Aurangabad and Goa

Turns out I slept quite well on that night train to Aurangabad, so having arrived well rested we headed straight to the caves of Ellora. They're called caves but in reality they are impressively ornate temples and houses carved right into cliff faces. Walls of rugged rock give way to intricate carvings of women, men, animals and Gods in surprisingly good condition considering they were built over 1000 years ago. Squint your eyes enough in the dim light and you also start to notice the remnants of elaborate paintings on the walls, pillars and ceilings long faded by the passing centuries. Trunkless elephants lead you up worn stairs with big breasted women and big bellied men awaiting your arrival surrounded by flora and fauna all carved right out of the rock face. Ajanta is a similar story but pre-dates Ellora by another 1000 years or so... Keeping in mind these sites took about 200 years each to carve out I guess a millennia is not all that much and although Ellora is more impressive (in my opinion) they do have a similar quality. To fail to be awestruck by something that was built 2000 years ago is a crime but the fact is that they would be impressive in their own right even if they had been built yesterday and it was well worth battling the intense heat to enjoy them.
After all the palaces and forts and temples we were bloody looking forward to hitting the beach so Goa had some high expectations to live up to that unfortunately weren't exactly met... We stayed in Anjuna which is a nice enough touristy beach town but the nicer beaches were a short rickshaw ride away. Our favourite beach was Vagator which was isolated enough to be relaxing but popular enough to have a good vibe... Now although the beaches were lovely, I have to say that I did get the impression that Goa is overrated - I would imagine it is because we were there at the end of the season but it could just be because I'm just feeling rather jaded now. My feelings for India had been teetering on the love/hate side of things since I got here but I am sad to have to confess that there has now been a total breakdown of our relationship due to irreconcilable differences. The proverbial camel's back is lying on the side of the road in a thousand splinters. The novelty factor of everything kept me going for awhile but the charm has now died a definitive death and all that's left is negativity. It's not that we haven't seen amazing things, or had any good moments - the history here is rich and beautiful as are some of the places we've been, but India's present is failing to inspire any sort of enlightenment in me... This is supposedly the cradle of spirituality but god knows I can't see it anywhere... Ghandi himself (though not the original source of this quote) said 'A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members' and nearly 3 weeks after standing next to the spot where he died I'm left wondering if he was the only Indian to have believed that. The lack of humanity here is shocking, the lack of hygiene is disgusting and the lack of beef is just plain driving me nuts! What on this great earth possessed me to think I might like a country where they don't eat cows is beyond me! The burping, the spitting, the coughing, the excrement on the road, the piles and piles and piles of rubbish everywhere, the lack of rules on the road, the constant badgering from people trying to extract money from you - it's enough to fray the most settled of nerves and I've lost all my good karma somewhere between the endless piles of shit from these herds of stray unedible cows. I'm afraid I might never recover!

I clearly must be missing something here because I've spoken to so many people who 'love' India and go on and on about how 'amazing' it is and it's a great shame that I just can't see it. I do apologise if this offends but it's just the plain truth as seen from my perspective... Seriously if you are sitting in an air-conditioned office right now, I won't go so far as to say I envy you but please, please take a moment to inhale the clean cool air, feel the padding in your chair hugging your arse, share some banter with a workmates - hell, tell them how nuts I've gone if you like - when you leave the office, have a nice strong cocktail with ice in it and eat yourself a huge juicy steak. Please, just do it for me.

On the plus side, the food here is genuinely lovely despite the lack of beef... That's about all the positivity I can muster right now! In the meantime if you happen to find the part of me that I lost (my mind, I think) please post it back to me asap.