10/01/2012

After an uneasy night of sleep due to a dirty hotel we were a bit tired but went on our first trip with driver in a Tata Indico (the default means of transport for guide cabs) to the Lonar crater starting at 8:00.
We arrived 3 hours later and decided to walk around the whole crater, which was a 2 ½ hour endeavour. It was very nice but a bit stinky due to its alkaline nature (the meteor crashed into basalt rock) and the amount of algae. There were also some nice ruins and a small Buddhist monastery by the lake of the crater, halfway around the crater.
I got some very good pictures and we had plenty of people taking pictures of us too.
The highlight of the day was definitely when we passed a school and all the kids came running out wanting to shake our hands and practice their English with Hello, Goodbye and "What country are you from?"
We had a great few minutes with them while being the local celebrities and I managed to get a great picture of them.
We then returned to Aurangabad around 17:00 and had a quick shower before we took an auto-rickshaw to the train station and went walking amongst the stalls and shops and did a bit of food shopping for bananas, water, crisps and chocolates, all the essentials :-)
We then went to the Tandoor restaurant that came recommended by the Lonely Planet and also the locals (having learnt our lesson). It was very nice food, Claire had the Rogan Josh and I had the Tandoori chicken Haiyul special and they served 650ml Kingfisher "mild" (5%) with that - nice!
Afterwards we returned to the hotel, watch some telly and had some chocolate before going to bed.

Notes:
- There are so many touts, tour guides and sellers of DVD/picture collections that you really need to be firm with a no thanks as soon as you spot them approaching as they are wasting your time and take away from your experience- but if you are looking for something or are not sure then the real trick/challenge is to find those that are good and not just out to scam you - you really need to use your judgement.