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.