Had a fantastic day yesterday visiting the Caves in Ajanta – 29 caves that were carved out of the rock by Buddhist monks over 2200 years ago. They are just incredible to see and the detail in them is amazing…..I can’t even imagine how long it must have taken to hand chisel them into solid rock and then do all the carvings and paintings…it truly is amazing to see. About 8 of the caves have a massive Buddha right at the back of them, I also got to see over a thousand different Buddhas and never got a single picture! (For someone that has a slight buddha obsession- this was hell!  I’m missing my camera!;-(

When I arrived there I was approached by a guy who offered to be my guide, for RS150 (about £2) His name was Vismail, 22, good looking with this massive Hollywood (or is that Bollywood?) smile that looked really out of place in the ruins of Ajanta!! His pitch was that he would watch my shoes, which I wasn’t particularly worried about…just thought it would be nice to have some company!

He clearly loves the caves and took great pride in pointing out all the ‘passionate’ paintings on the walls. His favourite was a painting of a Black king, feeding his white wife. “Black like me, white like you!” was repeated a couple of times! Or the Buddha that was sitting next to his wife and somehow Vismail knew that she was asking for a kiss and he was saying no….his intuitive knowledge of the caves was astounding, and we were pretty much laughing the entire 2 hours. When we started walking up towards the lookout point (bells should have started by now) he had me well oiled for his hard-sell pitch. After offering to hold my hand, to which I politely declined he stated matter of factly “My friend who used to work here, just like me, did meet lovely older German women who married him and took him home with her, he now lives in Germany and is very happy” (I wasn’t too sure how I felt about being described as an older women!)
I tried to explain to him the meaning of the term “Barking up the wrong tree” to which he replied he wasn’t asking me, all the women always ask him, because they like his big muscles!!! He then commented that he was simply giving me a tour because I had a good personality and a good figure! (nice to know;-)

I have to admit at this point I told a small white lie and said I had a boyfriend, on which we agreed that if my boyfriend hadn’t married me by next year I would come back and marry him. Fair enough!
He also ended up giving me lessons on how to say no to people that approach me to buy things….. “Just look straight away and say NO, then they soon leave. Don’t look, Don’t look!!” It sounds so easy but no sooner do we get down the mountain than I am approached by two guys who had literally been waiting there for me the whole time. Michael and AK. AK wanted me to buy postcards…and I made the cardinal mistake of looking at what he had. I only wanted one or two but he was selling them in packs of 12… I really didn’t want to buy them all, but he was soooooo persistent and kept going on about how slow the season was, and all I kept thinking was its only one pound, its only one Pound! SO I bought the blasted postcards, with Vismail standing there shaking his head and smiling…with that “Have I taught you nothing look?” Michael then escorted me all the way back on the bus and took me to his shop which I really didn’t want to go to either….but hell these people are so persistent. I looked around a bit and then managed to say no thank you and walk away. They seem to have this little turf war going between the sellers and the guides because when I had first arrived Michael started chatting to me he warned me not to get a guide as they just steal your money. And then when I was with Vismail he told me not to buy anything from the shops because they are all selling junk.

So as I walked away from Michael’s stall another man came shouting after me saying: “You buy nothing??? They tell you not to buy, didn’t they? Guide told you not to buy!!! Why you buy nothing??” Breathe deeply, smile, feign complete ignorance and keep walking Gayle!!

Am currently back in Raj’s hostel after another night bus journey and it does feel a little like home. I vaguely remember the bus guy shaking me to wake me up when we got to Andheri this morning at 7 am, I quickly gathered all my stuff and then literally fell down the stairs luckily caught by the 8 tuk-tuk men waiting for me. It was pouring with rain and I had no umbrella (I seem to have lost it!;-( and I could barely even focus let alone negotiate a good fair. One of the men took me to his tuk-tuk and announced that it would be RS1300 to Raj’s hostel…..NO way in Hell it was!!! I was adamant that it was NOT that much as it was just up the road and I only paid RS 20 to get to the bus stop 2 days ago. He consistently tried to tell me how overpriced that place was, how dirty it was….and I just kept INSISTING that that was where I was going! Eventuality we agreed on RS 300. He drove for about 5 minutes by which time I had started to wake up and was absolutely FUMING because I knew I was being COMPLETELY ripped off. I made him pull off the side of the road and insisted that he was not going the right way. He insisted he was and continued promising me ” No drive long around! “ After about 10 minutes he pulls up at a place called Anjila Inn…..I told him this wasn’t where I wanted to be and kept pointing to the card with the address on it…..eventually I just went in to try and get someone to explain to this man where it was I wanted to be. Luckily there was a guy inside who explained that it was Anjila Apartments that I was looking for….and off we set back in the direction we had started from. And low and behold 20 minutes later I was back home. I was so bloody angry and told him I was NOT paying RS 300 for that and would only give him RS 200…..(Still WAY to MUCH, but what can you do?) He tried the whole “but my family poor speech” and I was absolutely NOT having any of it…..Go, Gayle!!! I actually stood up for myself!!!

That been said…..as persistent and annoying as the sellers can be here the Indian people on a whole are really lovely……once you get past the staring, I do honestly feel really safe here and have been helped out by so many people which is always great. I am also proud to admit that in the 5.5 days I have been here I have been asked out 3 times and proposed to once so clearly my love life is starting to look up!!

PS I forgot to mention that my shoes broke so I spent most of the day walking around with no shoes…..needless to say, Ollie you, and your worm-infested….mmm….(let’s say no more!:-) was never far from my mind!!! So lots of prayers for Gayles’ feet, please

PPS Uncle Gavin just heard you are not well and that you are going to be force fed my blog by my number 1 and number 2 followers …yeheee…I have another follower (be it an ill one!!!!:-) Get well soon, Lotsa love from Mumbai!!!;-)