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Stephan in Orchha
Finally relaxing in a peaceful town, Stephan was again smiling happily Our guidebook describes the small town of
Orchha in such positive terms that we absolutely had to go there. The train brought us to the city of Jhansi, an important city where many trains pass through, from there we had to hire a taxi because we did not find any shared rickshaws. We arrived in the afternoon and after some searching for a convenient hotel, we decided for one with a splendid view of the fort. We had hoped for a place similar to Hampi, where we could chill out in a peaceful surrounding and Orchha was exactly hat! Already the hotel was nice, the rooms arranged around an inner courtyard, where it was nice to sit and read, write or watch the fort. We quickly took a walk around and immediately liked what we saw. Orchha was relatively clean, with broad sidewalks, people were very friendly and not as pushy as in the rest of India, in addition to that the town was studded with temples and displayed a beautiful fort. In the early evening we were discussing whether to use the internet or not, when we met Nelson Arboleda, a Colombian living in the south of the US and
Royal Chhattris
The rulers of Orchha had these pavilions with an umbrella shaped dome built as their tombs working for the WHO. We liked each other from the spot and for us it was a nice opportunity to practice our Spanish again. After a long and interesting conversation we went to different places to use the internet and made an appointment to have dinner together. Unfortunately the internet connections were very slow and so we were lagging behind in our webblog entries. Nelson was in the region of Madhya Pradesh to eradicate polio (!), isn't it a shame that a country which can send a rocket to the moon is not able to handle this? Anyway, Nelson's driver took us to the fort in an AC jeep, a completely new experience for us. Nelson had not been in India for a long time yet and did not really know Indian food, so we opted for a nice tandoori chicken, which was indeed delicious and we hope that he liked it as well. The restaurant in the fort serves excellent food at reasonable prices, another reason for us to like Orchha.
Next day, we went to see the
fort as early as possible, we were at the ticket counter at opening hour, i.e. 9 a.m. The place was
Fort complex
This view shows the Jahangir Mahal and the Raj Mahal as well as the wall and the old bridge on the right side absolutely deserted, the doors were opened for us and we were allowed to get closer than it should be. From our hotel we saw the fort's layout, it is set on an island on a bend in the Betwa River and is raised on a rock promontory above the surrounding countryside, you approach it by a remarkable early 17th century granite bridge. The first palace we went to was the
Raj Mahal, with two rectangular courtyards around which the floors rise in tiers, from the very top you get good views of other palaces and temples, in spite of the steep staircase it was well worth climbing up. Some of the royal chambers off the second courtyard have beautiful
murals on the ceilings and walls, representing both religious and secular themes. Afterwards we roamed around on the grounds, passed another small palace which was locked because it was slowly falling to pieces, had a look at the gardens close by, which had hardly any plants left in the octagonal flowerbeds, but the ingenious watering system by means of channels is still visible. We had a rest in the shade by the Royal Gate (despite the early hour the heat
Fortification wall
This wall with its rounded bastions has been delicately restored was already burning) and from there admired another palace on the outer wall of which a couple of vultures had their nest. We also had a quick look at the hamaam where we enjoyed the coolness of the underground chambers and were on our way to the second big palace when we saw a group of wild bees flying our way. We decided not to come across them and took refuge in the former camel stables, which are currently used as a cow shelter.
The
Jahangir Mahal palace from the 17th century was the last building we visited but not the least. We entered from the east, the original main entrance flanked by two elephants. This palace has a large square interior courtyard around which are the apartments in three storeys. Once again we climbed on top by narrow and dark stairways to admire the corner bastions and projections in the middle of each side which are all topped by a dome and containing apartments with intervening terraces. Hanging balconies with balustrades and wide eaves create strong lines set off by attractive arches and brackets, decorative cobalt and turquoise blue tiles,
chhattris and
jali screens give this palace an
Klaudia as a guard
On the dome you can see some rests of the brilliant cobalt tiles airy and delicate feeling.
We spent the early afternoon simply hanging around in cool places, having a light lunch and many cool drinks, watching what was going on around us. The tickets we bought at the fort were also valid for other places but only on the day of purchase, so we left around 3:30 p.m. to a temple 1 km from town. Despite the heat we quite enjoyed the walk, people did not stare at us, they just greeted us in a friendly manner without begging, we were really feeling good passing nice little white-washed houses, all of them rather neat and clean. When we came to the
Lakshminarayan (=Lakshmi) Temple, Stephan had lost one ticket, but they let us in without any problems. This early 17th century temple incorporates elements of fort architecture, with its diagonal plan enclosing the central square temple structure - a most unusual feature - it reminded us of an Austrian monastery. The ticket attendant led us around the four galleries decorated with wonderful
murals, explaining many things we did not know or would not have realised on our own. The paintings portray Hindu deities, scenes from famous Sanskrit epics, historic events including
Raj Mahal courtyard
Around this courtyard the floors rise in tiers the early British period and also give an insight into the domestic pleasures of royalty. It was possible to go to the first floor, which we logically did, we had nice views from there, but most fascinating were the vultures perched on the spine. First we spotted two and a chick, in the end we discovered 5 or 6, one was even spreading its large wings in an attempt to fly away. Finally we understood why the top of the highest tower of another temple in town was covered all over in white, like the icing on a cake. The vultures, of which there must be a huge number around, always perch on the highest spot and of course leave their droppings falling down. We never went inside this huge temple but passed it several times as well as another one in pink and cream paint, which actually forms a focus of village life. The courtyard and the small lane leading to it have stalls selling souvenirs and the part closer to the main street is studded with guesthouses and places to eat. That afternoon we went for a drink in one of these places, where we met Joseph, an
Mural in one of the royal chamber
These were actually the most impressive murals in the Raj Mahal palace Englishman who had just been to the places where we were heading, like Khajuraho and Varanasi. We started a nice conversation and exchanged tips for places to stay or to eat, then we got hungry and as he was not against spending some money on good food, we took him to the restaurant in the fort. Once again, we had excellent meals there and as we had come two evenings in a row, we even had the honour to be introduced to the cook. We spent another delightful evening in nice company, we almost got the feeling that during low season the backpackers formed a community more easily, almost like a family.
Stephan got up very early these days (as he usually does when we are on vacation), he walked down to the riverside and took beautiful pictures of the
Royal Chhattris on the opposite side of the river, with nice reflections. A chhattri is an " umbrella shaped dome or pavilion" and these served as tombs to the rulers of Orchha. Half of them were more or less well preserved, the rest is already in ruins, they are completely deserted and get slowly encroached by nature. We did
Mural about the Ramayana
The Ramayana is the epic of Rama, himself a powerful incarnation of Vishnu not go in to have a look, there was not much to be seen anyway, but Stephan had climbed on top of one (for nice pictures and the view of course). When we passed there, with the river and its rocky bank in the background, we were feeling transported back to a long bygone era. We liked the riverbank quite much, it was fascinating to watch people wash themselves there, the only drawback is the fact that the Indians defecate wherever they please, so in addition to cow and dog shit (forgive our rude language), there are human leftovers as well and you really have to pay attention where to put your foot.
On May 3rd we went for an excursion to Datia and Sonagiri (you will read about this in the next entry), we were back in Orchha in the late evening and went to eat, there we met Joseph again and the two Danish girls we already knew from Gwalior. How small the world sometimes is! We sat with them for some time, next day we all went to different places, the girls to Khajuraho, Joseph to Gwalior and us to Sanchi and its Buddhist stupas. We
Jahangir Mahal
Outside view of the 70 sqm big palace really enjoyed Orccha, a nice relaxed place with interesting sites, we had also made friends with nice people, the town lived up to our expectations.
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Chris Rudkin
non-member comment
Thanks for the info
I will be travelling to Orchha in December and have been trawling the internet looking for people's experiences of the place. Your travelogue has been very informative and made me even more determined to go and enjoy!