Khumba Mehla...Haridwar + Rishikesh

The Khumba Mela is the largest religious festival i the world, over 3 million people show up to bathe in the Ganges river.  It occurs every 3 or 4 years and this year, once every 12 years is the 'big one'.  I had to stop in... Holy men come out of the mountains and many people show up....

 MORE TO COME

Aurangabad..Ellora!

I headed to Aurangabad where you can get to the Ellora caves,which turned out to be the most magnificent thing I have so far scene on this trip!

I got in in the evening and in the morning I met a Hollander, Wald in the hotel and we headed together to a fort, a mini Taj and then the caves.  

The fort was quite old and built to withstand crazy attacks.  It is actually up on a mountain but there are many stone walls to cross and a moat as well before you can get there....  The main doors, giant wooden ones have spikes on them so elephants cant bust them down... at least not safely...

The next stop was the baby taj mahal, a replicate in mini, built by some dude....  pretty but not necessary...

The next part was truly the best... The Ellora caves are all cut right out of a cliff face.... There are 30 odd temple/caves, some just a large room with small quarters for monks off to the sides, and some with intricately carved pillars, huge statues...   The main attractin number 16 is a whole courtyard and temple...

first you walk through an archway, then you ar in a huge open space with elephant statues,

 

Keep in mind the elephant wasnt brought in, it was also carved out, so when they made the courtyard they laft parts with rock for such carvings!

In the middle is a temple, cut down from the top, and on the sides caves cut into the cliffs with more statues inside...

If you were planning a building you would pic the site and transport the materials and then put them together.  Here they did the opposite, its almost a negative building in concept.  They brought the building idea to the sight of the materials and cut away the open spaces to leave the buildings where they "already were", under and in the rock...  The lines are all straight, the ceilings flat, perfect square, octogon and round pillars, and thousands of tons of rocks moved.

Here are some more pics...

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Can you believe who I found?

Ladies and Gentlemen...

What you are about to read may amaze you so take a seat if you are not already cushioned by your posterior...

People search for many things in life, such as for meaning, wealth, happiness, lost socks and much more... but these are nothing compared to the ultimate search.... This search is one that you have no doubt embarked on at least several times in your life.  You have perhaps done it alone, perhaps with friends or even with children and loved ones.  Maybe even with cousins Jon and Leah...  It is a search that took you across all landscapes and even a moon scape, all from the comfort of home... I took it a step further... not even on purpose...

What I found is not a what but a who....In India you might expect it to be a great sage, or a naked Baba or a relative of Ghandi, but no, this is much more incredible.  This person is harder to find than a needle in 3 haystacks, than a tuk tuk driver not trying to rip you off and even more difficult to locate than a button in a zipper factory.

Douglas Adams in "A hitchhikers guide to the galaxy" is searching for the ultimate question to the ultimate answer (which is 42), but I found THE ANSWER to an even more ultimate question!  

For years the entire world has been asking this question, some people succeed in finding an answer, but none have come as close as I....

Of course the ULTIMATE QUESTION is....

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WHERE'S WALDO?

And the answer:

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Arombol, Goa, India

Same same!

As you know Waldo is always wearing his outfit, and while at 40 degrees I was understanding about the hat, 

he did wear this outfit for all of the 15 days I was staying at this guest house restaurant....
So.... Mystery solved!
(Side note:  While he was in the same outfit every day don't let this make you think Indian people are not clean, they are the cleanest people I have ever met....which is incredible with the amount of dust often around, his clothes were probably washed often and put right back on as they dry in a matter of minutes...and one morning I did see him in blue shorts...but just for a few minutes)