I’ve been wanting to do a solo trip for a while, but every time something would go wrong or I wouldn’t be able to go. So this time, I decided to be very impromptu and booked the tickets on the same day I left. I booked my tickets at noon for a sleeper bus from Pune to Aurangabad and left at night. The trip started in the evening. I reached Aurangabad at 5:35 am and the bus dropped me off at the Baba Petrol Pump. I later found out that people often use this pump as a landmark when referring to a place they want to go.
The check-in at the hostel that I booked was at 12 noon, so I didn’t know what to do. The first thing that I did was go to the city bus station and take a bus to the Ellora Caves as this is one of the attractions near the city. My bus left at around 6:10 and left me in front of the Ellora Caves at 7 in the morning. I took my ticket and went inside. It has 36 caves. I went to the Kailash temple first because it was exactly after the gate when I entered. The cave was massive. The cave which was right after the entrance was the biggest one and the other subsequent ones were smaller compared to that one, but each had a unique element to it.
So I first went to the Kailash temple which was right after the entrance, stayed there for 20 mins and then explored it. One thing I missed was that there is a way you can get a view from the top of the Kailash temple. Since I didn’t have a guide, I didn’t know about it so I missed it. It’s pictured on the Indian 20 rupees notes. Later I went to the left side, the caves from 17 to 34. The best thing that I found there was this waterfall at the last cave. It was very beautiful!
For my stay, I booked Zostel Aurangabad (absolutely recommended). I had an amazing time over there, even if it was a short one. This was my first stay at a Zostel. I did not have high expectations from this place, was just looking for a place I could crash at for the weekend, but this place turned out to be an absolute gem. The beds were clean, the common room was big and had ample space to chill and work! Too bad I did not take any pictures of that place!
I chilled there for a couple of hours since I was really tired from the overnight bus journey and the morning trip to Ellora, so I took a nap. I woke up in the evening and went to get a coffee near the Zostel. It was a Cafe Coffee Day outlet! Then I decided to go to the Bibi Ka Maqbara. I got an Uber auto there. When I reached there it was just the evening and about to become night, so the sky looked really amazing!
And then they turned on the lights as well, so it looked even more good!
I spent some time there and then went back to my hostel. I was trying to find a good place for dinner but did not find anything good on Google Maps, so I went to a Subway that I saw on the way and had my dinner there! I came back to hostel and saw this guy was performing at the Zostel. Apparently he comes there each day and performs. Since it was night, I also met a bunch of fellow travellers and talked to them about their journeys! It was definitely one of the good parts of my trip!!
The next day I woke up and went back to surprise surprise, Ellora! As it turns out, my lack of planning got the best of me. I wanted to visit Grishneshwar Jyotirlinga Temple which was right beside Ellora caves where I wanted to go, but I thought that might be in the city. Since this was an impromptu trip, I did not plan anything quite literally!
Alright, I went back to the bus stand, got the bus, reached Ellora caves, walked to the temple and turns out, the line to enter the temple started from the main road. After standing in the line for about 2 hours, I talked to these college students in the line. Finally I was about to enter the temple when I found out that all men have to remove their t-shirt/shirt and then they can go inside the temple. I know right! I went inside, did the darshan and got out and was in the queue for the prasad. I reached the end of the line and collected my prasad and the same college students invited me to eat with them. Believe me when I tell this, that was the best prasad I had ever eaten until that point. I still remember the taste of the khichdi and halwa! You know I am glad that I went back there again for the temple. This was an overall good experience! I would definitely come here again some day!
I got out and was waiting for the bus to go back to the city and was walking on the road, when those same students were coming on the scooter and offered me a ride. They thought I was not finding a transportation, so they offered to give me a ride! I’m glad they did, but then there was another bus coming which was going to the city, so I thanked them, got off and quickly caught the bus! Since I had spent significant amount of time at the temple, it was already 3 pm. Since it was Sunday and I had to go back to work the next day, I thought it would be best to end this trip right here and go back to Pune! I went to the hostel, packed everything up, checked out and went back to the same bus station and got a bus back to my city!
(first draft written by me, reviewed by clade for grammatical mistakes and better articulation!)