Orchha

Orchha is a town in Madhya Pradesh near the banks of Betwa river. The medieval city of Orchha seems to have frozen in time, its palaces and temples still retaining their original grandeur. Orchha had the distinction of being the capital of one of the largest and most powerful kingdoms of Central India. The Bundela Rajput chieftain, Rudra Pratap, founded the city, located by the side of the beautiful Betwa River, in the 16th century. The word Orchha means 'hidden'. When the Tughlaqs, who were ruling Delhi in the 15th century, pushed the Bundelkhand rajas out of Garkhundar, they retreated to distant Orchha. (from wikitravel)

Decidied on the bus to stay in Orchha instead of Jhansi. Got dropped off on the highway and took a moto (3 wheel taxi) into town. Found a hotel quickly before the touts got to us. The headed over to the Palace complex. Still feeling average we found the ticket was 250 rupees great... Went and checked out the first Palace the Jehangir Mahal which was pretty cool to explore lots of hidden rooms, staircases and gangways, fun, fun. One of the main reasons I like Palaces, forts and castles are the exploration of them without a guide, I dont want to know this was the kitchens and this was lord so and sos bedroom. Great views from the Rooftop over the temples and Orchha. Visited the next palace, was more ornate and was also interesting to have an explore around.

James wanted to have lunch and I wanted to keep exploring but had a double ticket so went to swap it for two single tickets... "not possible" fuck the Indian mentality pisses me off sometimes. So went and had lunch, James was feeling crook still so went for a lye down, I keep exploring checked out a couple of temples and some tombs before watching the sunset from the top of the big temple, was nice, great views a good sunset and Vultures, Eagles, Parrots and Monkeys live on the top of the temple.
Had dinner with a few people I had met on the temple roof.


Following day caught a Tempo (big 3 wheeled tuk tuk) into jhansi from where we caught a bus to Gwalior where we intended to check out the fort, got off in town to find it a smog covered shit hole of one million so decided to carry on to Agra. The bus we got was pretty funny, rusty, very little paint, dented and banged up, breaking in half with missing windows.... still it did the job... bus travel in India is very slow anyway, the roads are in shit condition with potholes and other obstacles, usually only manage to average 30km an hour.