"I'm bored in my office today, and I have alot of work to do and the only relief I get is reading Andrew's notoriously un-updated blog. Gosh, I wonder what that growth on my toe is, maybe I should see a doctor - oh wait, I can't, I'm working. Oh well, let me live vicariously through Andrew and see what he is doing. He doesn't have weird growths on his toe"
Nope, aside from the entry above, (and that was by me, only I was pretending to be you, I don't have any weird growths, and nor am I in an office of any sort) there are no entries like that here. There are plenty of entries un-like that below. For instance, this photo is of a monkey that didn't mug me, but must have mugged someone else.
Or maybe it bought the drink with it's own money?
And then there is a goat I saw.
I think the goat put the missing lottery ticket into the bin, and is trying to get it out. Either that, or the damn fool thinks he's Winnie the Pooh. In any event, if you like goats, you should tell all your friends about this photo, and then get them to send me money! No, really. I mean it. All that lottery stuff is me joking, the goat was trying to get at a corn cob. And, goshdarnit, I fought that goat for the corn cob that was in the bin 10 seconds after the photo. Kicked his ass too. That's what my life is now, a never ending battle with the local wildlife to get food. It's Cambooodia all over again.
Also, here is one of the statues in the Ellora caves. I'd love to tell you all more about these fine things, but I really have to get some sleep. It's the only thing that keeps the hunger away.
What I like most about this depiction of (i think) Shiva and his wife Parvati, is old man Shiva's grip on Parvati. Check out the bottom right, if you are too dulled by your computer screen to see what's a going on.
Here is a bit of a castle at a fort I visited called Daulatanbarg, or something very close in spelling that may be corrected tomorrow morning. Pretty much, without re-reading my lonely planet, this fort was built in the 1100s, and a maharaja decided that it was so fly, he'd force march THE ENTIRE POPULATION OF DELHI DOWN SOME 200 km JUST TO LIVE IN THIS FORT. What a fun guy. Embracing the best aspects of dodgy middle management, when the fort proved to be less than a success, he then forced marched all the people (those who survived the march down, anyway) back up.
I think he thought he was the Grand old Duke of Yorke! Only he had a half million men, not 10,000. Either that, or he'd been empowered by the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (middle ages edition).
The fort is, needless to say, alot bigger than the mini tower I've shown here. It's got many square kilometers inside, so many that I can't remember, and I can remember pi to 3 decimal places. There's a pink tower (to victory!) and the doors all have little spikes on them. This is to apparantly stop elephants charging the doors. I'd have thought a few mice might've worked, but hey...
The centerpiece is the central tower, which is actually built into a 200m high hill, that the fort proper surrounds. I never thought to take a photo, and I didn't climb this tower (the smell of bat feces was overpowering, and I had a blocked nose!) so you will have to make do with your imagination.
Anyway, with all these battlements, cannons, towers and elephant stopping doors, the fort was eventually captured in the traditional indian way. The door guard was bribed.
Oh! And here is the mini tower of the fort of Daulatanberg (sp).
Then there is the emperor Aurangzeb, who battled the evil Wizard Huchiwannawhip WhipitWhi PitGhud for rule over the rights to Harry Potter. Or something. He was the last "great" mughol emperor, which I suppose is like being a great uncle or a great aunt, in that he have the mughols sweeties and played hungry hungry hippos with them even after a big night out and only arriving back home at 7am. What a top bloke, and he did this with all the mughols too!
Anyway, he's buried in Kaulitawasteoftimebad, where again I'm unsure of the spelling. But it's a small town, and on entering to see the tomb everyone had a sob story to tell me for mney ("I'm blind", "I'm armless", "I'm just a priest", "I was born with no tongue") whatever, I gave the last "great" mughol emperor some spare rupees as a sign of respect and walked out.
Here he is, in all his glory!
Next up, check this out:
This isn't the Taj Mahal. It was built, similarly to the Taj, by a maharajah for his wife, only this dude built it down in Aurangabad (named after Aurangzeb, and which is where I stayed for 2 nights). It is called the Bibqu-Al-Biqba or something, again, lonely planet will be checked tomorrow. But it's a small affair, and is ofter referred to as "The poor man's Taj". The building itself is actually pretty cool, but because the design and layout and colour are so simple, well, the comparisons are obvious.
Tomorrow (or today):
the further adventures of thailand!
what else have I seen in India!
more a-grade photos!
PS I'd check out that toe, it sounds ugly.
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