Dusherra part 4 - Lonar Crater

After an incredible day visiting the caves in Ajanta - the ones that are CARVED OUT and not BUILT UP ... - we spent 3 hours in a car travelling east to a place where the third largest crater in the world made by a meteor, Lonar Crater.

Since I could not get any good aerial pictures ... you can have a look here if you like.

Wikipedia tells us that "Lonar Lake is a saline soda lake located at Lonar in Buldana district, Maharashtra, India, which was created by a meteor impact during the Pleistocene Epoch. This lake ... is both saline and alkaline in nature... Lonar Lake has a mean diameter of 1.2 kilometres (3,900 ft) and is about 137 metres (449 ft) below the crater rim. The meteor crater rim is about 1.8 kilometres (5,900 ft) in diameter... The crater's age is usually estimated to be 52,000 ± 6,000 years ... although a study published in 2010 gives an age of 570,000 ± 47,000 years."

"Mummy, your hat is really ugly and embarassing!" Yeah, well, it does give protection AND it is foldable!!

I must admit none of us are overly interested in geology, so we soon directed our interest in the direction of the only restaurant for miles. Besides, it was hot! (Maia experimenting with my camera :-) )

On our way back up we ran into another family on an outing.

They deserved a break - they had been all the way down to the water! After a while they did perk up ...

Yepp, just what we needed

The chef is happy :-) No, really! He's just doing his cool dude look. By the way, this place in the middle of nowhere served the best biryani I have had so far in India. Goes to show ... don't judge the dog ...

Maia trying "da look" on as well...

After being watered (beered ...?) and fed, we entered the car, but only to go a few hundred metres. Suddenly we took a right turn onto ... well, maybe it used to be a dirt track, but ... let's just say it needed some work ...

...and ended up in a village where the most fantastic little temple was hidden, quite litterally hidden for a long time actually.

"The gorgeous Daityasudan temple sits in the middle of a large stone courtyard and is missing a shikhara. GAM informed us that to preserve it from the rampaging Mughal forces, locals covered the entire temple in mud building a small hillock in the process. The temple was excavated out of the hill only in the 19^th century and has since been used regularly by the locals.

The carvings on the outer walls of the temple were exquisite...

Inside, the Antara (passageway between the sabha mandap and inner sanctum) had exquisite carvings in the four corners of the ceiling.

The idol of Lord Vishnu was placed in the inner sanctum in the 19^th century and is not the original one, which seems to have been plundered.." source

We also found this little person, who was very excited to have her picture taken, albeit hiding it well ...

 Back outside we were joined by all her friends.

Life in a village in India. In this particular one the children, goats, pigs and whatever else had a very special temple to play in.

All the children followed us back to the car and wanted us to promise to come back soon!

Bye bye

Dusherra part 3 - on our way to explore Lonar Crater

As I have found so often in India, the way to a goal is at least as exciting as the actually sight.

We took off early in the morning on our second day in Aurangabad, Maharashtra. Maybe it took longer than it should have, but we just had to stop several times on the way to take pictures of exciting things ... well, we thought they were anyway.

Sometimes we get rather surprised looks and raised eyebrows of the locals ... "What is this crazy white lady taking pictures of???" is probably what they are thinking.

We see temples of different sizes, colours and shapes everywhere, sometimes in the most amazing spots. This one in the  middle of nowhere.

Here we had to stop to let the herd cross the road. There was a stand with refreshments and the ever present mini bags of crisps.

Where are you going? And what happened to your horn? Signalling to turn left maybe?

This guy looks really laid back ...

Farmers on their way to ... somewhere.

 

The auto rickshaw driver and ... someone else, maybe the client? wanted their picture taken together with the great chef. They recognize greatness when they see it! Of course we had to oblige :-)

A very normal day on rural roads in India

Dusherra part 2 - A journey through time back to Aurangabad

On our way back from Ajanta Caves to the hotel in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, it felt like we were travelling a 100 years ago ...

 We saw so many travelling with a strong pair of oxen or horses pulling a very simple cart.

Because of the many holidays just around this time (Dusherra), some had painted the horns of the oxen either in the colours of the state (Maharashtra), which coincidentally are the same as the Indian flag, or some other colour combination.

 Yeah, well, the pictures are not the best ... they would not stand still!

 A proud and happy grandmother

Our faithful guide suddenly stopped the car and invited us to step out and inspect a little closer what was growing in the fields. Can you guess?

No? A little closer then ...

Still not? Maybe not. Ian dug down and eventually found ... ginger.

How about this then?

 Look at this beautiful flower!

And then these flowers turn into ...

... cotton. It really felt like cotton as well!

Good night from a fabulous India

Dilli Haat

Finally I went to Dilli Haat after having heard about this place from so many people. It is a rather particular market in the South Delhi with craftsmen from different areas of India selling their products. Most of them rotate every 15 days. Dilli is the Hindi name for Delhi and Haat is the name of the village where the market is located.

A couple of good friends from Canada were visiting, so they came with me. We had a great time and managed to find some stuff we needed for the Diwali Party at the World Spa.

Outside of the market they were selling lots and lots of lilies and merigold flowers.

Inside you can buy lots and lots of ...ankle chains ... and ...

 ... bangles ...

... shoes ...

Special shoes from Punjab. Obviously men's size for me ... but they all look the same. Actually, they don't even make different ones for the left and the right foot :-) Works perfectly.

... and kurta pyjama for the men.

Peter got the grey one and Ian the blue. With white pyjama trousers, they looked really nice.

The endless supply of lovely stoles and shawls is VERY tempting - Pashtun, Kashmir, you name it ... it is all there.

Recognize this guy? If you scroll up a little you will find him.

I'm not really sure which stall was his, he turned up in several where we looked. In one of them he was on his own and offered tea while we checked out his stoles - silk, kashmere, pashtun, cotton ...

"This is the best quality you will find and since you are my first customer today I will give you the best price". Oh, we felt very privileged - the BEST price.

Elspeth found a really nice pashtun stole (not the one in the picture though) perfect for the cold Canadian winter. I might be going back there when the mercury starts falling here as well ...

On our way back we passed some stalls selling pictures and paintings.

This guy paints miniatures ...

... and proudly showed us the Canadian ambassador's business card in his collection. Then he asked if we wanted to have elephants painted on our nails ... ? Huh? Well, if you insists ...

A beautiful elephant in three colours ... on my thumb nail!