Poo on the wall, Caves and Jeeps

19:57 Aurangabad Hotel Kartiki. 5/11/2012

Arrived in Aurangabad at 13:00 this afternoon, then having been hassled by people seeking hotel commission I eventually made it to a nice hotel. So far I have not needed AC a Big ol’ fan seems to do a job. This current room is my favourite so far in terms of lack of attention to detail. Its really nice TV lots of furniture, in general it’s a well thought out space. My only criticism is that someone could have brushed away the turd remains on the bathroom floor or at least cleaned the dubious brown wall stain leading to it.

Had another great bus journey, Do not get me wrong I love a train but in Maharashtra the bus is brilliant to see the smaller towns, have a chat with people at truck stops. Sigur Ros’ latest album fitted the bill, very good at playing instruments and singing in foreign them chaps.

I went to the Ellora caves today basically some temples cut into a cliff face. The main temple ‘Kailasa’ took 150 years with over seven thousand labours, I would make some sort of hilarious quip about builders only working for 100 of those years but I feel building contractors in the 8^th century or 21^st get a fair bit of abuse as it is. That said I think when it got to 100 years in to the project they must have had to pick up the pace a little. Large Monolithic Pillars are my favourite.

My favourite cave at Ellora (we all have one) has to be the Buddist Vihara in Cave 5 (the underdog) basically a ruddy large assembly hall with stone benches.

On the way back from Ellora I got a Jeep back to Aurangabad. Basically a cross between a taxi and a bus. Not just in looks but also in that it picks up anyone waiting irrespective of how many are already on board. For all those stats fan out there it breaks down like this:

TATA JEEP

Legitimate seats: 6 (3 in the front 3 in the back)

Adapted seating plan: 14 ( 3 in the front, 4 in the middle, 4 on makeshift benches in the back  and 3 children on the floor.)

I was in the middle seats and felt surprisingly comfortable. On this type of seating plan I estimate I can get around 8 in a Fiat Seicento allowing for reasonable comfort.

Then I had dinner (Curreh). I have decided Naans are overrated; I’m going to throw it out there… Chappati.  That said the grand slam of chappati sounds a bit gay. Im off to bed might even do some washing in a bucket. A bucket is sort of like a washing machine here, but no electric so you have to use your hands. On the plus side pretty quiet on top RPM. Don’t want to upset anyone so I haven’t explained the concept of a tumble dryer.

NIGHT NIGHT