In Palitana, I checked into a cheap hotel to take refuge after my climb (more on this to come later) and to take a shower before I take the nightbus to Surat, which turned out to be the best hub for Aurangabad from Palitana.
I decided to walk to the foot of Shatrunjaya, as it was only 30mins walk from my hotel. After half the way I thought that it was not the best idea, to walk in the heat of the midday sun and arrive on the foot of the hill already tired. But this was only after the point of no return.
Shatrunjaya is a holy hill with 1,000 temples on the top of it. The hill, said in legend, is a chunk of the mighty Himalayas. To reach the top, one has to defeat about 4,000 stairs. I met a young guy from Mumbai who went there with his family to pray. With his brother ahead of us and his parents back, we had a nice chat about his girlfriend for example. His parents must not know about her and his mother will choose his wife anyway. She would never accept his own choice! But this guy undeniably comes from a wealthy family! He also told me that it was a very special day to climb the hill, which only happens once a month. It means even more luck! Man, I am a lucky guy!
On top, the guy went for his prayer (which was supposed to last 1.5hr as there are so many gods) and I went to explore the place. I'm not sure whether the number of temples really count up to a 1,000 but there are a lot of them! And they really look phantastic and the view from the hill is amazing as well. Everytime I entered a courtyard of temples, another courtyard opened. This strenuous walk in the torrid midday sun was really rewarding!
Later, I went to a restaurant, where there are no menues and where English is unknown. I just pointed to some dishes of other customers and was promptly served. I had unstuffed fried samosas with a hot potato masala to dip and boiled rice with some other masala (but don't ask what it really was). This and a small bottle of Mirinda cost me 28Rs (0.60 Euros). Now, that is what I call good cost/performance ratio!
I had my proper single bed on the night bus. Curtains gave me privacy as well. But the road was rough and bumpy and so I couldn't sleep anyway.