The Ellora Caves at Aurangabad

No, this is not a photo-still from an Indiana Jones movie. But one of the many caves at the Ellora Caves in Aurangabad. There is a series of over a hundred caves carved out of the native rock to by the Jain, Hindu and Buddhist devotees.

Here is a photo of the exterior of one of the Brahmin caves--


Of course, I wanted to have a photo with this voluptuous lady . . .

And Paul with this big-bellied man! What is important to note is that all of these reliefs are carved out of the rock inside of the temple that was carved out of the mountain.

Buddha--
Molly and I pose with this vacationing Indian family.

A relief in a Buddhist temple that mixes Hindu and Buddhist beliefs in the picture.
The famous Buddhist "cathedral" cave. Note how the boning of the arches resemble the nave of a cathedral . . .
Here we are outside the cluster of Buddhist caves . . .
Elephants in relief . . .

Our day ends at the caves. This little chap is begging for bananas, but is too shy to pose for my photo.

Happy Birthday Pauly

Happy Birthday Paul! We celebrated Paul's 30th birthday tonight. Of course, after working 12 hours one does not feel like going out to party, but he had cake and flowers, and we went out to a nice dinner. We were staying at Le Meridien Pune at the time which is why the odd background in the photo. Tomorrow, we leave for London where Paul is excited to have a good pint and any type of meat product!

Well, it was supposed to be a quick 3 and 1/2 hour trip to Mumbai from Pune. But of course there was a traffic jam. Luckily, our driver was able to come up with some quick maneuvers and we went through the quiet, resort town Lonavala. I was very excited to see a rooster protecting a doorway.
When we passed out of Lonavala and made it back to the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, we saw that we were still in a massive traffic jam. Observe the photo below. We later learned that an accident caused a backup for more than 8 hours. Luckily, since we cut through Lonavala we were able to make our flight to the UK on time.

Here are some trucks trying to squeeze pass one another in the mad rush to get down the mountain.

On our way down the mountain, through the traffic, we encountered some little friends. These little guys were hoping to grab a bite to eat from the passers-by.

They are cute, but I will admit I would rather just see them in the zoo and not inches away from my car window.

Luckily, we were not attacked by monkeys and made it to the airport on time to catch the flight to London.