Ajanta Caves
The Ajanta Caves when simply put is just a complex of 30 rock-cut Buddhist caves. Part of these fascinating monuments dates back to 2nd century BCE. While the other, much more richly decorated, part of caves were added to the original group during the Gupta period in 5th century CE. The caves are situated in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state of India. Most of the explorers reach this World Heritage site from Aurangabad which is considered to be the base for exploring Ajanta and Ellora cave complexes.
Although, most of the caves looks similar, they are located in amazing and calm place. If you make time to wander around the area, you will most definitely enjoy your time here. The biggest mistake here is to hurry through the place and miss the tinny little details!
Helpful tips
Restaurants. After traveling through India, we gathered experience and tips from locals which we want to share with everyone who will be reading this. If you come to India for a short period of time it is good to know that here certain bacteria are in almost every food, water and even air which can put you to bed for couple days if you have too much of it. To adapt to it, your body needs time and small amounts of the bacteria.
First, it is better to avoid eating too much of street food as it contains quite a lot of bacteria even though it is so cheap. We do not say that you should not eat street food at all, just keep it small quantities at a time. If you cannot wait to try and eat all sorts of street food just try it little by little and not everything on one go.
Second, when choosing a place where to eat, pay attention to other travelers’ reviews of the place. It is very important how the people from abroad felt about the food rather than locals.
Third, if there are any doubts regarding the hygiene of the place, we encourage to eat vegetables and avoid meat dishes.
We are well aware that everyone is different, and you feel your body the best. So, do what you want to do and keep in mind that these recommendations worked for us, we did not get sick while in India even for a day.
Markets. Prices in grocery shops are the same as through whole India, prices are printed on the packages, thus, you never need to wonder whether someone is taking advantage of you.
We would advise against drinking tap water in whole India, especially if you come just for a short time (couple weeks) as your body needs time to adjust to certain bacteria which is everywhere and taking too much of it at the same time can put you bed for couple days. Even though in some sources you could find that water is safe to drink, or that filtered water is alright we suggest to double check with your host or locals before you do that. We did not risk it too much, especially in the beginning of the trip, however, we did drink quite a lot of filtered water which was kind of alright just had a bad taste in most places.
Transportation. To get to Ajanta Caves you can use bus, bike or car. As it is a small village near Aurangabad it is usually reached from there with a bus and from the bus stop you can take a shuttle bus or a lovely walk straight to the Caves as the territory is closed and you cannot reach it with your personal transport, on top of that you can use any other transport you feel like using.
Most common transportation is shuttle bus which is the fastest way to get around the road to the caves. We walked as it looked like it will be a lovely walk and we were not left disappointed, we recommend you do the same if you have a chance.
Best of luck planning your holidays in India!
Is there anything else you would like to visit while in India?
If you have anything in mind, please let us know and let’s discuss it.
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