Karla Caves

I went to the Buddhist caves in Karla this morning. I left at 6:30 and caught the bus into Pen, then caught the 7:00 am bus out to Karla. I arrived there about 9:00 and took a 3 seater to the base of the mountain. Then its a steep 100 meters up this mountain to the caves. There is a Hindu temple there too, and all along the stone walk way were people selling flowers, incence and coconuts for puja offerings. The main cave was lovely with elephants, decorations and people carved into the stone. The rest was a little disappointing. A large section was closed. I tried to follow a path that went around the mountain to the gompa, but the path got so narrow and it was a long way down, with the rock wall squishing me on the up side. The picture above is at the wider part of the path........it gets narrower around the corner. As most of you know, I am not comfortable with heights and I gave up and went back. I sat for a while under a huge beautiful tree looking at the caves, but the beggars were calling for baksheesh, everyone was staring at the foreigner, calling out "hello" and asking "from where"? It's all very friendly, but not very mediative. I had a bunch young of guys who each wanted to take their picture with me. After a couple of snaps, I was able to stop them by bringing out my camera and I took a couple pictures of them instead. They laughed and mugged for the camera. People here want you to take their picture. (with your camera) they will never see the photo.......... Weird!

Anyhow, I went down the moutain, walked through town and caught the bus back to Kopali, then on to Pen. I saw my first Sadhu (holy man) while waiting for the bus on the highway, and I saw 2 elephants walking down the street in town while sitting at a stop in Lanovali. A couple pigs went down the road too. The 1:30 bus to Pen was jam packed full and yet 10-15 of us squished on as the bus kept trying to leave. Must have been twice the amount of people than is allowed (in Canada any how) on the bus. The countryside was beautiful and we climbed up in the western ghats (mountains) to reach the cave area. Lots of steep hills and switchbacks with good views all around.

I am having trouble adding pictures today. It has taken 1 1/2 hours to upload 2 1/2 pictures. India is not for any of you techie junkies....... Things are very slow, I had picked 7 or 8 to show but I think I will stop at 3 or 4.

Hope everyone is well,
Namaste Beth