We arrived at Jalgaon train station in the evening, luckily for us it was Jalgaon was small and the station was right at the bottom of the main street, we only had to walk five minutes to find a hotel. We checked in and then went out to find some dinner mindful of our still sensitive stomachs. We were directed to a super cheap thali restaurant, so we sat down and were immediately brought a plate full of food which, had we been in good health and of normal appetite, would've been constantly refilled until we said stop. Unfortunately for us our stomachs were still too raw and soft from all the plain biscuits we'd been eating and the spicy curries did not go down too well, so we left and went to sleep in our very clean, very white, very cold and rather noisy room.
 |
| From Ajanta Caves, India |
The next day we were up and out by midday to get the bus to the Ajanta caves, we got an autorickshaw to the bus station, our first time in a tuktuk! These caves are a couple of thousands years old but so well preserved because they were largely forgotten for hundred of years before some guy named Smith discovered them on a hunting party.
 |
| From Ajanta Caves, India |
They stretch out in a semi circle around a bend in a small river and when we got there they were in the full sunshine. We spent a good four hours wandering around the different caves, some of which were huge and painted most of them had enormous statues of the Buddha (The Enlightened or Awakened One) and were very impressive.
 |
| From Ajanta Caves, India |
True to form I tired quickly and Djalma had to drag me up a mountain of steps to a lookout point which led round to a chain of small waterfalls. It was beautiful and you could look down through the trees growing up the sides of the small cliff and see the river stretch round below, all the women looked like tiny colourful birds and the uniformed school children snaked round the paths following bellowing, whistle blowing teachers. We left soon after that not wanting to get the last bus which would have been packed, we squeezed on with several other tourists; a couple from Argentina and an American guy with his girlfriend from Kuala Lumpur.
 |
| From Ajanta Caves, India |
The dusty bus ride back played havoc with my eyes and my eye drops chose to run out at the very moment I needed them, so I tried to make myself cry to lubricate the old peepers. We decided not to stay another night and gout our first and hopefully only night bus to the next stop on our list, Ujjain.
The bus stank of dust and curry and neither of us got a wink of sleep. The main difference about night trips of buses and trains is that when train rocks side to side is rocks along the length of your body which means you don't move to much, when buses race round corners you have to fight to stay in the bed, not really conducive to a restful nights sleep. After a couple of hours of being tossed about on my dusty curry bed I decided to sit up and forget sleep it also helped ease the pressure on my bladder which insanely full. After forty five minutes of looking out at the stars racing by I knocked on the drivers door and asked when we would be pulling over for a toilet break. Ten minutes they told me, yeah right. After another half an hour we stopped at a petrol station and I asked again, OK they told me but fast, I ran over to a pitch black stand alone room tucked in the corner of the forecourt, it was the nastiest, smelliest hole I have ever been in, I didn't even lock the door it was so horrible, I squatted, hovering mid air above a filthy blocked toilet peeing for my life's worth hoping they wouldn't leave without me. Don't you find it's at these most inconvenient times when everyone is waiting for you that your body decides to make you have the longest wee of your life, bugger, I peed and weed and strained to finish as soon as possible, it made no difference I swear I was in there for five minutes of solid bladder evacuation, I pulled my pants up at the same time I pushed the door fully open and legged it across to the bus which was honking away and about to pull out. I climbed through the multitude of men who felt the need to accompany the driver (probably to make sure he didn't fall asleep on the job) and smoke, made it back into our little dusty den and then the bus sat there for ten minutes.
 |
| From Ujjain, India |
We arrived an hour and a half early at 4am which put Djalma in a terrifically awful mood especially after loosing his sunglasses on the bus which he spent fifteen minutes looking for to no avail. We decided to wait at the train station over the road where we sat and watched the masses of homeless people sleep and eventually wake up and pack up there blankets when the first load of passengers came hurtling through the doors. We got our tickets to Ujjain, got gratefully on and sat down for the next couple of hours enjoying the relative peace and quiet of the train.
No comments:
Post a Comment