The alarm clock was set for 6 and I was wide awake at 5. Early to bed, early to rise! I'm such a loser.
We had to be on the bus at 7 and the hotel packed us a breakfast to take on the train. We would be saying goodbye to our drivers today. They get tipped 1-2 dollars a day which seems like nothing to me. We had to give them $15 a piece and I gave $20 (which looking back feels cheap of me). Then we paid for the waters we've been drinking on the bus. Abhi has been keeping a tab of how much we've drank. I owed 70 rupees and came in last place. Everyone else owed over 100 and the person who drank the most owed over 200. It wasn't a competition but it's more fun when things are. Anyways I've been drinking the free bottles our hotels give us.
It was a half hour drive to the train station. We had to stand around and wait another half hour before boarding.
The train wasn't the worst thing I've ever experienced but it wasn't good.
I sat in an aisle seat and it smelled like piss. I was worried someone peed themselves in my seat but I think it was just the aisle floor.
I picked at our breakfast the hotel packed. It was 2 mini bananas, a cucumber and tomato sandwich on white bread, and these weird sponge breads that didn't taste good.
I sat next to Vanessa who everyone loves and she asked me lots of questions. When it was time to leave she had heard my life story.
We got off the train at 10:50 to take a van ride to the hotel.
The drive was fine. I saw a big poster sort of like a billboard advertising someone's wedding.
We got to the hotel at 11:30! We are staying at the Orchha Resort. A man was playing an instrument out front as we entered and they served us pepsi while Abhi checked us in. At every hotel (minus the first one in New Dheli) we have to turn in our passports to front desk. They return them when we check out.
This is another nice hotel. The have a pool and spa and restaurant.
Right after we checked in, another group of white people did. A gentleman took our bags to our room for us and I settled down and got to typing which is my favorite thing to do during a vacation.
We had butter cookies in our room too.
At 1 we met up in the lobby for lunch but I got lost and found a pingpong table instead.
I found the restaurant and we all sat together. It's buffet style. They had the Indian food of course but also green beans, pasta with red sauce, eggplant, fried potatoes, beets, this chicken pot pie style sauce. This is a vegetarian restaurant so there's no meat.
I sat down and had a big bite of green beans first. It surprised me that they were raw. They had a weird flavor, kinda spicy. Then my mouth was on fucking fire. They weren't green beans, they were chillies. I panicked and swallowed it all just to get it out of my mouth. The rest of my meal was downhill from there. The food was probably good but it felt like I had burnt my tongue and roof of my mouth. I regret swallowing so much. My butthole will not thank me tomorrow.
During lunch it began to rain. Then it poured and poured. The power went out a few times.
We had dessert as well.
It was flan, a cake thing, those warm sugar syrup balls, and a 'nana. I liked the cake.
We were suppose to have wifi in the lobby but it wasn't working. I'm getting stressed out about not updating the blog. Everything is typed up on my kindle and saved. It's just putting that online and emailing myself the photos from my phone that is taking up too much time with spotty wifi. I think I am 3 days behind, not counting today.
I got frustrated with the wifi and took a walk around the resort. Near the pool there is a big river.
Someone said it was lowtide.
It was a nice walk. There is a lot of greenery to look at and weird paths to take.
I found a cage full of white bunnies!
I found some geese too before going back to the room. Mj and Sam had gotten massages.
Everyone in the group hung out either in their rooms or the lobby. It was downtime until 5:30 when we met up again in the lobby to go exploring.
There are tons of cows wandering about.
Then Abhi walked us over to the bridge. I'm not good with numbers or measurements but I think we were about 10 feet over the rocks and water. There were no railing and you had to share the road with cars and other people walking.
Then we walked over to a Hindu temple. Abhi gave us a history lesson about Hindi gods but was I paying attention? NO. We had at least two dozen people surrounding us and listening to Abhi or watching us. It was harmless, no one asked for pictures, but god damn is that distracting. Several of them followed us around the temple.
We went inside and it was nice. It's not a blazing hot day like every other day. It's just the most humid weather I have ever been in in my life. I could feel sweat rolling down my thighs. Disgusting right?
By now it's like 6:30. There was an area there where you can get blessed. You get the red dot on your forehead if you're a woman and a red line if you're a man. Abhi said we could get blessed if we'd like so I did
We had to take off our shoes to get the blessing. The guy put a red dot on my forehead and tied a red string around my right wrist.
I left a 10 rupee note as a donation to the temple.
After that we had free time! No one knew what to do. I tried to withdraw money from an ATM but the machine wouldn't even register my card as a card. So I just stood outside the ATM building with some cows.
At 7:30 we met up at a tiny little restaurant. I ordered a extra large bottle of water for 35 rupees which is like 50 cents. We hung out and drank our drinks. At 8 we went to another Hindu temple. Abhi was saying they worship twice a day (although it's not strict. If you don't have time to do it twice a day, no biggie). We had to take off our shoes before going in and that sucked a big one because there were ants and crickets everywhere. We also had to leave leather bags and belts outside and taking pictures was prohibited.
We went inside and I didn't know what was going on because paying attention isn't my forte. So I observed people worshipping. I stood next to a shrine for a monkey god and people would leave chunks of this fatty food looking thing for it.
People stood in line to get blessed with holy water. Bells were ringing. People were chanting and singing. It was fun to watch. We left around 8:30 and I was excited to go back to the hotel.
Instead we went back to that tiny little restaurant for dinner. I was hungry but not. The place had friendly staff and everything was cheap and everyone else ordered food but I wasn't feeling it. So I sat with everyone while we chatted and they drank their drinks.
There was a cricket game going on. It's India versus Pakistan and boy do the Indians hate Pakistan. I don't understand cricket but I know the game was a big deal. The group that checked into our hotel right after us sat down at a table and their food arrived before ours.
I was falling asleep. After forty minutes our groups food still hadn't arrived. The other white group had finished eating and gotten up to leave. I think the people around me could tell I wasn't into this. I was annoyed and exhausted. Someone had the brilliant idea for me to follow the other group back to the hotel, since we're all staying there. I told Abhi I was taking off then I left. As soon as I stepped outside I couldn't find the other group so I quickly walked down the street to catch up. This was exactly what my dad told me not to do, walking around at night by myself. I swear to god I could feel his disapproval.
I found the group around the corner but they were way up the road. When I finally got caught up to them they ignored me and kept their distance. It was weird. I ended up asking a guy if they were going back to the hotel and he said they were but didn't want to talk to me much after that. Dicks.
I'm glad I found the group because I 100% would have gotten lost. It was dark and none of the roads looked familiar. I couldn't tell a boulder from a cow (I say that because I saw a big rock and thought it was a cow).
But I made it back to the hotel fine,
I showered, tried to get the dot off my forehead, then finished typing for today. MJ and Sam returned around 10 and I went to sleep a 10:45.
We had to be on the bus at 7 and the hotel packed us a breakfast to take on the train. We would be saying goodbye to our drivers today. They get tipped 1-2 dollars a day which seems like nothing to me. We had to give them $15 a piece and I gave $20 (which looking back feels cheap of me). Then we paid for the waters we've been drinking on the bus. Abhi has been keeping a tab of how much we've drank. I owed 70 rupees and came in last place. Everyone else owed over 100 and the person who drank the most owed over 200. It wasn't a competition but it's more fun when things are. Anyways I've been drinking the free bottles our hotels give us.
It was a half hour drive to the train station. We had to stand around and wait another half hour before boarding.
White girl waits for train
The train wasn't the worst thing I've ever experienced but it wasn't good.
I sat in an aisle seat and it smelled like piss. I was worried someone peed themselves in my seat but I think it was just the aisle floor.
I picked at our breakfast the hotel packed. It was 2 mini bananas, a cucumber and tomato sandwich on white bread, and these weird sponge breads that didn't taste good.
I sat next to Vanessa who everyone loves and she asked me lots of questions. When it was time to leave she had heard my life story.
We got off the train at 10:50 to take a van ride to the hotel.
Daydreaming about spaghetti
Hello
The drive was fine. I saw a big poster sort of like a billboard advertising someone's wedding.
We got to the hotel at 11:30! We are staying at the Orchha Resort. A man was playing an instrument out front as we entered and they served us pepsi while Abhi checked us in. At every hotel (minus the first one in New Dheli) we have to turn in our passports to front desk. They return them when we check out.
This is another nice hotel. The have a pool and spa and restaurant.
"Wear costumes"
Right after we checked in, another group of white people did. A gentleman took our bags to our room for us and I settled down and got to typing which is my favorite thing to do during a vacation.
Kill me now please
We had butter cookies in our room too.
At 1 we met up in the lobby for lunch but I got lost and found a pingpong table instead.
I found the restaurant and we all sat together. It's buffet style. They had the Indian food of course but also green beans, pasta with red sauce, eggplant, fried potatoes, beets, this chicken pot pie style sauce. This is a vegetarian restaurant so there's no meat.
I sat down and had a big bite of green beans first. It surprised me that they were raw. They had a weird flavor, kinda spicy. Then my mouth was on fucking fire. They weren't green beans, they were chillies. I panicked and swallowed it all just to get it out of my mouth. The rest of my meal was downhill from there. The food was probably good but it felt like I had burnt my tongue and roof of my mouth. I regret swallowing so much. My butthole will not thank me tomorrow.
During lunch it began to rain. Then it poured and poured. The power went out a few times.
We had dessert as well.
It was flan, a cake thing, those warm sugar syrup balls, and a 'nana. I liked the cake.
We were suppose to have wifi in the lobby but it wasn't working. I'm getting stressed out about not updating the blog. Everything is typed up on my kindle and saved. It's just putting that online and emailing myself the photos from my phone that is taking up too much time with spotty wifi. I think I am 3 days behind, not counting today.
I got frustrated with the wifi and took a walk around the resort. Near the pool there is a big river.
Someone said it was lowtide.
It was a nice walk. There is a lot of greenery to look at and weird paths to take.
Too much rainwater to take this path
I found a cage full of white bunnies!
Their eyes are kinda creepy tho.
I found some geese too before going back to the room. Mj and Sam had gotten massages.
Everyone in the group hung out either in their rooms or the lobby. It was downtime until 5:30 when we met up again in the lobby to go exploring.
There are tons of cows wandering about.
FACT: cows kill more people a year than sharks
Then Abhi walked us over to the bridge. I'm not good with numbers or measurements but I think we were about 10 feet over the rocks and water. There were no railing and you had to share the road with cars and other people walking.
Then we walked over to a Hindu temple. Abhi gave us a history lesson about Hindi gods but was I paying attention? NO. We had at least two dozen people surrounding us and listening to Abhi or watching us. It was harmless, no one asked for pictures, but god damn is that distracting. Several of them followed us around the temple.
We went inside and it was nice. It's not a blazing hot day like every other day. It's just the most humid weather I have ever been in in my life. I could feel sweat rolling down my thighs. Disgusting right?
This but 1000x more wet
By now it's like 6:30. There was an area there where you can get blessed. You get the red dot on your forehead if you're a woman and a red line if you're a man. Abhi said we could get blessed if we'd like so I did
MJ getting blessed
We had to take off our shoes to get the blessing. The guy put a red dot on my forehead and tied a red string around my right wrist.
Now both my hands have strings!
I left a 10 rupee note as a donation to the temple.
After that we had free time! No one knew what to do. I tried to withdraw money from an ATM but the machine wouldn't even register my card as a card. So I just stood outside the ATM building with some cows.
At 7:30 we met up at a tiny little restaurant. I ordered a extra large bottle of water for 35 rupees which is like 50 cents. We hung out and drank our drinks. At 8 we went to another Hindu temple. Abhi was saying they worship twice a day (although it's not strict. If you don't have time to do it twice a day, no biggie). We had to take off our shoes before going in and that sucked a big one because there were ants and crickets everywhere. We also had to leave leather bags and belts outside and taking pictures was prohibited.
We went inside and I didn't know what was going on because paying attention isn't my forte. So I observed people worshipping. I stood next to a shrine for a monkey god and people would leave chunks of this fatty food looking thing for it.
People stood in line to get blessed with holy water. Bells were ringing. People were chanting and singing. It was fun to watch. We left around 8:30 and I was excited to go back to the hotel.
Instead we went back to that tiny little restaurant for dinner. I was hungry but not. The place had friendly staff and everything was cheap and everyone else ordered food but I wasn't feeling it. So I sat with everyone while we chatted and they drank their drinks.
There was a cricket game going on. It's India versus Pakistan and boy do the Indians hate Pakistan. I don't understand cricket but I know the game was a big deal. The group that checked into our hotel right after us sat down at a table and their food arrived before ours.
I was falling asleep. After forty minutes our groups food still hadn't arrived. The other white group had finished eating and gotten up to leave. I think the people around me could tell I wasn't into this. I was annoyed and exhausted. Someone had the brilliant idea for me to follow the other group back to the hotel, since we're all staying there. I told Abhi I was taking off then I left. As soon as I stepped outside I couldn't find the other group so I quickly walked down the street to catch up. This was exactly what my dad told me not to do, walking around at night by myself. I swear to god I could feel his disapproval.
I found the group around the corner but they were way up the road. When I finally got caught up to them they ignored me and kept their distance. It was weird. I ended up asking a guy if they were going back to the hotel and he said they were but didn't want to talk to me much after that. Dicks.
I'm glad I found the group because I 100% would have gotten lost. It was dark and none of the roads looked familiar. I couldn't tell a boulder from a cow (I say that because I saw a big rock and thought it was a cow).
But I made it back to the hotel fine,
Dead but blessed
I showered, tried to get the dot off my forehead, then finished typing for today. MJ and Sam returned around 10 and I went to sleep a 10:45.
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