May 19:  Orchha, overnight train to Varanasi


I woke up on my own at 8:50am, and later I got a wakeup call, which was kind of insulting, as I'm quite the accomplished alcoholic.  But I think everyone got a call.  Varun gave me a followup call to make sure I was OK.  And yet I was the first one to reception to check out at 10am.  I know my body.  We stowed our bags in Varun's room and headed on foot for Chaturbhuj Temple.

This goat seemed so excited to join us on our walk.

Aw.  He/she left our company shortly after this.

A moo-cow!

Chaturbhuj Temple.  It took a lot of Internet and Lonely Planet research to figure out what this place was called.

Somewhere around here, Janie said she smelled the alcohol on me from last night, despite a shower.  Good to know for future reference.

IF YOU ARE THE DESERT, I'LL BE THE SEA

I CAN'T TAKE MUCH MORE, GIRL, I'M LOSING CONTROL

IF YOU'RE GONNA DO IT DO IT RIGHT (RIGHT) DO IT WITH ME

Substituting lyrics from other George Michael songs above for those from Monkey.

Monkeys grappling in the traditional catch-as-catch-can style.

Temple stuff.

Temple stuff.

Painted ceiling.  I forget if this is original paint or a touch-up.

Janie, Kristal and Megan.

Turlet.  I never had to use one like this on the trip.

Ram Raja Temple in the distance.

Courtyard.

Cannon with face.  Or this might be the Iron Pussy that Lonely Planet recommends.

More temple stuff.

Surprisingly, this product appears to have crossover appeal into the non-pedophile community.

More temple stuff.

More temple stuff.

After leaving the temple, it ended up as just me and Megan for lunch at Open Sky Restaurant, where we sat downstairs.  I asked for chana masala but the waiter recommended tomato capsicum, which was good & spicy.  Megan said the waiter thought we were married.  Easy mistake.

On the way back to the hotel we saw this calf totally sucking teat!  HOT.  Makes me want to rub one out and then rewrite my old udder fuck bit.

A cow's ass.  I took this photo with Yung Chih in mind, since he once compared his appearance to that of a rhino's butt, but I didn't realize we'd be seeing actual rhinos later.

We got back to the hotel at 3pm.  Some people were at the pool but I didn't feel like changing, so I just rested in the lobby.  Remember, we'd checked out already.  I just chilled till 5:15pm as others gradually showed up.

Eight of us went out to a cooking class.

Classroom.  The teacher/chef is at center.  Her 20-year-old sister is at right.  She was cute.  Probably the hottest local girl we encountered.  I'd hit that.  If this was Nikki and the Pom Pom Girls, I'd be Sasha Gabor saying "now you're cooking".

In the same room we noticed spices.  This reminds me of when Vik called up Gate of India and asked them if they have a room in the back where they keep the real spices, and told them to dump all of them into my food.  That's the day my hair was sweating.  Speaking of dumps, I won't describe what happened the following day.

It was horribly hot in this room, but when dinner was served we went up to the roof, which was comfortably cool.  Still, I'd sweated a lot, which wasn't the best scenario since I'd be on an overnight train with no chance to shower for a while.  Dinner was OK, and most people liked the eggplant (aubergine), but I didn't especially.  I'm a carnivore and I'm in India.  Gotta have beef, gotta have spice.  Yeah, ironic given the tragedy the following day.

Went back to the hotel, got our bags out of Varun's room, and left at 9pm for the Jhansi train station.  Train left 10:20pm.  Chaos ensued when some people in our group had to reverse course mid-train with their backpacks during embarkment, which pissed a lot of people off, which pissed some of the group off.  [I had a Facebook chat with Varun after the tour and he said this can go either way.  I guess it just went bad this time for some reason.  Don't blame him.]

PM pill, earplugs and mask right away.  Good night!


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