Orchha

(prounounced or-chaa)It was only a 4 hour train ride from Khajuraho to Orchha, but as we're learning... the trains rarely run on time here.  What was supposed to be a quick 4 hours turned into close to 9 hours.  I have no idea why – someone said there was a signaling problem (whatever that means), but really no one had any idea.  Traffic perhaps?  Again, the thrifty travelers that we want to  be, we opted this time for the cheapest tickets – the unreserved section.  I'm sure most of you have seen images of trains in which there are people crammed in every spot possible and people running to get on the train as it's pulling away from the station – well, those sorts of trains really do exist and this was one of them.  Lucky for us, we managed to grab a seat and the train stayed relatively uncrowded for about 1 hour.  By the time we made it to Orchha it was well past dark and we were then faced with the task of figuring out a way from the train station into town, which was surprisingly easy considering what it could've been at that hour.  We shared a rickshaw with two other single travelers and arrived in town about 8 hours later than we had expected to.

Since the train trip took so long we were starved and decided to grab a bite to eat before we attempted to find a place to stay.  The restaurant turned out to be a great little spot right in the middle of town that served Indian food the way it was supposed to be served – and what I mean is not 'spiced-down' because we're white people.  And when the cook asked if spicy was ok and we nodded, he took that quite seriously.  The food was delicious, but fiery hot!!  We then found a hotel (with a great clothesline for drying laundry that was in dire need of being done!  I could even watch monkey families playing as I hung laundry to dry!) and settled in.

Orchha was a really neat place for us.  We found the old castle empires to be really impressive and we also got a taste for what Indian towns are really like – without the massive imposition of tourism.  To say that there was no tourism here would be incorrect, however, compared to the other places that we've been to, this was a place where finally the locals outweighed the tourists.  We did find a small little cafe that was owned by a British ex-pat who had married an Indian man.  She made incredible banoffee pie, which I'd never had before, so I guess I don't really know how wonderful it was – but we went back there each morning for a cup of chai and some cornflakes with fruit. (Aaron of course opted for the chocolate banana fudge pie for breakfast instead.)  

Aaron also braved the unknown world of the Indian barbershop which was hilarious for me to sit and watch as the Indian barber tried to ask Aaron something in his broken English which then resulted in him rubbing a stick of something slimy all over Aaron's face and head and then massaging it in as if he were going to style his hair.  Aaron didn't know what just happened and I was in tears from laughing so hard at the expression on Aaron's face as the barber rubbed this sliminess all over him!  Well, the barber ended up doing such a nice job that Aaron claims it to be the 'best haircut he's ever gotten!' And...for all of you that know him well enough, well, that's quite the compliment for him to say!  

The next day was spent wandering down to the river and then following a small path which loosely followed the river, but also meandered through farming plots and past old Hindu temples which seemed to be completely forgotten about.  We hadn't seen anyone until we reached the riverbank and a small boy with his sister were there washing clothes.  We sat on a rock for a bit and tried to determine if the river was 1. Clean enough for us to consider swimming in and 2. Safe enough to find an old tire tube to float it.  Well, turns out tire tubes are a hot commodity around these parts and no one seemed to think any shop would be too keen on parting with them so that two tourists could float down the river.  Darn.  So, instead we wandered back through the fields where the small boy proudly showed off his rice fields to us before pointing us in the right direction back to town.  

Orchha really was a nice place and we ended up tacking on an extra day here because we liked it so much.  I think we spent a total of 4 days in Orchha.  In hindsight, I wish it had been more.