Bhaja and Karla caves

This post is a bit overdue, as I went to these caves over 10 days ago. Every Sunday RIMYI (the yoga institute) is closed. Since every other day of the week we're pretty much glued to our neighborhood in Pune, we've used Sundays to go exploring outside of the city. The first Sunday we hired a car and driver to take us about an hour outside of Pune. The drive alone was very eventful! You see much different things on an Indian roadtrip than you do in the US. For example:
Can you see the people sleeping in the back of this truck?

Then it was on to Bhaja caves, 18 rock-cut Buddhist caves. Some of the caves are simple halls (viharas) where the monks slept on beds carved out of rocks.And some of the caves are chaitya halls, a kind of Buddhist shrine with a stupa in it, containing relics.
Then it was on to Karla Caves, which is really just one cave, a chaitya. It's the largest and best preserved chaitya hall in India. But what makes Karla really spectacular from a cultural voyeur point of view is the Hindu temple just outside the cave entrance. On the day we visited, and on most weekend days, thousands of people were climbing the long steps through the mountain to reach the temple. It was quite a scene! And not only were we the only white people there, as has been the case almost everywhere we've gone, but folks kept asking us if they could take their picture with us. Here, we pose with a group of people plus a live chicken:
It was a great day! Other highlights, sans photos: a gigantic Ganesh statue on the side of the highway; an enormous herd of sheep on the road, completely blocking traffic; eating chikki (the local sweet); and many others. Soon I'll fill you in on our most recent weekend adventure...