Aurangabad

Arrived into Aurangabad last night from Nashik. It was a little hellish trying to find accommodations, but we finally settled on a crusty, not too clean, "Crown Plaza" which bears no resemblance to the chain I think of at home. It seems that most of the hotels in Aurangabad are either for Indian citizens only (news to me!) or they were full. The youth hostel was completely empty, but if you saw the place you would know why.

Today we planned on going to the Elora caves. Rather, we did go to the Elora caves, only they're closed on Tuesdays... damn. When we were trying to figure out which bus to catch, this one rickshaw driver told us the caves were closed, but we didn't believe him. When we finally got on the bus to the caves but were still at the station, this guy tried to pickpocket Abby, but Abby caught him and he fled from the bus in a hurry. An old woman kept going on (in Hindi) that that man should have been beaten! A bit of excitement anyway. This evening we saw that same rickshaw driver who told us the caves were closed and he asked us about the caves!! I had to laugh and give it to him. He was, indeed, telling the truth. Anyway, it wasn't so bad, on the way to the caves I saw another tourist attraction which is this massive fort, Daulatabad, so we caught a taxi there. It was really really cool. So I'm happy we went, if the caves had been open today I never would have seen that fort. So there you go, it seems things really do happen for a reason. Tomorrow we'll go see Elora.

I also talked to Rishi today, he said he would help me find accommodation in Delhi when I arrive next week. He also said that he might be able to arrange for me to go to an Indian wedding. YAYAYAYA.

I'm starving though. I'm not quite sure why. I guess all this running about has stimulated my manipura! Heh, just kidding.

As an aside, when I was taking the Ayurveda course I thought it was weird that they showed us all these eye cleansing techniques. Now I think it makes perfect sense. Every single pore and cell, inside and out, feels filthy right now. I feel cleaner after camping for 10 days. Showering almost seems pointless since the sheets I'm sleeping on are possibly crawling and I feel like an extra layer of grit on my skin might actually protect me! Lovely lovely. Still, India is incredible.