My favorite pic from the festival (other festival pictures can be found farther down, after the Aurangabad ones)

last batch!

a shot I liked from the outside of the mini-Taj (see text for actual name...)
me in the Himroo shop (more pics of Himroo looms are below)
School children loved to have their pictures taken, after they politely introduce themselves and welcome you to India. It never gets old. :)

leaving Aurangabad

Michele and her new friend from the train, practicing his english with (very british) comic books
Hakon and I decided to spice up the train ride by purchasing every piece of food that wandered onto the train attached to a wallah. This delicious dish was channa masala. Something didn't sit quite right, though (imagine that!), and we were both booking it to the toilet throughout the night. :)
a view from the train of a village
Michele's henna from the beauty parlour in Aurangabad!
Hakon looking grumpily at the empty tracks as we waited a good hour and a half for our train...

Ellora/Ajanta

A view from the upper level of Kailasha, a cave in Ellora
Inside one of the Ajanta (Buddhist) caves
Another Ajanta cave
The reclining Buddha (see text)
And me, (for you, mom) next to one of the numerous Buddhas.

Ajanta caves

a shot of the path connecting all of the Ajanta caves
and from the other direction
the Buddha, in every Ajanta cave, in slightly different poses.
I liked the colors in this cave--kind of reminds me of that Nickelodeon show, "Legends of the Hidden Temple"
School children waiting at the foot of the Ajanta trail, under this massive and beautiful tree

Aurangabad 4

a typical village street on the way to Ajanta
the sign for the restaurant where we took breakfast. I had the last item--Jain Thali. Jain food is apparently mild, and Thali is a platter with different masalas, daals, chutneys, rice and chapathi. my fave.
statues guarding a shrine in an Ellora cave (Jain, I think?)
Another Jain prayer hall
Murals on the ceilings inside select shrines; this one is apparently recognized for the eyes of the goddess in the upper right corner--they follow you wherever you stand

Aurangabad 3

inside one of the Jain prayer halls...
A beautiful story of the evolution of man. The lowest carving represents war and destruction--the first stage of humanity. The second from the bottom depicts education. The third is a God, representing inclinations to worship, and the top carving is love and union between man and woman--the highest evolved state of humanity.
This shows you how deep the cave was--and I think I'm only taking this picture from the second level

Spectacular how the carvings seem to slowly melt into the cave floor

Aurangabad 2

in front of a temple carving in Ellora
beautiful monkeys everywhere!
Hakon making friends with our breakfast chef
Banks and Michele enjoying the standard early-morning Chai
a view from our breakfast table when we stopped on the way to Ellora on Saturday--a hill fort in the background and stands (soon after raided by monkeys) getting ready to sell vegetables just across the road

Aurangabad 2

me in front of the Himroo looms
Banks and Hakon checking them out
cool shot in the hostel room...
the mini-Taj (refer to text)
Hakon thoroughly enjoying the courtyard at the hostel. :) Or maybe just stretching from the 20-HOUR train ride, I suppose...

Aurangabad pics!

Banks on the train
some Indians happy to pose for a picture at a stop
Justina reflected from her bunk
triple bunk beds--quite spacious (Justina, Michele, Banks)
I was amused by the train confirmation postings...apparently everyone in india is on a first name basis. can you spot ours?

festival pics 5--more beautiful worshipers

all the little boys were dressed to the nines...

little girls would follow you around, asking you to take their pictures

...a busy event

the redness on their cheeks was from a fine powder sprinkled on everyone after the bathing of the deity.

Pics from the festival, batch 4

Sitting behind the prashad tables; that’s my yoga instructor (and temple dancer) on the far left, and Kumar, our friend and guide for the weekend, to her right.

Sunday evening we were front and center for the cultural performances, which were incredible! The discipline of the dancing impressed me the most; not a single movement was off of the beat, and they all wore bells on their ankles to prove it.

We were encouraged to wander around and take pictures of all the beautiful saris. A bit awkward at first…

Serving prashad to the worshipers! Although I was quickly asked to hand over my spoon, which I had been holding in my left hand…