Holi moli! We are in Orcha!

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I had THE BEST sleep ever, and was up and out for 7am as we were getting the train at 8pm. Initially the train seemed like it was on time as it was pulling into the station, but then Raghu said it would be 3 hours late due to engine failure! We were told to expect this from Indian trains, so it was a case of stand and wait. Ten minutes later we were hurrying to get on, it was only stopping for 5 minutes so with bags as well you have to move fast. The first lot of carriages whizzed by, and it was almost like an overcrowded prison on wheels. There were arms sticking out of barred windows, and it looked crammed to the rafters.

Our carriage arrived and thankfully it was the better sort and not too dissimilar from trains back home. We sat in a row of 3 and 2. I was sat next to Molly Brown, but the motion of the carriage soon caught up with me and I kept drifting off to sleep. There was a little girl who must have been around the same age as Isabelle, and I thought of the two munchkins back home, and looked forward to the time I could tell them about crazy Auntie Ems travels. There was also a really annoying kid on the seat in front who was standing on the pull down tray table screeching like a monkey-it went on for ages. His parents didn't seem bothered for ages then all of a sudden they'd pull him down really roughly to sit him on their knee. Before long he was back up there screeching, and suddenly from nowhere, his mother slapped him clean across the face. I winced and there was that momentary silence before he screamed even more. He can't of been more than 3. Despite the crazy family in front I did manage to sleep most of the way-there wasn't much to see out of the windows, and the 3 hours passed quickly.



We got off at Jhansi station and made our way to a waiting taxi. Sue, the only other English bird on the trip sat in the front only to realise the seatbelt didn't work. The Lloyd half of dumb and dumber got in with us and offered to swap but sue said she was fine holding it across her. (Later Lloyd confessed he was glad sue hadn't swapped as he was too scared of being in the front with this style of driving!)



Today is the Hindu festival of Holi. It's where everyone celebrates good over evil and new beginnings. It involves lots of bonfires and people throwing coloured water and powder over each other. Everywhere we looked, people had been 'Holi-ed' everyone had a pink face (and not the Caucasian sort!) even the cows, dogs and monkeys had coloured faces, it was so great to see.

We arrived at our hotel after about 30 minutes in a place called Orchha. Raghu told us we were really lucky to be in Orchha for Holi as it is a really spiritual place. It is said that the actual god Rama visited this place and lots of Hindus travel to this town to worship at the temples. Our hotel The Orchha resort was beautiful! It was so well maintained and clean. The gardens were stunning and it was overlooked by a picturesque cenotaph. The sun was shining, it was peaceful and for the first time a honking horn was nowhere to be heard.



We went for lunch (another curry Buffett!) but again this was really nice and only £4. Here we were staying in tents, and apparently there were no single ones left, so I was back in the titanic with Molly Brown. My heart sunk quicker than the ship-I wasn't looking forward to a night of canvas snoring, but I reasoned I'd had such a good nights sleep last night, I could forego another one and play catch up through the week. The tents however were amazing, and it was more like Glamping than Camping! We even had a fridge and a proper bed. Not that I would of minded camping, but this meant sufficient space not to get under each other's feet.



We had 45 minutes to chill out before we were meeting Raghu, so I lay on the bed with the door open, just enough for a gentle breeze to waft in. With the lack of crazy horns beeping I had another snooze (yes I know-I have done a lot of sleeping today already)



When it was time, Raghu met us outside of our tents, with big bags of colour for Holi. For the next hour we messed about throwing powder and water everywhere and just getting into the spirit of things. We got some great pictures but had to mind our phones and cameras around all the powder and water.



I had a shower and had to condition my hair twice to get a comb through it, I had colour everywhere, and when I saw Shakira later, her long blonde hair had a tinge of pink that didn't look like it was budging.



We had a bit of free time so I wandered around the hotel grounds taking pictures, and decided to go for a massage at the hotel spa. I plumped for an Indian head massage (when in Rome-you get what I mean) she asked me to remove my top which I did, and then my bra, to which I gestured by removing my straps. 'No off!' She said ' I do back' I felt a bit self conscious, usually they undid your bra when you were laying down on your front. Reluctantly I removed it and she gestured for me to sit on the chair.

She started with a scalp massage which was anything but relaxing, I felt it was a cross between getting duffed around the head and having my mum brush my hair to 'get the lugs out' like when I was younger. Added to that I was sitting topless-I really couldn't relax at all!

I moved onto the bed for a back massage and then back on the chair whilst she did my shoulders. I actually couldn't wait to get out of these and wished my 30 minutes away. Still, it was only £8 but an £8 I'd rather have kept!



I rinsed my hair out again as it looked like I'd been working in a chippy, and headed to the restaurant for a snack before we went out. There were a few of us, so we sat and chatted and I ordered a cheese toastie which was possibly the only thing on the menu that wasn't deep fried.



Just after 7 we met Raghu and the everyone else and walked two the main temple in Orchha for the Hindu Holi ceremony. Walking through Orchha seemed so different from the other places we'd been, it was smaller and quieter, but there were still crazy drivers, people begging and random markets albeit on a smaller scale.

We had a guide who told us all about the temple and ceremony, but to be honest I was at this point getting confused with which God or Lord was which, and found it hard to keep up. He did tell us a bit about Orchha though and I was surprised to learn that the illiteracy rate was about 40% in this area.We removed our shoes and made our way in to the temple, ringing a bell en route. There was lots of singing and offering of gifts, mainly flowers and some sweets. People were kissing the floor and turning in circles and raising their hands in a worshipping motion. We weren't allowed to take cameras into the temple, I fact we weren't allowed to take anything into the temple, especially anything leather, so we had to leave our bags belts watches etc in a lock up in a restaurant down the street. Raghu assured us he was staying with the bags. The whole thing was interesting if not a little mind boggling at the same time.



Back at the hotel, I whatsapped some pictures of the day to Daryl and headed off to bed. Pearl and I chatted for a while and she was telling me about the weather in Canada getting to about -40 in their winters, and how her heating bill costs her about $1000 a month at this time. Apart from Niagra falls, Canada has never been an itch I've had to scratch, and with weather like that I definitely wasn't rushing to book! Maybe this will change in future.

Pearl had kindly offered me her ear plugs for the night, which I left on the bedside table just in case. I did still use my own though and wedged them firmly in my ears. I was a bit paranoid about Mosquitos as well as this was really the first time we'd seen quite a few and even killed a couple in the room. I sprayed DEET and completed the look with my mosquito hat that Daryl had bought me. I used the drawstring to tighten the net right up to my chin, and pulled the duvet over my head to further muffle any outside noise. Tomorrow we had a lay in and some free time before the night train up to Varanasi so I wished for a goodnights sleep in this lovely calming place.

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