The Adventures of Michalina: Sundarbans>Mumbai>Caves>Mumbai

After Varanasi we took a 16 hour night train to Kolkata. We wanted to see more of the north and see some wilderness. Fortunately the train was only an hour late, increasing to three hours late by the end. We made friends with the family we sat near and played with the kids. I slept most of the way but it was a long and bumpy journey for Darwyn. Straight from the Kolkata station we dropped our bags at the safari office, and since we arrived late we had to take public transit to the Sundarban mangrove jungle! It took a very long time to get there. We took a taxi, another train, a bus, a ferry, the bumpiest and most painful flatbed motorcycle/rickshaw ride (seriously, I wondered if I would get internal bleeding from this ride!!), another ferry, and then walked to the village. We had been traveling for about 24 hours nonstop at this point!!

We finally arrived in a little ecovillage, which was quite new and not very authentic, but still quaint and quiet. We had dinner and met the other tour guests who had already gone on a bird watching tour. They had brought in a local traditional band that sang some songs in Hindi. They had great voices and from the laughter from some of the other guests it seemed hilarious! One song was lamenting the modernization of India. The song complained that the men could no longer tell which women were married because they did not have the red mark on their forehead or wear marriage bangles anymore. It was a fun and silly song!

We had the quietest, best sleep of our lives in the ecovillage and got up at 5:30am to start the boat tour. The tour was lovely! Everyone's goal was to see a tiger, which is very rare. Instead we saw kingfishers, spotted deer, a lizard, 2 crocodiles, and some other birds. An we saw two honey bee colonies in the trees!! I spotted the second one by myself, I'm now considering becoming a safari guide with my eagle eyes. The tour operators were three young brothers who were very friendly and we got along with them well. We made friends with a lovely German couple too. It was very nice to spend the day looking at trees and water and getting meals served on the boat. Paradise!

In the evening we made our way back to Kolkata. We had trouble finding a hotel that wasn't really dirty and expensive. The first one was double what we normally pay, and when I went to see the room it smelled like cigarette smoke and a cockroach crawled up the wall when I opened the bathroom door. Ha! Yeah right!! We eventually found an ok place to sleep for 4 hours before going to the airport for Mumbai.

Sundarban sunrise on the boat

Tiger tracks on the shore!!

What a hunk

Mud skipper. So tiny. So adorable!!

Monkeys.... They jumped on our boat as we pulled into the shore and I shrieked. I don't like monkeys....

Spotted deer at the watch tower watering hole

A woman carrying a HUGE bundle of straw. Incredible!

Next up was Aurangabad as a base to see the Ajanta and Ellora caves. We had another epic journey to get there!! Our driver took a wrong turn at some point. When it was dark we stopped to ask for directions and discovered the car was leaking diesel because a pipe was loose. Our driver was obviously panicking to find the main road so he started driving really fast and he didn't understand that he needed to turn his high beams off when passing another car/truck or they would blind him. When we were blinded he would keep driving anyway and swerve off the road. It was ridiculous! We asked him to drive more safely and it was a bit better after that. What a crazy ride! At this point we declared that all possible modes of transportation had issues and some were just more expensive than others, like hiring a car. Oh well, we made it in one piece in the end... And ee did see a beautiful owl as it swooped over the road in front of us! And we got to see some tiny villages and some nice countryside on the way.

We ate at a veg restaurant that was cheap, delicious, and had amazing service! They even brought out finger bowls after the meal, Darwyn's indicator of good service! They only addressed Darwyn, which we've encountered many times, which was frustrating to me but probably respectful for them. When I went to the washroom they asked Darwyn to pose for photos with them (3 times!), and then when I returned they asked for more photos. It was a riot, we made faces in all the photos and they loved it!

The next morning we went to the Ajanta Caves. They were incredible!!! There are almost 30 caves in a horseshoe shape around some waterfalls above a river that cut out the horseshoe-shaped canyon. The caves were full of Buddhist carvings and intricately carved pillars, all surrounded by simple rooms for monks. The caves were made around the 6th-7th century. They were carved out, then plastered with a cow dung rock mixture, then topped with plaster. They were painted with mineral paints from the surrounding area. I found malachite and small geodes all around! There were people selling gems and I found some of those on the ground too. I was in heaven.

The best part of the caves for me was finding ourselves in an empty second floor of a cave and discovering it had hauntingly beautiful echoey acoustics. We sang some chords and listened to the harmonizing echoes for a long time. I can only imagine how beautiful the prayers and chants would have sounded with many monks in there! I would definitely recommend this over the Taj Mahal. It was amazing.

For dinner, we tried to find a recommended restaurant called Tandoor. We asked 4 tuk tuk drivers if they knew where it was, all returned blank stares. After an unsuccessful enquiry with the 5th driver I blurted out "Tandooooorrrr" in an exaggerated Indian accent and rolled "R" and he suddenly knew what we were talking about. What a riot!!

The next day we saw the Ellora caves. They were also nice but not as extensive as Ajanta. But Ellora did have one huge and intricately carved area that would have required the excavation of tons of rock. It was beautiful, and there were so many beehives on the cliff faces! The only downside to this day was that people were asking to take our pictures and blatantly taking our photos without asking the whole day. It was very rude and made us uncomfortable. It was like we were part of the attraction there. It was so strange. I took one photo with a nice family from Assam. The mom talked to me for a while and it was really nice. This day tired us out from all the paparazzi!

Continuing the whirlwind tour, that night we took a sleeper bus to Mumbai, which took about 9 hours. Sleeper buses are the best!! For about $10 CAD, you get a bed (!) to yourself on a bus with curtains. Our original bus was cancelled and we had to wait 2 hours, but the bus ride was worth it. I definitely want to travel like this always!! We rolled around a lot but for the most part it was very comfortable. I want these busses in Canada!!

We made it to Mumbai in the early morning and rested a bit and did some walking around the streets before our 2am flight to Sri Lanka.

Some pearls from Darwyn:
Quote A: On deciding what to do with our day: " Thing to do in Mumbai: Painfully crane your neck around to look at old dirty architecture." Obviously we were not going to see the old colonial sites in much detail that day.

Quote B: "OMG there's a store with four floors with ONLY shirts! We're definitely going there." So as you can guess we went shopping instead of looking at old dirty architecture all day.

And with our luck our 2am flight was delayed 2 hours to Sri Lanka. The journey of delays continues!!!

Most of the caves consisted of a large cavern with supporting pillars and a buddha carving in the centre. The room was surrounded by monks' quarters. All carved out of a single piece of rock: the cliff!