We planned to visit Ellora caves and Shirdi temple few days back from Hyderabad.I thought of taking the APSRTC tour package but dropped the idea because we prefer train journey.
I booked train ticket from Secunderabad to Auranagabad and from Manmad to Begumpet(Secunderabad) for return journey.
We started on Saturday evening from Secunderabad and reached Auranagabad on Sunday morning around 5 am. With the help of autorickshaw driver, we could find the budget hotel near to railway station.We took the budget hotel as we planned to leave for Shirdi same evening. Ellora caves are around 25 kms from Aurangabad. You have plenty of options to visit caves a)MTDC daily tour package (starts at 9.30 am and finishes at around 4 -5 PM) b) Taxi (it should cost you around Rs. 750) c) Auto (it costs around Rs. 500).
Apart from Ellora caves, one can visit Daulatabad Fort,a Shiv temple near to Ellora caves, Bibi Ka Makbara(replica of Taj Mahal). We first talked to an auto driver and was very co-operative and polite so decided to visit all places in auto. Weather was pleasant (22nd August 2010).
On the way to Ellora caves, we first visited Daulatabad fort. Its a very big one and probably its interesting for some one who loves history. We saw canons,museum, a temple (Bharat Mata) etc. We spent nearly 1 hour here and had to walk a lot.
Then we proceeded for Ellora caves.Before going to Ellora caves, auto driver took us to a Shiv temple(its a part of twelve Jyotriling). We could not go inside the temple as there was heavy rush due to Sravan month. Caves are around 1-2 kms from this Shiv temple. Parking space is very near to Cave no 16. We started visiting the Caves from 16. This is the biggest of all and very impressive. We were really stunned to see the stone work of our ancesters. How did they manage to make caves in rocky mountains and carve the statues. Its really amazing !!!. We then tried to visit other caves till cave no 6. By this time we were all exhausted as it needs too much of walking , climbing stairs. Overall it was too good and we really liked it.
After visting Ellora caves, Auto drivers took us to Bibi ka Makbara. Looks like Aurangjeb made the replica of Taj Mahal for his wife. Its a mini replica of Taj Mahal but its not made up of marble completely. Its worth of seeing.
We came back to our hotel around 2 PM after visiting all the above place.Our next destiny was Shirdi. Shirdi is around 154 Kms from Aurangabad and we have regular bus services from Central Bus stataion ,Aurangabad. We decided to start from Aurnagabad at 4 PM. We reached to Aurangabad Bus station at around 4.15 PM and in 15 minutes we got one bus for Shirdi.It took nearly 3 hours to reach Shirdi. More about Shirdi in my next blog....
