently here, but Amaris has been praying to the porcelain goddess from some unbeknown bacteria for the past 36 hours, an experience I have named the "Aurangabad Episode"... so tomorrow is our first day of adventuring.)

We will update when we've been exploring for a while.

Metamorphosis

( I am going to back track a bit)

Last week we decided to begin heading North.... we are anxious to reach the areas that were our main intentions for the trip (province of rajasthan)... our first stop over was a city called Bijapur. We headed here by bus, from Hospet.

Remember in grade school when we would race to the back of the bus, fighting over who got the primo 'get air on the bumps' seats? Yeah, well, we didn't at the time. We sat in the far back and our rear ends paid the price for it. The road (read : entire 6 hour journey) was having construction done, so it was a dirt gravel road in which we got air my snowboarding brother would be jealous of.

We arrived in Bijpaur in the dark of the night (bus was late due to construction) with no place to stay. Into a rickshaw, drinksfoodshowerbed. Wake up, go for a walk. We were stared at EVERYWHERE we went, and not in a way that made us feel comfortable. We are getting used to the idea of being foreigners, having people interested in us (for conversation or business reasons) but there was literally not a place where we could go without  being watched - completely. An added measure of discomfort was the fact that there were no women in any public spaces (unless they were working) except for me.

We spent a day walking to the Gol Gumbaz, which is a beautiful, epic mausoleum that rivals the Taj.  A dome (the second largest in the world) completely unsupported by pillars, this tomb has something called the whispering gallery - an area where you can speak in a soft tone and be heard across the entire structure. Our trip here was cut short, as we were inundated with people trying to take our pictures and mass groups of people following us around. It seemed that the tourists were more interested in us as an attraction than the attraction itself!



Needless to say, we had our first 'culture shock travelers breakdown" and we ended up hiding in our room for the rest of the day/evening. We realized that we truly felt a difference in the stares here, and that outside the Gol Gumbaz we felt unwelcome and misunderstood.  We were ready to move on to the next place, ready for a change of pace.... and next  came beautiful Pune, our vacation resort in India.