Orchha is a quaint city of 10,000 people surrounded by hills and centuries-old ruins. Before setting out to explore the palaces and temples, I took a jog. I also ran around the streets of Jaipur, and it's a fun experience for a couple of reasons. First of all, I usually tune the world out while running, assuming my mind will subconsciously guide me away from danger. Well, subconscious guiding is not enough on an Indian road. There are no sidewalks, and – as discussed – the streets are chaos. Every time I found myself even thinking about thinking about something other than running, I found myself about ½ a second from being run over. That added a fun little layer to running. The second fun layer is that I'm guessing the people of India have never seen a jogger before. As a result, each run was essentially 30-40min of people pointing, laughing, whistling, and yelling. The whole experience was vaguely menacing (is there such thing as a hate crime against runners?), so I ended up posting some pretty impressive mile times.
The palaces and temples of Orchha have not been kept up well, but I thought it was more than made up for by the fact that you can climb around and explore anywhere you want. After touring and climbing, we drank beer and watched the sunset from the riverbank while looking back towards the ruins. The experience was only slightly marred by the fact that I was drinking a Vasco (de Gamma? Who knows, I've never heard of it) beer, which turned out to be about a year past expiration. Oh well. I guess we were too thirsty to notice.
I should probably attempt to tell you all the legends and facts surrounding the area and the amazing buildings, but after about 3 sentences on reincarnation and Vishnu, I tuned out and shortly left the group to see what I could find. While I didn't discover the fountain of youth or even the key to happiness, I can confidently say I do not regret missing out on the history and religion lesson. If anyone really wants to know, I suggest you Google/Wikipedia: Jehangir Mahal, Raja Mahal, and Lakshami Temple. For those of you hoping I'll toss out a nugget of truth, 'mahal' means palace. Now go out and impress your friends and coworkers.
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