Jalgaon/ Fardapur/ Ajanta

Early morning I arose to my alarm and checked our position. Luckily I had reception and saw we were about an hour late, so we could sleep a little longer. Well the others could I rarely can fall asleep once I'm up.
I wanted to go to this place because it is supposed to be beautiful - Ajanta is known for the caves important to buddhist monks. So William and Christina agreed to do this stop with me and we checked in into a small hotel and got it pretty cheap (I guess almost no other room, if at all, was booked). We tried to get a train onward and realised almost everything was booked. The only option was 2AC (expensive with only 2 beds per wall) to Varanasi. Our plans to visit a tiger park on the way were gone when we found out, that the parks only opened in the second half of october!
So we booked the train (or tried and tried and tried). Finally my visa card was accepted by the website of the indian railway and we had the tickets. Before that we tried with all our cards and different options. No use. It took so long, that even the tickets for the 2nd AC class were getting scarce... luckily, in the end we succeeded!
Then we headed out to the caves. We took an auto and were unbelievably annoyed by all the money to spend to get there. Apparently we have to pay a charge to walk over a parking place and be talked to by all these vendors, then we have to pay for a bus to get to the cave entrance and then we have to pay 500 rupees. This price was again raised a few months back from 250. We should have done some research...
Wait... 500?! So this site also belonged to the Archeological Survey of India. Thank you ASI...
I tried argueing with the people untill the security guard came and he realised I had payed and only wanted to know why it was so expensive not causing any harm, other than wanting them to understand my english and talk to me. They couldn't so I gave up and we went inside. Guides talked to us and wanted more money, when we said we already paied 500 and we can't pay more they told us to complain to our embacies, that the foreigners prices are so high...
Anyway we ditched them and went inside the caves. It was very interesting. Each cave had a big statue of Buddha and each of these statues had a different hand gesture. Sometimes involving both hands, sometimes just one. As far as I can remember it was always a different one, implying that these all have a significant meaning to buddhists or at least the monks. And maybe each cave being used for one sort of ritual or something like that.

A panorama of the valley (taken from on of the last caves if I remember correctly)

A small look on the all the caves and the small valley they surround

Even outside the monks show buddha and in the background 2 indian men holding hands

A smaller Buddha (the big ones were mostly too dark)

A bigger Buddha

Two elefants at the side of this gateway into a cave:

There were over 30 caves in total, not all of them were open for visitors. In a few caves the ASI had small exhibits about their work here, not really saying anything other than "we are working at the cave" "look here, we have cool tools to restore this cave!" So yeah... kind of cool I guess.

A small modell of the valley and the caves

Anyway... The caves were cool and some really impressive to walk through. We were almost always way too long in the caves. At least comparing our time in a cave to that of other groups and people. There was a big group of indian women, all dressed in pink sarees, who started half an hour after us and were finished 2 hours earlier I think... We took our time and let the feel of all the caves sink in. William said he could very well imagine meditating here in the caves, so calm and far away from all the busy traffic in India. If it wouldn't cost that much...

The pink ladies walking to the next cave

A Buddha monkey, waiting to meditate in peace... (not sure if Buddha monkey is actually a thing...)

A small Buddha statue on the side of one of the caves

Inside a cave, small paintings showing Buddha and other small carvings

Cool looking doorway

CHristina and me infront of the last cave entrance

(or at least one of the last - not the same doorway as before!)

Shortly before the caves closed it started pouring. Luckily we were near some houses and got refuge there. We waited till it had calmed down and the took the same route back. Paid for a bus and when we wanted to complain about our "parking ticket" (we had paid in the beginning) no one was there to complain to. Grudgidly we retreated back to Fardapur, had nice dinner and waited for the next day to head back to Jalgaon and get into the fancy train to Varanasi!

It took quite a while for a bus to arrive and bring us to Jalgaon. In Jalgaon I searched for a post office. Finally I gave up and took a tuktuk to one. In the post office no one knew how much a postcard to Germany costs so they sat me down and the work in the post office stopped. Everyone was staring at William (who joined me for fun) and me. Then they told me it cost 30 rupees. 30? I told them it just cost 15 in Kodaikanal. Kodaikanal doesn't have a train station, their trainstation in Jalgaon is 2 km away, how can it be more expensive?! Because I wanted to send the postcards I paid and heard them apologize and say it's the system not them. I told them to tell their Boss it's a stupid system. Jalgaon is closer (by airmiles) to Germany than Kodaikanal and has a better infrastructure, it shouldn't cost more. It was the most expensive a postcard had ever cost me in India. While I was discussing even more Indians had shown up. About 20 were standing infront of me, while I was talking to them, William had to restrain himself from laughter. I finally bought the stamps, gave them the cards and left. They told me they would complain on my behalf about their system.
Then we waited at the train station and I felt like in a zoo. Here apparently it is once more rare to see foreigners and so everyone stopped and stared at us. The entire stairway to the other platforms was filled by people looking down at the foreigners who were waiting on their delayed train. William got really annoyed and started asking for money for even looking at us. When one man wanted a picture of Christina she asked him for 10 Rupees and he actually gave it to her!
When we found out at which platform our train left we moved there and weren't in the center of stares any more. Not as many people walked by here.

The train class was kind of a joke. We got sheets, a blanket and a pillow. Additionally the side beds had curtains for each bed, which was nice, but no power outlets! The horror for Christina and so she always asked other people to use their outlet. The food was cold and bad and they actually charged more than it should have cost (never happened to me in the sleeper class, or the price was still cheap by restaurant standards). I was really desillusioned by the great fancy 2AC coaches and felt validated, that the sleeper class is unbeatable in price and comfort. Because the other classes don't really offer more comfort (except the curtain, which I wouldn't pay extra 1500 Rupees for)...
With a delay of 3 hours we arrived in Varanasi, the holy city at the Ganges.

Colonial lord Jakob and Foto-ception: Will taking a picture of Christina taking a picture of me