I have today (Friday) off because it's Gandhi's birthday. So I took this long weekend opportunity to travel to Orchha and Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh. These locations were chosen solely because all trains and buses to the Himalayas were sold out, and it is monsoon season in my other regions of interest. Orchha is supposed to have some "hidden" palaces and temples (hidden among the brush, I assume), and I wanted to go there when I went to Khajuraho (they are only a few hours apart) but didn't have time. And Gwalior has a fort. Probably not as epic as Rajasthani forts, but it should be interesting.
I'm in Orchha now, but it's raining and all the site are outdoors. So while I wait for the rain to pass (it's only supposed to last an hour or so, as it is not monsoon season here), I figured I'd update my blog...
To get to Orchha I had to take a 7-hour train to Jhansi, which is actually in Uttar Pradesh (it sorta sticks into Madhya Pradesh), and then switch to a 30-minute bus. I had forgotten how much I love trains in India! I practiced Hindi with my compartment-mates, who of course got a kick out of a गोरी (white person) speaking Hindi. We drank chai together when the chaiwallah came by (train chai is second only to street chai). It was like a cute Indian tea time in my compartment. There was a really adorable, surprisingly not-annoying 3-year-old whose mother gave everyone delicious home-cooked parathas (and his dad was HOT) (not the reason I love Indian trains, in case you were wondering. a hot guy on a train is a pretty rare encounter). There were two guys who spoke English (neither of them were the hot dad), and things got a little weird when they insisted on buying me a boxing glove keychain from some keychain-wallah walking through the car. As much as I would love a boxing glove keychain (um, what??), I turned down their offer. I was pretty relieved when my stop was only 10 minutes later.
This was my second time in Jhansi, because I had to take the train there to get to Khajuraho almost two years ago. But this was the first time I saw it in daylight (I had arrived late at night, around 1:30am, and then took a 5:30am bus to Khajuraho). A place really looks completely different in the day! It felt like I was in Jhansi for the first time. But, as it really is only a transport town, there isn't much to see and I was outta there pretty quickly again. I was mostly struck by how incredibly dusty it was. I know I always complain about the dust in Delhi, but this was much, much worse. Plus it was windy so the dust was swirling everywhere.
Ok, it is still raining, so I'm going to write another post... I really hope the rain stops soon!
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