It was a long train ride and despite leaving at daybreak, night had fallen by the time we arrived in Jalgaon. Fortunately, the most recent addition to our train bench was a helpful young Indian who lead us to our desired hotel which was a laughably close distance from the station – laughable because not knowing its precise location, we probably would have hopped on a rickshaw and been charged an appropriate “stupid tourist” fare to go the whole 200 feet away that it was.

Not only was our young friend very helpful and congenial – and didn’t want anything from us!? – but the hotel was owned by THE nicest person in all of India. The hotel and room was one of the nicest and cleanest we’d seen, and the price was fantastic. It was a great end to a long travel day and nice after the somewhat bizarre day we’d had the day previous.

For perhaps the first time, I actually had a craving for Indian thali, which we’d not eaten since our first time – the Rajasthani thali that totally and completely conquered us in Jaipur. The nice hotel owner gave us a great recommendation to a nearby restaurant and the locals had a good stare at the intrepid backpackers who were actually going to try a local meal. It was hugely spicy and, despite appearances, amazingly over-portioned and by the end thanks to the unneeded free refill I got before I could protest, I was having to force myself to bring fork to mouth to keep eating my rice until I finally had to give up. Conquered again by the thali. It sure was great, though! And only cost 90 cents!

On the way home, we saw a cart selling movies and managed to find a disc with several movies on it, including both of the Bollywood flicks that we’d seen and enjoyed – Blue, which we’d seen at the famous Raj Mandir cinema in Jaipur had been our first Bollywood film ever and I totally loved. The movie blew my socks off and was perhaps the one action film in all the world I like – the sequences were amazing (flips on jetskis!? Motorcycles going full speed on the tops of trains!?!) and the music is some of my favorite I’ve ever heard. The second movie, Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, we’d seen for our anniversary in Udaipur. That one was a romantic comedy so a little harder to follow the plot, but it did have one of the trademark Bollywood film music and dance sequences (similar to the one that was at the end of Slumdog Millionaire, if you’ve seen that movie, only they occur throughout the movie, sometimes rather randomly!) that was absolutely awesome. It was probably the singlemost erotic non-erotic thing I’ve ever seen. I don’t think they even kissed.

[Sidenote: I’m still trying to grasp the concept of relationships and sex here in India. Ray and I long ago gave up holding hands so as to be culturally sensitive here since public displays of affection are frowned upon, but the men (perhaps because of that) hold hands – like, fingers interlaced – and are quite often basically all over each other as a “sign of friendship”. Almost everyone wears long pants and keeps their legs and shoulders covered up for modesty, yet the temples are adorned with some very, very explicit – even educational! - carvings and statues. The temples at Khajuraho are a great example of this, but only one of many. This is, after all, the home of the Kama Sutra!]

Anyway, the song from the movie, Tu Jaane Na, is now one of my favorite. Give it a listen or twenty and be amazed at HOW FRIGGIN MUCH IT GETS STUCK IN YOUR HEAD. The video from the movie is worth a look too, maybe you can see what I mean about the non-erotic erotic thing. I’ve included it down below for you. It’s not my upload, so if it ever doesn’t work let me know and I’ll update the link. I’m not sure why they’re randomly in what I believe is Turkey since as far as I know the rest of the movie took place in India, but why question awesomeness?

So when we saw we could score (albeit crap quality) copies of both those movies plus two others that we’d not seen, Bollywood’s Kurbaan and Hollywood’s 2012 (which was still in theaters back home), we grabbed it. We also got new toothbrushes, which is an exciting thing (because no one wants to get an Indian root canal, do they!?), and headed home to get ready for our early departure the next morning.

We were sad to leave the awesome hotel and wished that Jalgaon was one of those places that you just wanted to linger for a few weeks, but…well…it’s just not. And the Ajanta caves were beckoning, and rightfully so….

Before we get there though, check out the Tu Jaane Na video.