I was feeling better when morning came. So got up reasonably early, had a very light breakfast (toast and tea) and visited the main sites of Mandu. The groups of temples are a little spread out and it reminded my of Orchha in that respect. I visited the Royal Enclave and the Village Group. I was actually quite impressed with them. There is a mosque and tomb that are of an Afghan style which is said to have influenced the design of the Taj Mahal though with the arch shape rather than the “onion” shape of the Taj. There is also a very colourful Jain temple that I liked – though again I was reminded of temples I had seen elsewhere (Khajuraho) of similar style. Mandu is a really nice place and it was probably just my mood that stopped it being a highlight. I had been sick and have probably seen enough temples for a while so it was wasted on me. Instead of being happy with the peace and quiet I was annoyed by the dogs – again probably just because I was sick. I also missed out on chatting with some nice interesting travelers in adjacent rooms which was a pity.
One option was to spend another day – but as I described I have to move on to meet some deadlines now so decided to get the midday bus back to Indore. The plan being to connect with a night bus to Jalgaon. All went well with the local transport and I was back by about 3:30. I got off the bus at the terminus which I was familiar with and started looking for a travel agent to get a ticket for the next leg. As I was following a tout to an office we got cut off by that strange man in white from the time before who seemed to hold some authority because the tout I was walking with walked away and left me with the white man. I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and we went to an office where I was sold a 450r sleeper bus + 50 r reservation fee.
I should have know better of course – if there is any lesson from my time here it is don’t trust people off the street. I was sort of fuzzy in my head still and walked off towards the Internet when I came to my senses and stopped into another shop to find out the price. This place was selling the same tickets for 250r. Angry at the white man and at myself for believing him and falling for it I stormed back and demanded they cancel my ticket. They refused, I demanded and so on – in the end I had to pay a 100r cancellation fee which stunk and annoyed me a lot (only $3 though but it was the principal).
I met up with Josh the American guy from Chicago while walking to the bus station. (Same one who had been in Mandu) and we spent a pleasant couple of hours just passing time waiting for the night bus - he was going roughly in the same direction and our bussed left about the same time from the same station.
All went smoothly the bus wasn’t at all full (despite the white man’s warning) and I lay in my sleeper looking out the window at the night sky full of stars feeling quite happy at how things turned out - glad to be on my way. I dozed off though I didn’t know for how long , but it only felt like a few hours. Then my stomach started to trouble me again and the horrible prospect of diarrhea on the bus loomed. I was wondering what to do when the bus stopped to unload some freight so I jumped out and looked for a toilet. The driver who didn’t speak English noticed me and said “toilet toilet” and pointed down an alley. I walked down noticing in the dark the outline of a dog fossicking in some grass to the left.
There was no toilet and was about to use a little paddock on the right when I noticed how boggy the ground was already and decided against it. Walking back I noticed the dog wasn’t a dog but a pig, and in fact it was a group of about 5 pigs rolling around in the bog (shit I assume). In the end I decided I would just have to hang on and went back into the bus and decided to hope for the best. The problem now was that my shoes stunk out my little cubicle.
Oh well – as it turned out it was quite late and we arrived in about half an hour in Jalgaon. They dropped my right out the front of my hotel and all was well.
