I'm a big fan of Junagadh. I'd intended to go there in 2005, on my first long trip to India, but I got bogged down in Diu and somehow ended up flying to Kolkata instead of taking the bus to Junagadh. Anyway, this is a great Jain temple town. Garner Hill is here, which I now know, having just read a great book in Jainism, to be a very holy place.

There are 10,000 steps up the side of Garner Hill to a series of Jain temples from, the 11th or 12 century. Unfortunately, no cameras are allowed inside. When the soldier took my bag and searched me, I was a little pissed, having just spent 2.5 hours climbing about 6,000 steps (the Jain temples are not at the top), but once I was inside, it was okay. It was so beautiful, I was just happy to be there. And I knew I would be in Palitana in a day or two, where you can take cameras.

After the Jain temples, it's another 2000 steps or so to the very top. There is a Hindu temple up there, unremarkable to say the least. But it's a nice walk and a beautiful view.

If you're good at math, you've already figured out there 6,000 and 2,000 do not add up to 10,000. The final 2,000 steps are so are DOWN and then back up to a secondary hilltop, again with what looked like an unremarkable temple, so I just went down.

Junagadh also has one of the strangest looking buildings I've ever seen. A masoleum for the former royals. It's going to rot in the Gujarati sun. Kids have kicked in the marble latticework in the windows.

There's also a great old town. Really beautiful narrow old streets.

The fort totally sucks. Don't bother.