On the way, we went to a school for children with a disability and observed a few of the classes with hearing impaired kids. Yesterday (3rd) was apparently International Disability Day so on Thursday they were playing games in preparation for it. THe older kids were playing a memory game, where the teacher showed them a range of objects - vegetables, phone, random lentils etc - and they all said what it was in sign language, and then the teacher covered it and they had to write down all that they could remember. In the younger class (5 or 6 year olds) they were playing a game where one kid goes up the front, is given one match and has to light as many candles as s/he can before the match burns out or burns them. Kinda amazing - that would NEVER happen in Australia... Mum always said I shouldn't play with matches :) Then a group went outside and they were playing, wait for it, musical chairs. One of the older boys was hitting a saucepan-like dish with a wooden spoon, and the kids were running around in a circle around the chairs. When the banging stopped, they had to sit in a chair... BUT nobody really noticed when the banging stopped... it was a little sad to watch actually.
We went and had lunch (and Michael, Sammy and I ate unashamedly with our fingers while everyone else did it a little more daintily) and then got back on the bus to get to Aurangabad.
Arriving late afternoon, we soon found a classy (and relatively expensive by Asian standards) bar where we got 'extra-strong beer' ("exceeding 8.5%") and then 2 for 1 cocktails that turned out to be, "buy two, get one free". Lame. That was a good night... we went to get dinner at about 11pm from a Tandoor Restaurant. A few in the group were overdue for bed, so we headed home and crashed. At about 5am, I was awoken by the sound of some poor soul being sick, and having to rush between bad and the bathroom several times until morning. Needless to say, the whole room was a bit tired the next morning. Turned out that several people had gastro in our group, some even having to stay home from the touristy stuff yesterday. I was fine, except for a little bit of a dehydration headache... :D
The touristy stuff was great. We went to the Ellora Caves, which are actually religious places carved into the rocks... Buddhist, Hindu and Jan (?) The architecture was really amazing, but out tour guide was really bossy and arrogant and time limited us a lot. We were continually being asked for our photo to be taken, one guy wanted me to be part of his family photo several times. I guess it's a novelty for them to see people so frickin pale.
After the caves, we had some lunch and then headed to the silk factory where we watched a man with a loom making a piece of silk. The patterns are so intricate! So much beautiful material: scarves and bed spreads and other things... but my pack is very space-limited as it is, so couldn't really justify getting much.
After the silk factory, we went to an old fort, where were climbed all the way to the top, getting stopped every so often to get our photos taken. Sometimes people didn't even ask... they just held up their phones un-subtly and took photos as they walked past. I'm very glad I'm not a celebrity, but I've been told to get used to being photographed at Indian tourist sites. It was quite a long way up to the top... and a part of it was in the pitch dark through a bat-infested tunnel... a man with a piece of stick doused in kerosene was our only source of light... scary. Quite fun. We got back on the bus and returned to the hotel, watched some telly and went back to the Tandoor place for dinner. Found an awesome little supermarket with chocolate and drumstick style ice creams!! yum!
India television is SOOOOO WEIRD!! Especially the ads, which don't seem to comply with any of the social norms for dressing or behaving. Dancing, singing and English phrases feature in most ads and television shows.
Got back to Jamkhed this afternoon.. nice to back in my own room again!!
I really hope you're enjoying Summer!! only 3 weeks 'til Christmas. Tell me some news :)
Much love and prayers xx
Haha!! Looks like you have become quite the celeb:) Regarding the television, im sure its the vernacular free to air stuff :)
ReplyDeleteAnyway hope to cya in Delhi!
Allez Haylee!
ReplyDeleteil ne manquait que toi au diner de fin d'annee de taekwondo. and yes, you are frickin pale... like a ghost! :) keep having fun. i'll keep check your blog.