Leaving Aurangabad
We woke and packed our bags then headed to the langar hall for our last breakfast in Aurangabad.
We started to walk to the train station but as we chatted we missed our turn. Rather than walking all the way back we tried to find a short cut. However every road seemed to be a dead end. Of course, everyone wanted to help! The first man tried to direct us in the wrong direction. the second man wanted to give us a lift on his motorbike but we had all our bags, so he called his friend to help too. However, we had lots of time so wanted to walk. We eventually managed to convince them we would be ok walking.
We arrived at the station with time to spare so found our platform.and waited for our train. Luckily we had booked seats as the train was extremely busy!
The train left the station on time. However, after about 20 minutes we stopped .... for about an hour...no one really seemed to know why. We were not at a station. Eventually the journey continued with these random, but generally shorter stops. Eventually someone established it was due to electrical works on some of the lines.
People watching on the train was interesting. It was difficult to work out who knew who. We worked out there was a mum, dad and child who were together in our seating area. However, as other people got on, who did not have seats, babies were passed around for people to hold, food was shared, people with seats would stand and let others sit for a while. It was a real community feel among people who, as far as we could, tell did not know each other.
At one of the main stations most people got off. There was a huge amount of people getting on and as the train stopped they started passing headscarves and handkerchieves through the window and indicating for us to put them on empty seats to save them for when they managed to get on.
We eventually arrived 2 hours late in Nanded. Our friend and his mate met us at the station and presented us each with a beautiful red rose from their garden.
We jumped in the car and headed to the famous gurudwara. It was beautifully lit up with coloured water fountains. It was very busy and the atmosphere felt slightly different to other gurudwaras we have visited. There were strict rules on where you could and could not take photos, with signs everwhere and people policing this.
We entered the main temple and had a walk around before heading to the langar for a tasty meal.
Outside the gurudwara we stopped for chocolate pan and said goodbye to our friend's mate. We then started to head back to his house but were distracted by some very loud music. There was a Punjabi wedding procession in the street. We stopped to take a look and were invited to join the bangra dancing. The music was so loud, we danced for a while, had our photo and video taken then jumped back in the car.
Back at our friend's house, we sat and chatted and before we knew it, it was 3.30am so decided it must be time to sleep!
