From Karad, Southbound... My Bus Ride; Rendez-vous At Ancient Cave Temple

The Russian group preceeded me to our next destination: a town about 3 hours south of Karad... then, onward to a most amazing temple built right into the rock of a mountain. Hence, "Cave Temple". 

While they all piled into a very cramped van for this journey, I came later, by public bus, so that I could finish teaching my lessons in the Alankar Hotel. It was a bit nerve wracking, this journey... I had not ridden on a bus by myself in India since 1990, and that one had been quite a disaster! (A whole other story, for another time!) SO... I was rather nervous about it. 

As it turned out, though, I needn't have worried: The conductor of the bus spoke decent enough English and understood where I was going. There was plenty of room for my luggage (unlike that last bus before, where it all had to travel with me in my lap!!), and the trip was pleasant and uneventful. 

The drama began after I arrived in the town: first of all, the van's driver, who was supposed to pick me up, didn't. I wound up waiting for a good 2 hours in the bus station, needing to pee, unable to go... there was no one there I would trust to guard my luggage...so I waited, suffered... (no toilets on ANY Indian buses, by the way... why I would typically avoid them like the plague, except for relatively short distances.) Finally, some other guy-- a friend of a friend of the Swami's-- came and got me in his car. I made a mad dash to the nearest toilet, and then we were on our way.

It was a heck of a good thing I had packed a dinner to take with me... this cave temple was in a VERY remote area, with no access to food... a fact which, most strangely, had not occurred to our leadership until AFTER they were all plunked down in the temple, where we were to sleep that night! Then ensued a crazy drama around how to get food there... they had to send my driver for it. By the time he arrived back to us, it was already fairly late in the eve...later STILL, by the time all was prepared and ready to be eaten.  By then it was probably 10 pm or so! I quickly learned that my instinct to take care of myself was correct, and I needed to ALWAYS be prepared with my own food, or at least extra food, so long as I traveled with this whacky bunch! 

The next issue was the sleeping arrangements: nutty, indeed! Swamiji suggested we all sleep inside the temple's cave itself, as it would be the warmest place to be. HOWEVER! The priests who looked after it had a constant, ritualistic fire burning inside, so the cave was incredibly smokey! A no-go for the likes of me! I opted for sleeping up above, in the main part of the temple... problem with that idea was that there were brightly burning temple lights that were NEVER turned off! Why? don't ask. a bit of the Indian nuttiness, and what a waste of energy, if you ask me! Though the air was fresh and nice, the bright lights were most certainly a deal breaker! 

I next tried for a little spot outside and away from the main temple, in the shadow of a side temple to another deity. That was fine, until a wind kicked up, making it incredibly cold AND noisy! I had no choice but to shift to the interior of this smaller temple, which had its own night light, but at least not as bright! It was doable with my eye covering... and so, sometime after midnight, I settled down in the hopes of finally sleeping. 

My sleep was fitful at best. At the crack of dawn, two things happened: 1) The priests fired up the loud, tinny temple chants over their loudspeakers, AND 2) Some maniac was shouting wildly outside. This maniac had first come into MY temple space, no less, terrifying me! Turns out, he was a temple sadhu who was ROYALLY pissed off-- not because I was sleeping in HIS temple, but because OUR swami had stolen his blanket to give to Alena, who was cold in the night! 

Wow. Crazy. I started REALLY wondering what I had gotten myself into!!!

Sleep-deprived and grumpy, I joined the others.  Breakfast was prepared...and, unbelievably, Swami Das Bodh Giri proceeded to feed the monkeys there...YES, AGAIN!!! And, sure enough, they became a ROYAL nuisance, boldly coming into the temple and putting forth their best efforts to steal our food!! Crazy-making to the nth degree!!! 

I thought I would be relieved when we finally quit this place, but no, far worse was yet to come...see the NEXT blog post!!!! 


A cool sight while I waited for my ride in the bus station: This woman carrying this massive deity on her head, appealing to the waiting passengers for rupees...maybe a way for them to be blessed by this particular god?!

 

Shiva and Ganesh, both worshipped in this ancient cave temple! 


The whole gang, eating our breakfast the morning after sleeping in this temple... happy here, before the monkeys arrived and tried to steal everything left over away from us! 


Yep, here he is, feeding the first of the little monsters!!


Of course the first one alerted the others, and hoards of them came to get food... 


Now coming INSIDE the temple, where we were, boldly begging for more, always more... and trying to steal what wasn't given to them!!!


The two mothers carrying their infants WERE pretty cool, I must admit...!






The inner part of the cave temple, where the fire was kept burning constantly... 





The upper part of the temple, where we ate... where I thought of sleeping until I found out the bright lights would burn all night long... 


The best part of our visit to this temple was a hike we took to a mountain top. On the top was a high tower which we climbed...got a great view of the valley below, while our hair blew wildly in the wind! On the other side of the swami is Sergei.. a delightful young Russian who became a good friend later on... even though, like the others, he barely spoke much English. 


The precarious tower we climbed to get the best view! 


Sunrise over the hazy mountains, from our tower.. 




The side temple, where I bedded down on the floor and tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to sleep... 


The feast that was finally served up in the night! 






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