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Glamping by the river
Orchha, India |
Orchha, India
Greetings from Orchha, a small town in Madhya Pradesh state, near Jhansi. If you haven’t heard of Orchha before, well, you’re not alone; neither had I. This is a tiny village on the river, peaceful and serene and worlds away from the chaos of big cities like Delhi, Jaipur or Agra.
Southbound on an Indian train
I woke up still sick, feeling even worse than yesterday in fact. Feverish and dizzy, I forced myself to get up and pack my bags. After the world’s slowest breakfast at the hotel restaurant, we strapped on our packs and made our way to the train station, headed south.
It was my first experience on an Indian train, and I’d heard all sorts of stories about what to expect. But as it was, it actually wasn’t half bad at all. Even fairly nice. We had AC3 car tickets, which meant air conditioned reclining seats. Chai wallas came up and down the aisles selling chai. The train car was half empty, so we had lots of room to spread out and for our luggage. There were even power outlets to charge phones. All in all, we spent a fairly comfortable four hours.
Tuk-tuk and paper making
To get to Orchha from Jhansi, we didn’t have a nice comfortable private coach anymore. Nope, we’re on local transport at this stage, and that means — you guessed it — tuk-tuks! Open motor taxis. With all our luggage. For forty-five minutes. With a cold. With dust flying in our faces. Yeesh.
On the way, we stopped off at a paper making factory. This is a local project that takes old cloth and recycles it into handmade paper, which is then cut and sold commercially for things like greeting cards, certificates or lanterns. Recycling of any kind seems thin on the ground in India; there are obviously some efforts underway to cut back on the shocking amount of trash strewn about everywhere, but the infrastructure just doesn’t exist for any widespread commercial recycling. That’s why small projects like this one are so important. We spent a few moments walking through the facility, seeing the men (and women — 50% of employees there are women, which is another unusual thing for this area) working on making the paper, and browsed for a few moments at the gift shop. Of course, without much cash, none of us were really buying. But that’s okay; it was interesting.
Sunset on the Betwa
Orchha is a sleepy little town on the banks of the Betwa river. It’s fairly touristy, with quite a few hotels, resorts and retreats in the area. We’re staying in “luxury tents” at a nice hotel, which basically means we’re staying in hotel rooms that just so happen to be tented instead of walled. They have all the amenities, and while a bit buggy in the evening, they’re actually pretty comfortable.
After checking in, we had a late lunch on the hotel restaurant, and then headed into town to get the lay of the land. Shops hawking the usual junk jewelry, clothing and spices line the main road. There’s a coffee shop or two, a few restaurants, and a couple of temples. But really, this is a one-horse (though many cow and buffalo) town.
We walked across a narrow bridge to see the sunset over the Chhatris, which are funeral cremation towers used in India. The sight is truly beautiful. To get the best view, though, we had to cross a narrow bridge which was wide enough for either a single lane of vehicle traffic, two lanes of tuk-tuks, OR pedestrians. Of course, this being India, it was used for all of the above. All at the same time. This led to a few narrow misses with trucks, buses and, at one point, an ambulance. Only in India.
After a few minutes milling about the town and checking out some of the shops, it was starting to get dark, so we headed back to the hotel. I’m still feeling pretty awful, so I expect this will be an early night. More tomorrow from Orchha.