Jalgon - A Snapshot

We visited Jalgon for 4 days, during the Diwali festival. We each had the chance to celebrate with our host families, set off crackers and sparklers and to see the Puja, a Hindu ritual to give an offering to the goddess Lakshmi .




We had the chance to visit the Ghandi Museum at Jain Hills. That was an interactive, artistic and detailed tour of Ghandi’s life, teachings and legacy. It was definitely one of the best museums I’ve ever visited. We also visited a small part of the Jain Hills industry – they create irrigation systems and teach farmers how to use them. They also have other sections of their businesses such as manufacturing PVC pipes and processing fruit.

While spending the day with a magician we had the chance to ride a camel – it was quite an experience to ride around a cricket field with children playing while we each had a ride on the tall camel!

We took 2 days to visit some amazing, ancient hand-cut caves nearby Jalgon. The Ajanta Caves, a UNESCO site and Ellora Caves. These caves were built as Hindu, Bhuddist and Jain caves many centuries ago. The magnificence of these caves overwhelmed us – they were made by hand and the level of artistry, symmetry and handiwork is just awesome.

View of Ajanta Caves from their point of discovery in 1801

One of the thousands of hand-carved depictions in the Ellora Caves

We took the train to Nashik, a definite highlight for me as I love to travel by train. Nashik is our last stop before heading to Mumbai to get on the plane to come home (or to continue traveling, in Jean’s case!)

- Sarah.