Yeah. My visit to Madhya Pradesh might be so long I feel the need to split it into different parts, just to make it a more manageable read.
Part 1: Getting There
Since our train was scheduled to leave at 6:10, I was up at 4:45 am (late by everyone's standards); however, still punctual, since its India and the train was (undoubtedly) late. That's kind of the beauty of India, even though you are late it doesn't matter because everyone else is later. After assembling at the school, we headed to the train station.
Trains. This was my first experience riding a train, ever. I was expecting something along the lines of "The Polar Express" and "Harry Potter", with the old British style trains. I was grossly disappointed with it all. The trains were not at all how I expected, instead they were modern, slightly dirty (but still rather clean), and did not have singing waiters bring me hot chocolate whilst dancing.
I'm still not exactly sure what was in exactly what state, but we arrived in Jhansi (Uttar Pradesh?) and toured the beautiful fort over there, that was surprisingly well cared for despite not being a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Part 2: Being There
Then we drove about an hour away to Orchha (Madhya Pradesh?) and settled in at our camp. Our camp was absolutely beautiful. Staying in large tents with comfortable cots overlooking the Yamuna and Betwa River (we were technically on an island!) mingle, the campsite felt like something out of a postcard. The campsite even had running water, that was hot and cold!
Shortly after freshening up, we visited a tribal vilage and had so much fun. Unlike Delhi, the children weren't begging for money, and instead played games with us and seemed content just to have friends. They even showed off one of their baby goats! Then, we visited a local potter, which was especially fun for me, since I consider myself quite the amateur potter. I even managed to make something on his non electrical wheel!
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| Just casually walking around with a goat |
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| The kids were just too cute! |
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| Soon to be chapatti pots |
On our second day, we rafted and I had too much fun going down the rapids. We even stopped everyone forty minutes or so to get off on an island and just wander around the Rajput architecture, which is basically the perfect combination of Islamic and Hindu styles. It's absolutely gorgeous.
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| Who wouldn't want to live there? |
After our rafting adventure, on the next day we tried to do a 3 1/2 hour bike ride. I considered myself an average biker, until the mountain biking experience. The bikes had no gears, which made the hilly terrain slightly annoying. I still managed to have a lot of fun and the locations we ended up visiting were fabulous. Due to most of my groups not to fabulous bike skills, they swapped our fourth day of full biking and decided on a nature walk instead.
I shouldn't have though that nature walk would have implied it was easy and fun. It started out as a pretty casual walk along the Yamuna and turned into a four hour uphill hike in non hiking clothes (Yeah, long black sweat pants were not the answer). The cave we were supposed to visit wasn't open because it was a holy Hindu site and you aren't allowed to enter, and had to take off your shoes about 30 feet away from it. It was just odd and the weather was hot, so I don't remember a lot of the hike. It was so bad a Jeep had to come and pick us up.
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| Nature walk along the Yamuna |
When I was walking I was pretty much waiting for the hike to be over. Now that I look back, I realize how much fun and what an experience it was, especially since most of it was along the rocky banks of the Yumuna. I hate to get all woe is me, but how many American teenagers get the chance to trek along the rocky banks of the Yamuna. Despite the difficulty in getting there, it was definitely a well worth trip.
After freshening up, we had the opportunity to go into the town of Orchha and just browse around. I got full blown henna from my fingers to my elbow for 150 rps and ate a dhosa for 30 rps, despite the tour guides telling me not not to. It was great just hanging around town. The only slightly annoying thing was how expensive the everything was since there weren't that many foreigners, so we were ripped off on everything.
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| My henna! |
On the very last day we went rafting for the second time and then visited an NGO that made paper. Both were pretty interesting and the paper was incredibly pretty.
Part 3: Eating There
One thing I have failed to mention about the trip was the food. every day we had Indian food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It sounds like it could get old really quickly, but not really. There's enough variety and enough consistency to let one figure out what's good and what's not and keep on eating what you like. I even got to try my hand at certain foods and made a pretty amazing aloo gobi and chapattis.
Overall, it was a fabulous trip. I am extremely glad I went on it, even if my returning trains was delayed and things didn't always go as planned, I still had a pretty amazing time. So if anyone feels like having an adventure in the heart of India, go to Orchha and book a couple days there. It's absolutely amazing.
