A fort, more caves and a dump (Indore)

So kicking off from before,
We actually went to the fort. It was pretty rad. There were massive doors with spikes on them to stop elephant charges and moats and cannons and one was even six whole metres long and made out of six different metal and had a ram head on it. Pretty rad. The best bit was the final entrance to the keep of the fort. The ruler who had Daultabad fort built was a clever one indeed and he made the only entrance to the fort through about 500 metres worth of pitch black, winding tunnel with numerous dead ends and steps and shelves. The idea was that the enemy would rush into the tunnel and end up killing themselves in the ensuing confusion.
When me and Kate sauntered up to the entrance to the cave some Indian guys offered to lead us through the tunnels with kerosene torches, which would have been pretty cool except that we're tight. We declined their most noble offer and produced a torch of our own, brought along especially to navigate the dark tunnels of the fort promised on the brochure. After about two minutes of walking in the tunnels with our dinky little torch we came to the conclusion that continuing down the tunnel would most certainly result in becoming lost and consequentially, dead. The smell of a couple of thousand bats also acted as a deterrent. We bailed. Sauntering back into the sunlight we tried to retain any dignity we still had, carrying ourselves along like we had actually managed to make it to the top in the two minutes we had been absent. The Indian guys detected our ruse and again offered to guide us. For some reason their English was more understandable and it became clear that their services were in fact, free. Hell yeah I say.

So in the end, one of the men led us through with a kerosene torch, which was totally awesome. He even blew it out to show us just how dark it was. Which is extremely. The only mildly irritating point about the whole tunnel venture is that the bats when agitated, tend to urinate. On us. And I had just washed my shirt.

After the tunnel we had to climb up 400 steps to the top blah blah blah much the same.

The next day we packed our bags and went to the Ajanta caves, another world heritage listed cave site near Aurangabad. We got there to find that there really is such thing as to many Buddhist caves all in one go. After about the fourth cave I lost interest and can't really remember much about them all. They were in colour though. Like Ellora caves except in colour.

Then we scooted along to Jalgaon, described as a 'dreary transit town' with no attractions by Lonely Planet. We stayed in the hotel recommended by the book as the friendliest in the state and my god, its a site in itself. The manager just doesn't stop being useful. He immediately drew us a map with the closest Internet cafe and decent restaurant then helped us organise train tickets for our next days journey. The room was the best room so far and practically the cheapest. He even gave us hot water in a bucket. You would think by now that he would just give up and go about with the rest of his life but no, he rang up to confirm our train was available and then even allowed us to shift rooms to get away from the traffic noise. Crazy man, makes the trip Jalgaon worth it.

After another day of travel involving a bus that couldn't possibley get any fuller we have arrived at Indore, capital of all the con artists in India. The autorickshaws are impossible, all demading about four times what the fare should actually be.
'90 rupee, you have got to be kidding'
'90 rupee'
'its just around the corner...'
'90 rupee'
'2o'
'90'
'20'
and on and on. Its so tiresome to argue about every little thing. It's all okay now because we have an overpriced room to stay the night and i've eaten and had my internet hit. Everything is going to be fine.

Off to Mandu tomorrow. The lost city, nice and afghan style apparently. No internet though.
Nicholas and katey.

No Photos 'cause the computer hate itself and me. Its all right though, they're not all that great.