Day 4 - Orchha

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Day 4 - Orchha

Sorry no internet connection for a few days in the jungle, trying to play catch up, but still no photos.

The day started with a tour of 4 of the palaces of Orchha. Our guide told us that there are 6 palaces and 22 temples in the town and it's surroundings. Our tuk-tuk's took us into the town, where everyone was being very offical, as there was a ministrial visit to the town so the police were trying to direct traffic and look like they knew what they were doing.

The Jahangiri Mahal Palace was one of four built that we saw that formed a complex. One was built by the son of the king, one for his dancer mistress, one by the King and one for his friend. The one built by the King had appartments for his 6 concubines, one for each day of the week, with a rest on Sunday, and were linked from his bed chamber by a series of secret passages so the population couldn't see what he was doing. His wife had left him as she didn't approve of him hunting, and only visited once a year. He built a palace especially for his Muslim friend, but unfortunatley he only got to visit is once before he died, and only stayed in it one night, and then it was abandonded. We got to explore the different levels of the palace, and the tops of the chhatris roofs were being occupied by some vultures. From the view from the palace we could see some of the cenotaphs that have been built for the 14 rulers of Orchha.

Our guide offered to take us to a local school, Maya School, to see the children and said they wouldn't mind seeing us. When we got there, we were introducted to it's founder a Finnish lady, who runs the school from private donations for local children from poor families whose parents have had no education themselves. They are there until lunch every day, and after which they return home mostly to help with chores in the home. If it was all day, the parents would not let them attend. They are also given a hot lunch each day which encourages the parents to send them. The children with vey sweet and stood up when we entered the room. We were even treated to ABC from some of the youngest children. They are taught English, Hindi, art, etc and the brighest ones are then funded at schools for older children.

After lunch back at the hotel, we opted to go on nature walk, which was an an additional activity. We were joined by another couple from our tour Dan and Nikki, and this took us on a 2 hour walk around the palace and down by the river and through field past some of the abandoned temples. We were very lucky to have Dan with us, as he is a very enthusiastic bird watcher and between him and the guide they were able to spot between 35 and 40 differenct species of birds. Amongst these were spotted owls, rollers, peacocks, lapwings, wagtails, kingfishers and cormorants.

We hurried back to the pizza place to meet the rest of our group for out next activity, cookery class. We went to the home of the Guide we had had durhng our temple tour. We were greeted by his wife and given a flower garland, and a red dot on our foreheads. The girls were then given the opportunity to try on one of her saris, and she helped us to get dressed and fold them correctly. After a number of photos, we started our class, and she demonstrated a number of dishes including egg plant and potato, spinich and potato and a chickpea raita. Kathryn got to assist in making pilau rice and we all had to take a turn in rolling our own chapatis. The food was very nice, except the chutney was too hot for Kathryn.

After the meal some of us had henna tattoos free hand drawn on by the guides wife and niece. We were told to wait until they dried and the henna flaked off before we washed our hands. Also one of the best things for preserving the colour was tiger balm.

We then went back to the hotel and had a drink before bed. Next stop Khajuraho, home to the Karma Sutra temple.

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