Central India's UNESCO sites

Leaving Mumbai, we flew east toward the centre of India to Aurangabad, a city of about 2.6 million people. When we arrived in Aurangabad, we discovered that it was Holi day, and everyone was either selling or throwing paint and having heaps of fun.

Vendor selling paint and paint guns for Holi

Holi is a Hindu festival that is celebrated with colour. There are several legends around Holi. One is that it celebrates good over evil; another is that it celebrates the beginning of spring; and another is that it celebrates love. Whatever the legend, people seem to get really involved and have a lot of fun.

But we almost didn't get here because our flight was cancelled the day before our departure. With only 24 hrs to find another flight, we finally managed to book one, but it was so expensive because we booked at the last minute.

Marg approaching the entry of Ellora Caves (UNESCO)

Our reason for being in Aurangabad, was so that we could visit two nearby UNESCO World Heritage sites, the Ellora Caves and the Ajanta Caves, both in the Maharashtra state of central India. 

So, the next morning, we set off in a taxi at 6.30 am to reach the Ellora Caves. These are Buddhist, Jain and Hindu temples and monasteries, cut into the rock of a cliff-face.

They are ancient, dating from 600 to 1000 AD, and we found them utterly fascinating,

Marg in Ellora Cave 16 (UNESCO)

We walked around in awe viewing a number of caves, and each one was different and spectacular in its own way. 

Cave 16 in particular was absolutely amazing, with its intricately detailed and elaborate carvings of various religious figures. Throughout the cave there were beautifully carved columns wrought out of the solid rock of the cave.

Leaving Ellora after a good explore, we drove two or so hours east in the same taxi, to the Ajanta Caves. 

Ajanta Caves (UNESCO)

The roads were under construction making this a very slow and jolting trip. But it was worth it. The Ajanta Caves, are also UNESCO but very different to those at Ellora.

This site has 29 Buddhist caves, also cut into rock, but that date from the 2nd to 7th century BC. The caves have many paintings and sculptures along with exterior carvings.

We were stunned by the paintings in Cave 1 and 2 in particular. Cave 1 contained beautiful and authentic murals of Buddha’s life. Cave 2 had a most incredible ceiling.

Artwork in Ajanta Cave 2

While there were a lot of other amazing caves those first two were the highlight for us.

It was starting to get very hot so we were happy to head back to our air-conditioned taxi for the final 2.5 hour drive north-east, to Jālgaon. 

Jālgaon (population about 450 k) was another one-night stop to enable us to catch a train to Bhopal the next morning. We were headed to Bhopal so we could see two more UNESCO sites.

Village near Ajanta Caves and Jalgaon

Unfortunately, the road to Jālgaon did not improve and it was a long slow trip. But we were kept entertained by the many tiny, interesting villages that we drove through on the way.

We finally arrived in Jālgaon to a riot of colour - it was Holi celebration there too. It was interesting, and wonderful to see.

Later, we walked from our Jālgaon hotel up the road to a lovely wee courtyard restaurant for dinner. Along the way, we had to politely plead with the locals, not to bomb us with colour - we made it, but only just!

Holi fun

On the train to Bhopal the next morning, our first task was to find seats together for the 7-hour ride north. 

We had booked this train ride online as we had with all of our other train rides on this tour. However, for some reason we were not seated together.

After a bit of asking around (tricky when you don't speak the language!), we swapped seats with a family who had also been split up. In the end, none of us was sitting in our pre-booked seats but we were all happy. 

Busy Bhopal

Arriving in Bhopal was a shock as we didn't realise it was such a big city (we learned later that it has a population of about 1.7 million). It was early evening, and there were people and motor scooters everywhere. 

Bhopal, in the Madhya Pradesh state of central India, is known as the City of Lakes as there are two significant lakes right in the middle of town. But while the city seemed interesting, our hotel was the dirtiest one we had encountered on this tour. It was from the OYO group and had stained bed linen, big holes in the sheets, dirty smelly towels and bathroom, and dust everywhere – yuck.

We survived the night, but the next morning, we set out to find something else as we had planned to be there for a few days.

Sunset over the Upper Lake, Bhopal

We found a pleasant place called Hotel Lake View and scored a great room overlooking the Upper Lake. While it was an expensive hotel, it was worth it for our wellbeing.

In the morning we took a taxi 4 hours north-east to Sanchi, the oldest existing Buddhist sanctuary in the world, and the first of our two UNESCO World Heritage Sites in this area. 

Leigh at the Grand Stupa at Sanchi (UNESCO)

The Sanchi Grand Stupa is one of the oldest stone buildings in India. It dates from the 3rd century and has a round brick structure, a bit like a beehive, built over the relics of Buddha. We found it be haunting and beautiful.

There were several clusters of similar, but smaller stupas and other ruins nearby, and we spent most of the day exploring there. After another interesting day of discovery, our taxi returned us safely to Bhopal.

The next day we headed in the opposite direction to visit the Bhimbetka Rock Shelters, the second of our two UNESCO World Heritage Sites in this area.

Prehistoric cave drawings at Bhimbetka (UNESCO)

This amazing cluster of huge rocks, shows the earliest existence of human life in the Indian subcontinent. Many of the rocks and cave homes, had been painted with crude drawings showing the day-to-day activities of the inhabitants of the time.

After wandering around for a couple of hours, we headed back to Bhopal. 

That evening, we grabbed a knowledgeable tuktuk driver to give us a tour of the old Muslim city of Bhopal. We had a great evening, bumping our way round the ancient streets.

The Taj-il-Masajid, Bhopal 

We saw the Taj-ul-Masajid, one of the world’s largest mosques founded by Shah Jahan Begum in 1877, the city’s third female ruler.

It is a magnificent building with domes and two 18-storey high towers. Unfortunately, we were only able to view it from the outside.

Then we circled the lakes to get views of the old city from all sides – it was wonderful.

Lake view of Bhopal old city

We saw a lot of grand and dilapidated buildings, city gates, the usual mass of humanity everywhere, and tuktuks and scooters madly rushing and beeping loudly.

We ended up having a good break in Bhopal before heading to the airport to fly to Ahmedabad, our next destination.

The above blog is part of our 2-month tour of India. The first blog on this tour is called "Off to Delhi".