The art of gate crashing

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Hi everyone, I'm a day late updating my blog as I have been on Orchha today. We travelled from Agra by train and mini bus. We left the hotel at 7.10am and went to the station where we said goodbye tour driver and his helper and boarded the 8am ish train.



I have to say that my first experience of Indian trains is ver favourable! We all had seats with plenty of leg room. The seats were arranged in a 3 and 2 combination with a much wider isle than UK trains and we had reclining seats. and finally we were served breakfast with tea/coffee, hot meal similar to aeroplane food, I had the omelette which included a few peas and some fries, two,pieces of bread and butter, a bottle of water and a drink made from milk flavoured with cardamom. All served at our seats hot and fresh! The loo, well the less said the better lol. However the train appeared to be delayed from time to time so we arrived at our destination station an hour late to a nice hot waiting mini bus. It was inky this way has the driver had been waiting for us to arrive and had not had the AC on. However its wasn't too long before we were at our final destination at Orchha.



It's baking hot here again so we avoided the mid afternoon sun and had lunch in the hotel dining room. They had salad!!!!!!!! I was so happy I had two platefuls!



After lunch I sat in the hot sweaty reception area as this is the only place to get wifi - of course all the rooms are air conditioned so why would you bother putting wifi in the rooms when there is a sweaty reception area you can use lol. So imagism struggled to,upload photos and back up iCloud but I'm getting there slowly. Hopefully some photos landed on the blog and on my Facebook page.



Some finally gave up and went back to see my roomy Latoya. I just chilled out door a while and then around 5pm we took a tour of the grounds and pool area and then visited the near by cenotaphs, there are 15 altogether in the complex. Various birds used them as nesting sites including pat parrots and vultures. Now I must point out at this point that they are nothing like the one we have in London that is used to commemorate armistice day.



These are actual buildings which have been built to com moderate the memory of members of the royal family. All very different but similar styles and some more ruinous than others, but all very impressive.



After the visit there we walked into the village to a run down ruin and went to watch the sun go down from the roof top. People are not really supposed to go up but when the opportunity arises to do something different why not take it.



We were shown up to the top by a boy who is deaf and dumb and I think lives on the streets. However he knows his way around the temple well, the best places to get photos and managed to communicate to us in a fashion bless shim. He seemed to enjoy his job and taking us around, although Im pretty sure it was all totally unofficial.



We had to climb around sixty steps made from stone, some of them a bit awkward to stand on. They were deep steps going round in places like a circular staircase so narrow in places, oh and it was dark in some parts so we had torches and had to mind our heads to make sure we didn't knock ourselves out! Oh and did I mention it was hot, hot, hot!



However the views were worth it! We could see a full 360 degree view of the valley including the village, the temple ewe were due to visit for prayers, the palace and surrounding walls and the cenotaph complex we had visited earlier on. We took the views in and go snap happy with our cameras as the sun set on or views.



Once we had descended the satires we had an hour or so to kill before visiting the temple for prayers. Some had a wander round the village, and guess what.............. Yes there was a wedding reception taking place so stopped and observed and our trust guide Dushaynt filled us in on what was going on and the customs being performed and why. We also had our pictures taken by some of the guests. I guess we were something of a novelty lol.



So finally we left and went for a quick coffee before heading to the temple for prayer at 8pm.

We had to remove our shoes before entering and Dushaynt talked us through the ceremony we burned some insence folowed the ritual and then made a wish then an offering to the god and paid our respects and then headed home.



When we returned to the hotel we intended to eat in the hotel restaurant but it was closed. At the moment it's off season so there was a large group of Lions (the same charity group as we have in the UK) they were all at a gathering and had come from all over India. They were having an out door event some went to check it out.

We were approached by one of the people there who introduced himself, asked us where we were from and wanted a photo taken with us. Then he asked us to join the party, so we did, well it would be rude not to. The entertainment was due topmost art at 9pm and was traditional dancing from around India.



Nibbles, snacks, soup and drink were offered around. We were then asked to join a table of gentlemen to chat and drink whiskey , eat the nibbles and watch the dancing. Everyone was so lovely and frindley and hospitsble both here and at all the weddings we have seen. The ladies costumes were beautiful and the dancing amazing, so much twirling without falling over! So I stayed for an hour or so and then headed back to my room for a shower, sleep and air conditioning lol.



So this morning we are off to our next destination and whatever that may hold

Xxx

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