Days 221-222: Urban Camping

After a series of big, bustling cities we got a little respite by spending a few days in the much smaller town of Orchha. It only has 15,000 people or so, and walking across town takes maybe half an hour. Getting to the town was a bit wild as the last leg involved us travelling along a busy road through the countryside in tuk-tuks while much bigger vehicles would blare past, taking up the entire road. There was one bus going the same way as us that would just speed along passing anything it came across, without even seeming to care if there was traffic coming the other way or not. We saw multiple vehicles on both sides of the road forced into the fields to avoid getting hit.

We were technically staying at a hotel in Orchha, but our "rooms" were tents out in the field behind it. The tents were actually quite nice though, and the makeshift shower in mine was one of the only ones I had with functioning hot water the entire time in India. To make it even better we were right next to the towers of an old temple that had vultures perching along the domes and spires.

At night we went to the Ram Raja Hindu Temple to attend one of two daily (morning and night) prayer/celebrations they do there. It was a bit hard to follow what was going on, but after awhile the mix of the colors, music and incense made it more enjoyable to just enjoy the vibe of the place without worrying much about the details.

The next day we checked out the fort complex that's the main point of interest in the town. It contains a few different palaces and forts, and it was a sprawling design of hallways, courtyards and staircases that was fun to explore.

One of the palaces was apparently only used for a single day as it was given as a gift to the visiting king shortly after it was completed, and then the king never returned to the city.

In the evening we went to a local house that served as a home for four different families and had a cooking class as one of the women prepared dinner for us and explained the cooking and ingredients as she went. Despite loving Indian food, I suspect I'll always be too lazy to cook 3 or 4 different curry dishes to go together for a single meal, but I'm hoping I can at least get the hang of making chai (or masala tea, as it was known later in Nepal) as it's not too complicated and the most enjoyable tea I've had.

After our dinner it was back to the train station for an overnight train to Varanasi. The overnight train wasn't quite as chaotic as the previous train ride, but I was in the middle bunk in a cabin of 6 beds where I was the only one that spoke english, and the ride was to be pretty dull.