I needed to reserve a train ticket. I got to the station at 8AM, right when the reservation window opened. I had to wait almost an hour though and when I got my ticket, it was a ticket for the wait list. I’m number five on the list, so good chance some people with cancel their tickets and I can get on the train which is 5 days from now. One nice thing is you can buy a ticket for anywhere in India at any station, unlike China where you can only buy tickets for trains originating from that city.
After the bus dropped me off a few kilometers from Karla cave, I started noticing a lot of people around. It was difficult to walk up the steps on the hill, since they were full with so many Indians there doing the same. I guess it was because of the weekend. When I got to the top, I noticed there was a cave and a Hindu temple in front. There was a huge line for the Hindu temple, but luckily for me the cave wasn’t so busy. These are manmade, not natural, caves made about 2000 years ago.
Karla cave looks like a cathedral was carved into the side of this mountain. It was pretty impressive. There were a few other smaller caves around, some with two floors and stairs in between.
After walking down, I hired an auto-rickshaw to take me to Bhaja caves. This is kind of a smaller version, but even older. Maybe cut out in 200BCE.
After visiting, I walked to the train station nearby and took the Pune suburban train back. This was my first time on a local train like this. Luckily, I got a seat after the second stop because it got very, very crowded inside. Just like some of the most crowded Chinese trains. It is popular because it is cheap, maybe even free. No one checked for tickets, so anyone could really just walk on. I paid 13 rupees, ($0.28). I survived and made it back to the city.
I found a bookstore in Pune called Crossword. I ended up buying a book on the History of India to read on the many more buses and trains I’m taking in the coming days. I noticed India is perhaps the cheapest place in the world to get new English language books, legally. The prices are maybe 40% lower than in places like the US.