I didn't sleep great last night. I kept waking up and not knowing where I was.
I slept in a little bit and got up shortly after 6. I had breakfast with MJ.
They had pancakes, savory pancakes, eggs, fried peanut rice, watermellon, soups, fried bread, and a dense french toast type bread. I also had a handful of coco puff cereal without milk.
We had to pack up our stuff and leave it in the lobby because we were checking out. I paid 890 rupees for Sam and my lunch from yesterday, which included my Diet Coke and MJ's water. So it was about $15.
I knew we weren't leaving the hotel until much later and was told it was a day to relax. I misunderstood because we got in a van at 9:45 to go to another temple that I don't remember the name of.
Abhi handed us over to a different tour guide who was very nice. In some cities, it's illegal to have your own tour guide. You have to use a local. That's fine by me, I believe the price is figured into the initial cost of this trip.
There are different breeds of monkeys here. They have really long tails and black faces. One tried to steal some dude's water bottle and a stray dog chased the monkey off. Truly mans best friend.
We looked at a yellow lavender tree.
It was so humid out. I thought Florida was bad but this is easily the worst humidity I've ever experienced. My body was soaked. Apparently in May it gets to be 120 degrees out. I guess I should be glad it's only 105 but I am sweaty and upsetty.
The entrance has these big spikes along the walls. They're there to stop elephants from headbutting their way in during battle. All the steps were really high and narrow to slow down invading troops during invasion.
The temple was cool. I liked the architecture. It's very impressive and I've never experienced anything like this in person.
We were allowed to wander around and go exploring. There's tons of artwork on the ceiling-
There was a part of the ten incarnations of lord Vishnu. They are a fish, a turtle, a boar, a half man half lion, a dwarf, another god I think, Rama, Krishna, Buddha, and then like the end of the world. This is very interesting to me. It sorta reflects evolution (which wasn't a concept at the time) and has Buddha as one of his avatars. I'm not sure how Buddhists feel about that.
Some people must have gotten too close to a hive because a bunch of bees or wasps started attacking them. I could see it from far away, it was a little funny. Then they got close to us and we started getting attacked. I don't think anyone was stung but the little bastards would land on your person and follow you around buzzing in your ear.
There was a group of young men watching and following us. I prefer the wasps to them. I was by myself and one asked for a picture with me and I told him no. I found MJ shortly after next to an area where you could get a nice view of Orchha.
MJ offered to take my picture but as soon as I stood back another fuckboy stood next to me and pulled out his phone so I left. I need those stray dogs to chase them off like they do the monkeys. Anyways I was apologizing to MJ for leaving abruptly and another guy tried to take our picture and she went into Mom Mode and told them off (lol I love her). I went over to my group and waited with them. Abhi and our other tour guide said those boys were pervs and they left us alone after that.
We got in a jeep around 11:30 to leave. We were going to school!
School is out for summer break so we were told there wouldn't be any children there. But they do free lunches every day, even during break so we did see a dozen or so children. The school was out of town, maybe a ten or fifteen minute drive away.
We got there and all the children stood back and watched us. They were cute! We took off our shoes and went into a classroom and sat on the floor, kids on one side and adults on the other. We introduced ourselves and told everyone what subject we taught (minus Sam and I who just said we graduated). Then the kids introduced themseves, said how old they were, what grade they were in. They were from six years old to twelve with a mixture of boys and girls. There were several Hindu teachers there too, and a few ladies who served the children lunch.
They passed around books so we could see what the children studied.
Then we asked the kids questions. They didn't speak English so Abhi translated for us. The kids were very shy. Someone asked what their favorite subject was and one girl answered Hindu. She said it was because she loves India and the country has given so much to her, she wants to be able to give back and study her language hard. She was like 10, that was way poetic and cute of her.
Two girls jumped up to sing us a song!
I took a few pictures of their classrooms.
It's very basic, no chairs or tables. They had a chalkboard. There is a ceiling fan in every classroom, the fans were donated.
They have some basic educational posters on the walls too.
We took a group photo too!
We got back to our jeeps at 12:30. I sat in front again. Everyone in back was talking about the school and being a teacher. Our driver let me steer the jeep and that was fun! India drives on the opposite side of the road.
We went back into town to take Rajni's cooking class. She is a local woman who runs a cooking class in her home.
We sat down in a half circle in a small room. A young lady served us cold water which I gulped down. Rajni had a stove on the floor and gave us each a pencil and paper to write down the recipes she would be making. I decided not to take notes because I wouldn't get to watch if I was too busy writing stuff down (and I couldn't totally take a picture of someone else's notes when it was all done).
The first thing we made was chai! It requires a lot of ingredients it seems.
Then, no joke, homegirl made like six more dishes. It was very entertaining to watch and I loved that she did it in her home. A little boy came in at one point and whined about something, the only word I knew was "mama" and she handed him a piece of bread and a plate and he took it and ran off. Apparently kids complain to their mom how hungry they are in every country. The young lady assisting Rajni was her niece. It was a very cool experience. I liked this far more than the cooking class I took in Sweden.
I helped roll spinach bread at one point.
Then we had a serving of everything that was made.
I'm not a fan of Indian food. I've made that pretty clear these past days. This was one of the better meals I had eaten. The eggplant was very good, I loved the spinach bread I rolled, the okra was tasty, and the dessert was good. The lady's son even brought us out a tray of fresh cut mango! I had two slices.
We were served a type of rice pudding at the end.
Once we were finished eating, Rajni and her niece did henna for some of the girls. I had thought about getting henna done on my arm but with my left wrist full of bracelets and my right wrist now having the red Hindu string, I didn't want it. They take like half an hour to dry and if you smear it you're outta luck. But the girls that got it done looked beautiful. I was a little envious.
We left at 3. Our jeeps dropped us off a few blocks form the hotel so we could do some shopping.
A couple girls and I went to a clothing stall and I got Maria some puffy pants like my red ones! Hers are blue and cost me almost $6. I hope she likes them!
Then I went to a candy stall and got a bag of chips, a package of cookies, and 4 Kinder Joys (which are egg shaped and have a toy inside, but not a KInder Egg). I can't remember the price but I know it was less than Maria's pants. Her pants were 300 rupees and my snacks were less than 200.
We walked back to the hotel. Although we had checked out that morning, we weren't leaving until later that night.
The group hung out. We chatted, killed time, charged our electronics. We had dinner in the hotel. I ordered chinese, hakka noodles. They were delicious (my phone was charging in another room so I didn't get a picture).
At 8:30 we all met up in the lobby with our luggage. We had an overnight train to catch!
We took a van to the train station. It was a fun ride! It was dark, the roads were narrow and had lots of turns, and our driver often drove into oncoming traffic. Why is that fun for me? I don't know why it's so exciting.
We got to the station at 9:30. Lots of children were begging for money. At one point a girl was standing with her hands out, her mom and siblings off to the side, and a guy yelled at her to get and she bolted. MJ, Sam, Theresa (who is in our group) and I would be in the same car while everyone else was in another car. We boarded sometime after 10:30 and it was a little chaotic. That another damn white group was there and they cut in front of us and held up the line being stupid.
We found where we were suppose to be. There's a walkway, to your left is 2 beds, bunk bed style. To your right are six beds, 3 on top of each other. That was where the four of us were sleeping. The top two beds had their occupants in already. We got our luggage situated before sitting around for half an hour or an hour. It was 11:30 and I was very tired. We set up the middle bed (which folded down). That's where I was sleeping. It was very uncomfortable, like sleeping on your living room floor without a sleeping bag. The train provided us linens which looked clean and pressed. I put on a sweater and wrapped my scarf around my bunk area as a sort of privacy because the guy across from me in the 2 bunk beds had his eyes on me like a Hawk.
I fell in and out of sleep all night. The only thing working for me was my hair. It's so long and thick, I basically have a built in pillow. I got very cold in the middle of the night and broke down and used the sheets the train gave us.
I slept in a little bit and got up shortly after 6. I had breakfast with MJ.
They had pancakes, savory pancakes, eggs, fried peanut rice, watermellon, soups, fried bread, and a dense french toast type bread. I also had a handful of coco puff cereal without milk.
We had to pack up our stuff and leave it in the lobby because we were checking out. I paid 890 rupees for Sam and my lunch from yesterday, which included my Diet Coke and MJ's water. So it was about $15.
I knew we weren't leaving the hotel until much later and was told it was a day to relax. I misunderstood because we got in a van at 9:45 to go to another temple that I don't remember the name of.
Abhi handed us over to a different tour guide who was very nice. In some cities, it's illegal to have your own tour guide. You have to use a local. That's fine by me, I believe the price is figured into the initial cost of this trip.
There are different breeds of monkeys here. They have really long tails and black faces. One tried to steal some dude's water bottle and a stray dog chased the monkey off. Truly mans best friend.
We looked at a yellow lavender tree.
It was so humid out. I thought Florida was bad but this is easily the worst humidity I've ever experienced. My body was soaked. Apparently in May it gets to be 120 degrees out. I guess I should be glad it's only 105 but I am sweaty and upsetty.
The entrance has these big spikes along the walls. They're there to stop elephants from headbutting their way in during battle. All the steps were really high and narrow to slow down invading troops during invasion.
The temple was cool. I liked the architecture. It's very impressive and I've never experienced anything like this in person.
We were allowed to wander around and go exploring. There's tons of artwork on the ceiling-
There was a part of the ten incarnations of lord Vishnu. They are a fish, a turtle, a boar, a half man half lion, a dwarf, another god I think, Rama, Krishna, Buddha, and then like the end of the world. This is very interesting to me. It sorta reflects evolution (which wasn't a concept at the time) and has Buddha as one of his avatars. I'm not sure how Buddhists feel about that.
Dashavatara of Lord Vishnu
Some people must have gotten too close to a hive because a bunch of bees or wasps started attacking them. I could see it from far away, it was a little funny. Then they got close to us and we started getting attacked. I don't think anyone was stung but the little bastards would land on your person and follow you around buzzing in your ear.
There was a group of young men watching and following us. I prefer the wasps to them. I was by myself and one asked for a picture with me and I told him no. I found MJ shortly after next to an area where you could get a nice view of Orchha.
MJ offered to take my picture but as soon as I stood back another fuckboy stood next to me and pulled out his phone so I left. I need those stray dogs to chase them off like they do the monkeys. Anyways I was apologizing to MJ for leaving abruptly and another guy tried to take our picture and she went into Mom Mode and told them off (lol I love her). I went over to my group and waited with them. Abhi and our other tour guide said those boys were pervs and they left us alone after that.
We got in a jeep around 11:30 to leave. We were going to school!
School is out for summer break so we were told there wouldn't be any children there. But they do free lunches every day, even during break so we did see a dozen or so children. The school was out of town, maybe a ten or fifteen minute drive away.
We got there and all the children stood back and watched us. They were cute! We took off our shoes and went into a classroom and sat on the floor, kids on one side and adults on the other. We introduced ourselves and told everyone what subject we taught (minus Sam and I who just said we graduated). Then the kids introduced themseves, said how old they were, what grade they were in. They were from six years old to twelve with a mixture of boys and girls. There were several Hindu teachers there too, and a few ladies who served the children lunch.
They passed around books so we could see what the children studied.
Ah, brings back not so fond memories!
Then we asked the kids questions. They didn't speak English so Abhi translated for us. The kids were very shy. Someone asked what their favorite subject was and one girl answered Hindu. She said it was because she loves India and the country has given so much to her, she wants to be able to give back and study her language hard. She was like 10, that was way poetic and cute of her.
Two girls jumped up to sing us a song!
I took a few pictures of their classrooms.
It's very basic, no chairs or tables. They had a chalkboard. There is a ceiling fan in every classroom, the fans were donated.
They have some basic educational posters on the walls too.
No idea what this says
We took a group photo too!
We got back to our jeeps at 12:30. I sat in front again. Everyone in back was talking about the school and being a teacher. Our driver let me steer the jeep and that was fun! India drives on the opposite side of the road.
We went back into town to take Rajni's cooking class. She is a local woman who runs a cooking class in her home.
We sat down in a half circle in a small room. A young lady served us cold water which I gulped down. Rajni had a stove on the floor and gave us each a pencil and paper to write down the recipes she would be making. I decided not to take notes because I wouldn't get to watch if I was too busy writing stuff down (and I couldn't totally take a picture of someone else's notes when it was all done).
The first thing we made was chai! It requires a lot of ingredients it seems.
Chai means tea
Then, no joke, homegirl made like six more dishes. It was very entertaining to watch and I loved that she did it in her home. A little boy came in at one point and whined about something, the only word I knew was "mama" and she handed him a piece of bread and a plate and he took it and ran off. Apparently kids complain to their mom how hungry they are in every country. The young lady assisting Rajni was her niece. It was a very cool experience. I liked this far more than the cooking class I took in Sweden.
I helped roll spinach bread at one point.
Then we had a serving of everything that was made.
Lunchtime!
I'm not a fan of Indian food. I've made that pretty clear these past days. This was one of the better meals I had eaten. The eggplant was very good, I loved the spinach bread I rolled, the okra was tasty, and the dessert was good. The lady's son even brought us out a tray of fresh cut mango! I had two slices.
We were served a type of rice pudding at the end.
Once we were finished eating, Rajni and her niece did henna for some of the girls. I had thought about getting henna done on my arm but with my left wrist full of bracelets and my right wrist now having the red Hindu string, I didn't want it. They take like half an hour to dry and if you smear it you're outta luck. But the girls that got it done looked beautiful. I was a little envious.
We left at 3. Our jeeps dropped us off a few blocks form the hotel so we could do some shopping.
A couple girls and I went to a clothing stall and I got Maria some puffy pants like my red ones! Hers are blue and cost me almost $6. I hope she likes them!
Then I went to a candy stall and got a bag of chips, a package of cookies, and 4 Kinder Joys (which are egg shaped and have a toy inside, but not a KInder Egg). I can't remember the price but I know it was less than Maria's pants. Her pants were 300 rupees and my snacks were less than 200.
We walked back to the hotel. Although we had checked out that morning, we weren't leaving until later that night.
The group hung out. We chatted, killed time, charged our electronics. We had dinner in the hotel. I ordered chinese, hakka noodles. They were delicious (my phone was charging in another room so I didn't get a picture).
At 8:30 we all met up in the lobby with our luggage. We had an overnight train to catch!
We took a van to the train station. It was a fun ride! It was dark, the roads were narrow and had lots of turns, and our driver often drove into oncoming traffic. Why is that fun for me? I don't know why it's so exciting.
We got to the station at 9:30. Lots of children were begging for money. At one point a girl was standing with her hands out, her mom and siblings off to the side, and a guy yelled at her to get and she bolted. MJ, Sam, Theresa (who is in our group) and I would be in the same car while everyone else was in another car. We boarded sometime after 10:30 and it was a little chaotic. That another damn white group was there and they cut in front of us and held up the line being stupid.
We found where we were suppose to be. There's a walkway, to your left is 2 beds, bunk bed style. To your right are six beds, 3 on top of each other. That was where the four of us were sleeping. The top two beds had their occupants in already. We got our luggage situated before sitting around for half an hour or an hour. It was 11:30 and I was very tired. We set up the middle bed (which folded down). That's where I was sleeping. It was very uncomfortable, like sleeping on your living room floor without a sleeping bag. The train provided us linens which looked clean and pressed. I put on a sweater and wrapped my scarf around my bunk area as a sort of privacy because the guy across from me in the 2 bunk beds had his eyes on me like a Hawk.
2 sleepers on the left, middle bunk on the right is propped up
I fell in and out of sleep all night. The only thing working for me was my hair. It's so long and thick, I basically have a built in pillow. I got very cold in the middle of the night and broke down and used the sheets the train gave us.
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