To Orchha.. and beyond!

10th August 2011

My lift to the train station arrived super early at at 4:30am! So I got a nice wake up call and had to quickly get ready to go - fortunately I had packed the night before! The train journey was ok, just fell asleep.

Had a 4 hour drive from Jhansi to Orchha and arrived at a really nasty Hostel in Orchha! I had a private room, with an awesome view of Jahangiri Mahal and Sheesh Mahal but inside there was water on the floor from the leaking aircon unit, the sheets weren't just stained its like someone died and rotted away on them and they had not been washed since, the bathroom was filthy and the toilet seat was taped up. When I complained about the water on the floor a man just arrived and mopped it up with a towel and then left - if it wasn't for the 1 inch gap under the door (through which all the lovely insects which occupied my room were crawling in) then I imagined I would have to swim out in the morning. None the less, you get what you pay for. So I sprayed insect repellent all over the floor by the door and made a run for the village!

Orchha is a very small place, very little traffic and people around so feels very laid back in comparison to Delhi, Agra and Jaipur!

Went straight to a restaurant as I was starving hungry and found the cheapest food so far! Curry, rice, roti and a sprite.. 101 rupees! and the restaurant was clean and the food was great! I met a couple of Italian guys in there and decided to hang out with them for the day.




Went and saw Jahangiri Mahal and Sheesh Mahal, these are pretty huge given the size of Orchha. Wandered through the markets and saw Ram Raja temple and found the worst toilet in India (I wondered why people were just going to the toilet near it rather than inside, until I got close and saw the state of it and almost vomitted at the smell).

We planned to go to the other side of Orchha but it started to rain really heavilly so I didnt go, the path that lead over the river to the other side was flooded and the river was rising so I took shelter and chatted to a couple of locals for a while until it was possible to dash back to my room.

Last day in New Delhi

9th August 2011

My last day in New Delhi.  Still feeling a bit rubbish but I went out and spent some time looking around Humayan's tomb and the Lotus temple.  Then I went to the famous Delhi Haat market, so hard to just have a look around though, everyone wants you to buy something and does the hard sell so well but I'm proud to say I made it out without making a single purchase and still alive!  Went past India gate on the way back too, its huge!

Had to crash out early since my train to Jhansi was at 06:15 the next day.

Itinerary for the next few weeks

8th August 2011

Basically just planned and booked stuff for the rest of my time in India, was feeling rough with a cold so it was nice to just chill for a day.  Heres my itinerary;

• 1 more day in Delhi
• Orchha (via Jhansi)
• Khajuraho
• Varanasi
• Chennai
• Mamallapurum
• Puducherry
• Madurai
• Cochin
• Backwaters (Staying on a house boat!)
• Varkala
• Goa
• Mumbai
• Fly to Indonesia!

Need mo' internet!

Have to go to catch a train now so cant update any more until I get more internet!

Roughly..  Went from Delhi to Orchha via Jhansi, stayed there 1 night and then drove to Khajuraho where the Karma Sutra temples are.  Stayed in Khajuraho 1 night and now catching a train to Varanasi - will stay there for 3 days.  Its almost 22:00 now, train leaves at 23:20 and gets there at 10am!  Longest train journey so far!

meep meep!

Dhanyavad Anuj!

Had a great week, saw some amazing stuff, met some great people.. I told Anuj
I'd pimp the Intrepid massive - I couldn't recommend it more!  A lot of the stuff we did I probably wouldn't have done, for example visiting Karauli and certainly the temple in Karauli at peak prayer time - as I'm not religious and would have felt out of place without the encouragement of Anuj.  The tour was well organised, it was a small group, we stayed in some amazing places, it was a very good price and our guide Anuj was ace - he gelled with group and socialised with us and I learned a lot from him, he even helped me out with planning what to do with my remaining 4/5 weeks in India so THANKS ALOT!

Intrepid tours website;  http://www.intrepidtravel.com

1 week down, 51 to go!

August 7th 2011.

San left really early this morning headed for Nepal.  Had breakfast with the rest of the guys and quizzed Anuj on cool places to visit for the rest of my time in India.

Said cheers to Brian and Simon before they left for Dubai!  And then spent the day with Michael and Tegan whose train to Varanasi was not until late, and was delayed.

We went and had a look around Laxmi Narayan Birla Mandir.  As with many of these places you cannot take a camera inside, but I forgot to put the battery in mine today so never mind!

We caught a tuk tuk back to the hotel and just chilled until they left.  Looking forward to catching up with them in Melbourne - aside from the fact I really get on with them, Michael promised me a fine rib eye steak, so I'm there!

I just relaxed in the evening and got room service at the hotel, really tired after a long week!  Got the lurgy too, oh well.  :(

Intrepid Golden Triangle Tour - Day 6

August 6th 2011.

Had some free time in the morning before catching a train back to Delhi so went with Brian and Simon to have a look at Hawa Mahal (Palace of the winds) and then look around the markets.  I bought a padlock for 'very good price', lol.

Went to a shopping mall near the hotel where the other guys bought some clothes.  Very westernised mall, pretty huge inside.  Had lunch in a kind of fast food place, I chose the special thali..  and it was pretty special!  Its the first time Ive struggled to finish something since Ive been here - cost? 178 rupees (£2.41).  Excellent food too considering it was effectively a fast food place - coming to realise that India doesn't have such a thing as bad food!

I saw a guy today who was just slumped at the edge of a very busy road (actually in the road), all skin and bone in a very uncomfortable looking position, properly weak.  Cars and bikes just avoiding him.  You see a lot of poverty around but this is the lower extreme.  Not nice.


Went to the train station with 45 mins to spare.  Michael, Tegan and I went to find a beer just outside the train station, stumbled across a small place selling spirits and beer.  One 650ml Kingfisher cost 70 rupees (94p) here!  We couldn't drink on the street so we were invited into their stockroom where there was an old table and we sat on the boxes around and drank our beer!  Had to take a piss in the street just outside the shop, sorry but its blatantly where everyone else was doing it.. eep.

Had a 5 hour train journey, couldn't sleep so I chatted with San most of the way and embarrassed myself with lots of pictures of me wearing silly hats and suchlike.  :)  When we were playing cards the other night it turned out that San is a master at shuffling cards, and I am lame.. so I took the opportunity to learn from her and spent a while troubleshooting my technique.. lol getting there!

On the train they served us a snack and tea, then some soup, followed by curry with rice and bread!  All including in the train fare..  great food too!

Got to Delhi at nearly midnight, so we all just sat on the roof of the hotel and chatted.  The tour is over now, so we took each others contact details and had a few drinks before we all crashed out.

Got me some awesome people to contact in Australia now, so really looking forward to that.  Thanks dudes.  :)


This is the GPS data from 5th and 6th August, for some reason it didnt like the train this time.. never mind.


View Larger Map