OLA or UBER?

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An early start today as we were being taken to the train station by our friends at 7.30am. We received a message telling us that one of them was feeling ill and could not make it. We waited with our other friend and decided to book an Ola/Uber. It turned up within a few minutes and we were off. It was a 10km ride to the train station and it was fairly smooth and uneventful.

We had booked a single seat using Tatkal and Darryl would stand for the 4 hour journey. The train was a little late and fuuuullllll. People tried to get off at the station as people clambered on. Just the usual chaos!
The train journey was easy and Darryl managed to get a seat for half the journey.
We arrived in Aurangabad to a very busy station. We dodged all the auto drivers and ignored the 'where are you going' questions and exited the station.
We walked for about an hour to our accommodation, stopping for tea and a new snack we had not tried before. It was a pav (bun) stuffed with veg, potatoes and beetroot which made it red.


We were staying at another Gurudwara. Our friends at the Gurudwara in Dhule had helped us book as when we tried they didn't understand us.


When we arrived no one really spoke English but we managed to communicate that our friend had booked us in. A phone call was made and Darryl spoke to the person. Our passports were handed over along with 1600 rupees. This seemed a little steep but as we could not really communicate, we handed over the money. We think we have paid more for an air-conditioned room in a seperate building, which we have every room all to ourselves!
We were the led out of the Gurudwara and down the road. We arrived a Gurudwara hall and were shown to a nice room with a balcony. We were then invited to follow the man back to the Gurudwara for langar.

We were shown around the Sikh history museum by a small boy who spoke good English before retiring to our room to book onward train tickets. Sleeper trains are particularly hard to book so we are trying to think ahead a little. After several tries there was an issue with the payment site we were using - Airpay. We switched to another and all went ok. Trains booked!


Back to the Gurdwara to listen to the harmonium players before exploring the area around us. There was a large shopping centre selling everything. We ate at the Gurdwara before crossing the main road under an art bridge. Here we found a shop selling sugar cane juice. We sat and relaxed sipping the sweet delight before paying up and wandering back to our 'building'!

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