Aurangabad Caves
We awoke after a good sleep in the lovely quiet accommodation and wandered down the road to the gurudwara.
We sat in on the morning service and then headed to the langar but alas, it was closed. Luckily one of the sikh men, who has taken us under his wing, saw us and took us into another room. He sat us down and returned with plates of kedegree followed by tea and biscuits. A very nice start to the day.
We then headed out to explore. We had quite a walk today to see some of the sights.
First stop was Panchatti, an old mill with an underground water system piped from 6km away, under the ground. There was also a mosque and a 300 year old banyan tree. It seemed we had arrived before opening hours, as the ticket office was closed but a man was stood there and ushered us in.
Onwards through a small town where a man approached us with a thermos of chai and offered us one each 'no pay'. We drank the chai, which was very good and offered to pay but he wouldn't take the money. He then introduced us to various shopkeepers, all of whom he was related to!
We continued our walk to Bibi La Maqbara - the Mini Taj Mahal. Having been to Agra to see the original Taj we decided not to pay to go in and see this one. There was , however, a good view from outside.
Our next destination was the Aurangabad Caves. We arrived at a Buddhist temple and had to climb a steep set of stairs. At the top we could see a little of the caves (very similar to the ones we had seen in Nashik). As the entry fee was hugely inflated for tourists we decided to just enjoy the view from the top!
We ambled back down towards the town. We missed our turn, backtracked and walked along a track shown on maps.me. It took us though trees, across a farm and along another track. We passed a sign for a food research centre. When we reached the end we found we were actually inside the gated area of the food research centre. We got some strange looks from the guards but they kindly opened the gate and let us out.
We exited onto the main road opposite Delhi gate. The next stop on our 'tour' was Salim Ali lake. Again we followed our map and ended up in someone's garden. The children playing in the garden helped us find a viewpoint to see the lake.
We decided to start heading back towards our accommodation. On the way we saw a man selling lassi so stopped to have some. He also had ice-cream and very kindly put a scoop of mango ice-cream in our lassi. It was delicious! Whilst we were there a man came by selling something which looked like curd. The lassi man bought some and gave us some to try. It was like a set, sweet milk, again delicious!
Next we came upon a Jain temple which, from the outside appeared to be being renovated. A man beckoned us in and the inside was beautiful.
We eventually made it back to base and freshened up. Whilst we were in the room we heard a noise and looked out the window and it was pouring with rain. It lasted about an hour and we then took the chance to head to the gurudwara for evening prayer and langar. After eating we went for a walk and and found a small shopping centre to wander around. On the way back it rained again so we took shelter in a sugar cane juice cafe before heading back for the night.