This blog contains all of my older blog posts.
Due to the fact I imported all of the blog posts from my old blog and its database was corrupted, now all of the posts are uncategorized. So it is just a matter of exploring by date or using the search box.
We arrived in Aurangabad by train from Nasik. After checking in to our hotel, the Hotel , we were ready to settle in for a few days and explore our new temporary home.
Aurangabad is not as busy as Nasik and better still it is nowhere near as polluted. Our lungs were very thankful that there are not quite as many of the the two stroke air polluting engines of the auto-rickshaws here as there were in Nasik.
Since we have been in Aurangabad we have had a pleasant mix of 
activity and relaxation.
One morning we got an auto-rickshaw from our hotel and popped in to the Taj Residency hotel for a bit of peace and quiet, and a beer – of course. :d Auto-rickshaws are not allowed through the gates at the Taj so we had to walk to the hotel, which was quite a long walk and not pedestrian friendly.
We wanted to sit in the bar, but apparently it doesn’t open until 3pm. That almost made me feel glad I couldn’t afford to stay there – if I was a resident I would not be impressed by the bar not being open all day.
The building itself at the Taj Residency was a bit tatty and there were hardly any guests there when we went which I think made the place feel sad.
We sat outside the restaurant overlooking the croquet lawn which would have been nice and peaceful if it wasn’t for the half a dozen men mowing and clipping the grass in to a neat stripy pattern. Whilst we sat there relaxing we managed to get lots of posts written and set up the Vodafone dongle internet etc. The service at the Taj Residency was excellent and we always had at least one waiter standing near to us to attend to our every need, although maybe it wasn’t good service, maybe they were just making sure we didn’t pinch anything. ;o We spent a few hours at the Taj Residency, it was really lovely to get away from the noise of the 
city and it would have been perfect if we hadn’t been attacked by millions of midges and flies.
The main reason we came to Aurangabad was to visit the Ellora caves, and during our stay in Aurangabad we spent a day, about 5 hours of it, wandering round the caves at Ellora.
We also went to the Bibi-ka Maqbara monument aka the mini Taj Mahal.
Apart from that we have spent our time chilling out eating and drinking in the restaurants and bars that line the road along from our hotel, including the Trupati Hotel restaurant, 
the New Bharti restaurant, and the Prem Popular Punjab bar, which is good for ladies as we are permitted to sit outside at the front and watch the world go by as we enjoy a beer or two. 
Expect to get some odd looks though from the many men who frequent the Permit Room. We sat outside the Prem Popular Punjab Bar almost every night we were in Aurangabad, and every night the local men would stop and stand and stare at me for a while before entering and leaving. I’m not quite sure what they found so interesting about me? ;o
Both Richard and I received a lot of attention everywhere we went, as I’m sure all of the other foreign tourists did too. We were especially popular at the Ellora caves, where we were constantly being asked
by Indian tourists if they could take our photo, and often having our photo taken sneakily by people using their mobile phones. It seems everyone in India has the same addiction as we do in England – they can’t stop playing with their mobiles. Maybe they think we’re famous? ;D
All of the restaurants we ate at in Aurangabad offered a choice of Indian and Chinese food. We tried both, but only a little at a time as we were both still feeling a little unwell. We snacked rather than eating large meals. Richard was feeling far worse than I was and we planned most of our meals around his upset tummy, only leaving the hotel when it was 
safe to be away from the loo. 
Needless to say he was not really in the mood to scoff lots of food, preferring to keep things as light as possible. One of Richards favourite things to eat was soup, but then he has always been a fan of the liquid diet, except usually his liquid of choice is red wine. 
I really liked the Puri Baji, which consisted of 5 lovely fluffy fried round pieces of bread with a dish of very mild potato and cauliflower curry.
When we arrived in Aurangabad we’d met a tout at the train station, M Shaikh, who we later realised ran his tour business from our hotel, the Hotel Preetam, so we arranged for him to drive us to the Ellora caves and wait for us while we explored them. He also introduced us to an 
auto-rickshaw driver who we booked for a few hours to take us to the Bibi-ka Maqbara (aka mini Taj Mahal) and various other sites of interest in Aurangabad. M Shaikh offers all types of taxi at reasonable prices. We were driven in his Tata car.
Tata is ‘the’ Indian brand, it’s not a question of what do they make, it’s more a question of what don’t they make?
I wonder if Mr Tata would be interested in adopting a lovely, weary, couple from England (who are now way too old to be back-packing) but who are very comfortable living a 5-star life of luxury, but can only afford 0-star, and whisking them away to a life of utter bliss? :d
Maybe I should email him? As my dear old nan always said, you don’t get what you don’t ask for……. Dear Mr Tata…….
Aurangabad is a bustling friendly city with enough to do to keep you occupied for a few days, or if you’re like us; professional time wasters, there’s enough to do (or not do) to keep you occupied/unoccupied for days and days………..
MICROSOFT YAHOO FREE LOTTERY DRAW
Dear Lucky Winner
We are pleased to announce to you as one of the 20 lucky winners in our MICROSOFT YAHOO EMAIL LOTTERY DRAW held on 10th JANUARY, 2011. Your email address emerged with 19 others on the category of winners in this year first Email Free Lottery Draw to promote Microsoft Yahoo Promotion. All 20 winning email addresses were randomly selected from a batch of 100,000,000 international emails. You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of US$1,000,000.00 (One Million United States Dollars Only). NO TICKETS WERE SOLD
We are proud to say that $20,000,000.00 (Twenty Million United States Dollars) has been won by the 20 lucky winners including you. The following particulars are attached to your lotto payment order:
I) Winning Numbers: FL/121/-4385/6711/UK
ii) Email Ticket Number: FL/67/22/76/UK
iii) Lotto Code Number: FL/091/22/UK
To file your claims of US$1,000,000.00 (One Million United States Dollars),you have to fill the below information completely and submit to our fiduciary claims agent for documentation and processing of your lottery winning certificate:
Your Surname……
You’re First/Middle Names….
Your Nationality….
Your Present Address……
You’re Sex Gender……………
Your Age……………
Your Occupation……
Your Mobile Phone Number……
Lottery Claim Agent: Dr. Path Williams
@Microsoft Yahoo 2011 Co-ordinate Office UK.
100 Victoria Street, London SW1E 5JL
E-mail: dr.p.w112211@gmail.com
Tel: +44 703 174 1547
YOUR ADDRESS HAS WON AND THIS IS NOT A SCAM.
On behalf of the Board of Trustees of Microsoft Yahoo Promotions (MYP) Draw Promotion, kindly accept our warmest congratulations.
Sincerely,
MICROSOFT EXECUTIVE BOARD
We arrived in Aurangabad by train from Nasik just after noon on Saturday with a plan of going to the Tirupati Hotel, but as usual when we left the train station we were approached by a few touts, one of whom suggested the Hotel Preetam. We told him we were fine and continued to walk away from the station along Station Road to check out the price at the Tirupati Hotel, unfortunately it was too expensive for our budget so as the tout was still walking with us and the Hotel Preetam was right next door to the Tirupati Hotel we thought we’d check the price and have a look at the room. We were told the price was 850 rupees. Initially we were shown a double air conditioned room on the ground floor, it was nice and clean so we said we’d stay for one night. Back at the reception desk there was the usual lengthy registering process, with me struggling to see what I was writing – should have put my glasses on but I was too tired, and lazy, to get them out of my bag. After what felt like hours, I had filled in all the relevant information; name, age, passport number, date of issue, expiry date, visa number, date of issue, expiry date, home address, where I was arriving from, reason for being in India etc. Then we were told the price would be 1,050 rupees. Confused. We pointed out that that was not the price we’d been quoted when we first inquired. We were then told that the room we had just seen was an executive room. We asked to see the 850 rupee room, which was up on the first floor of the hotel. We couldn’t see any difference between this room and the executive room on the ground floor, and as this room was cheaper we said we’d have it. Back down to reception, confusion sorted, we paid for one night.
We dumped our bags in our room and went out for a walk and a drink and popped in to a few of the other hotels to 
check out their prices. After seeing what else was on offer we decided that the Hotel Preetam was a good deal, so we said we’d stay for four more nights, which we paid for the following morning.
The Hotel Preetam is located next to Aurangabad train station, along with several other new hotels and restaurants. Our room was fairly large with a huge bed, air conditioning, ceiling fan, TV, the bathroom had constant hot water and most importantly the room was clean. We were at the front of the hotel on Station Road so there was quite a lot of noise from the traffic and constant car and auto-rickshaw horn tooting, but the noise of the fan drowned most of it out so we managed to sleep fairly well.
For our first night the air conditioning unit was not turned on and we were too tired to go down to reception to tell them. The following morning we mentioned it and learnt that although when the room key is removed all of the electricity in the room goes off, the air conditioning unit stays on, so the hotel flick it off at the mains, and they had forgotten to turn it back on when we returned to our room on our first night. After that first night we never had any problems, every time we returned to the hotel someone always followed us upstairs and flicked the mains switch on – lovely lovely air conditioning.
If you are going to Aurangabad and want to stay in a reasonably priced, clean hotel, check out the Hotel Preetam.
Hotel Preetam,
Beside Railway Station,
Railway Station Road,
Aurangabad – 431 005.
Dear winner
Your email has been randomly selected as the winner of the month from
Microsoft promotion. Award team has approved the sum of $1.9 million
for you, kindly contact Microsoft fiduciary agent for claims.
Provide the following informations for claims. FULL NAME, SEX, AGE,
OCCUPATION, LOCATION AND TELEPHONE CONTACT.
DETAILS OF FIDUCIARY AGENT:
NAME: DR. Terry Adams.
POSITION: FIDUCIARY AGENT.
EMAIL: microsoftagent@imail.com
MICROSOFT AWARD TEAM
(MAT).
Our last night in Aurangabad and we ventured (next door to our hotel!!!) to the restaurant at the Hotel Tirupati for a dinner of Puri Bhaji and Baigan Bharta. Our next dinner will be in Goa.
Mark Bittman more than triples the greens in a punchy pasta recipe from the Minimalist archives.
Grettings!
My name is Olga! I write u because I’m going to your country very soon!
Visa almost ready and soon I will get it ! I was waiting very long time before get it!
And if all will be well I hope to meet you there and spend some days with you!
Hope u are not against! And I found your profile and I think that I like it!
So please if you want to meet me soon then write me to …
and I will answer u and send you some of my pics!
Bye for now!
Olga Whitaker o1ga.pretty@ymail.com pmcoopertx@yahoo.com
LAND ROVER AUTOMOBILES PROMOTION
Unit 6, 19-21, Penhall Rd, London, SE7 8RX
United Kingdom
FROM: Mr Shaun Donald
Lottery Manager.
Secret Pin No: LRA/1901/1134
Reference Number LRA:58YZX/10
This Email is to inform you that your email address just won you
the lump sum of £800,000.00GBP and a new 2011 Model Range Rover Suv
in the ongoing Land Rover anniversary promotion draw that was held
today in London.Do Contact the claims agent with contact information stated
below:
=====Name in full.
=====Address.
=====Occupation.
=====Present Country:
=====Tel/fax:
=====Marital Status/Age:
Mr Lester Miller
Contact emai: rangerover2011automobiles@hotmail.co.uk
Claims Agent
Land Rover Annual Promotion
Your Email ID has won You the sum £710,000.00Pounds from B.B.C LOTTERY OFFICE. contact us For Claims Full Name:,Current Address:,Telephone Number:,Occupation:Date Of Birth:, and Country bbchelpdesk11@hotmail.com cberges@usac.edu.gt
