Vivek Hotel Jhansi

... own palace and gardens built for you next to the Royal Palaces. Off the fort-island, fourteen cenotaphs buildings are scattered around the town. We walked high and low trying to score the perfect picture of these temples. On this mission, we got stopped several times by Indians who wanted to take their photos with us. Since I had been taking pictures of people while I was here, I thought it only fair that we were equally exploited for our "foreigness." Tony's beard ...

... a while. In the moring we move to Jhansi but with Magda and myself not feeling that well we decide to skip this city and almost immediately go to Gwalior. Gwalior suprised us with a real heavy noise and dirt and mess all around. The rickshaw driver takes us to Sahara Hospital instead of Safari Hotel :)) but finally finds a way to the place we asked him about. The hotel is just terrible - located by one of the main streets, no ...

... aroudn midnight. At 7 am I saw the conductor again. He looked like he had not slept a wink. I asked why he was so tierd. "I tried to sleep where you were but that family was so talkative. They were up until 2 am and then again at 5 am. Ahhhh!" Glad we moved. From there it was a 1 hour rickshaw ride to Orcha in the morning for a one day visit of the old ruins of palaces and temples. We arrived at the palace, and were greated by a group of young Indian's, one of whom said he was a ...

... warm here. I though that visiting the north of India would be a lot cooler than the south but by the afternoon the temperature was over 100 degrees. It is really draining when you are walking around. It's not helping the half of the group who are/have already been sick with stomach ailments. In the afternoon there was a parade and much congestion on the streets for the Ramilla festival. Lots of chanting and singing. We ended the day with a handful of us ...

... narrow hallways and stone stairways to climb and there seems to be a stunning view from every window. The place has an amazing atmosphere, but unfortunately we have to press on after only one night here and head off that afternoon on a woefully bad road to our next destination. The car we've hired has no horn, a bit of a liability in a country where they drive more by sound than sight!

... train to Agra. After arriving in Jhansi I made my way to the nearest Western Union affiliated bank. They said they did not have Western Union despite them being listed on the website. I shrugged this off as India makes little to no sense most of the time. I had written down several places just in case of a situation like this. I caught another rickshaw and found the next bank. I entered the bank's crumbling confines through the narrow partially open gates. I witnessed ...

... nearly two dozen. Despite all this, Orchha is hardly overrun with tourists. Almost all the visitors, restaurants, internet cafes, travel agents and guesthouses are centred around a couple of small streets. The rest of the town is quite peaceful and tout-free. From our hotel, the Shree Mahant, we have a grand view of the Jehangir Mahal Palace and the Chhaturbhuj Temple in downtown Orchha and the Lakshmi Narayan Temple on the hill behind us. For our first ...

... that were stacked almost to the ceiling. We stopped a few times along the way just to get the bus even more crowded but I enjoyed it in a kind of twisted way. At one point a guy was hanging off the back outside. I knew it would only last about half-an-hour not 9 hours like the Shimla to Dharamsala bus. At one point a nice clean new looking tourist but was following us in the distance and I just imagined air conditioning, one person per reclining seat and such like and smiled at ...

... a Lodge on top of it. Last night I spent the sweatiest night yet, it was as if I was sleeping in a salty swimming pool filled with perspiration. On such nights I have learned to put on a bandanna as a sweatband, and to sleep with a towel on my pillow, which becomes soaked anyway. One must keep hydrated here, the water pours out as soon as it pours in. At least there are no bugs in my room, not that I really mind that, I'm pretty used to the little ...

... a small, compact and relatively quiet place full of old, abandoned palaces from about 400 years ago. Pretty cool stuff, and you can just imagine the royal activities that must've gone on here back then. Huge vultures live on top of most of the turrets and domes--Marci, I took some photos for you! The next hop is a bus ride to Khajuraho, to the east and famous for its temples decorated with finely carved statues, many of them Karma Sutra-like. Hhmmm...