Orchha

Yesterday afternoon I finished up all the temples in Khajuraho and came back to return my bike. I had tea with the people running the place and ended up going to dinner with one of them. Pretty soon I had agreed to tea with him at his shop, and there his boss tried to sell me stuff (of course).

After that I went to meet Raj, who was supposed to be in front of the hotel. I wasn't able to find him, but I started talking to an off duty taxi owner. That's how I met Ashok. We got to talking and he invited me to come try the local wine, called Mouya, made from the fruit of a locally grown flower. I accepted, so he drove us outside of town and we parked to walk across a field to his friend's house. There we filled up a water bottle from the guy's plastic jug of homemade wine to take on our way. I insisted Ashok try the wine first (I'm not crazy, you can screw that stuff up). He did, then I tried it. It tastes kind of like flowery rum. I wouldn't have guessed it was wine if he hadn't told me.

Then we went to the market, bought some coke to mix it with and went to a restaurant to have our wine and some papad (the cracker-like things they serve before a meal sometimes). We talked about the "real" India and life for him in his four room house (not four bedrooms, four total rooms), living with his brother, sister-in-law, children and nieces and nephews. Despite being in charge of six taxis, he is not a rich man by any means.

From there he invited me for dinner. I accepted even though I had eaten already. We went to his house by scooter after he parked his taxi at the garage. There I met his wife and all the children of the house. Ashok and I ate as they all watched, Ashok sitting on the floor and eating, me next to him in a chair (of course I looked immensely uncomfortable on the floor so they offered me a chair). We had potato curry with chapati (bread), cucumbers, tomato, and some sort of flavorless root all on the side. It was tasty and the company was good.

After dinner he took me back to the hotel, then this morning he picked me up and took me to the bus station. He did all of this just to be a good host in his home city, and he never once asked for money or even implied that he needed it. It was a refreshing change of pace and a fantastic evening I won't soon forget.

Today I took a much nicer bus back toward Jhansi. I got off a little early to go to Orchha, a short ways away and an old city in the jungle. I met some Europeans and rode into town with them, but I soon had an appreciation for traveling alone. They went very slowly everywhere and wanted to shop and talk to every passerby. I had all day so it was fine, but travelling alone does have its advantages.

Regardless of that, this place is pretty cool, a sort of half ruined city in the sweltering heat of the jungle. As usual there is a palace and temples, although I opted not to go in this time as the main attraction is really just the outside anyway.

Now I'll be heading back to Jhansi to catch my overnight train to Varanasi, a huge city and my last stop in Northern India.