Wildlife, wild temples, wild bus rides make for tired Steve

Hmmmm. First off-- Happy Birthday to my brother Mark.
After Varanasi we our goal was to get to Bandhavgarn National Park. We took an overnight train ride to Katni where we thought we had about an hour bus ride. The public bus turned out to take over 5 hours with many stops and with many people and goods on board. Before we move ahead, I met a man and his wife on the train who were very friendly and he kept asking me if he comes to get America if I can get him a visa. I explained to him that I am powerless and he has to get his own visa. By the fourth time he asked me the same question I just said that if I was able to get someone a visa, it definately wouldn't be him (I figured it didn't matter what I said because he clearly wasn't listening to me). As the sun came up when we awoke on the train I saw him smiling and looking at me. He pointed to the sun and said how beautiful it was. He told me that the sun rises in the east, and I wish I was kidding, but I'm not; he asked me if it rises in the east in America too; poor chap.

After our painfully long bus ride we arrived to a little one street town of Tala where we got a room and then went in search of white people. For the national park there is a steep fee for foreigners in a jeep as opposed to Indian tourists, so if I were to to share a jeep with Indians I would pay about 6 times more than they taking on the majority of the cost. However, after a couple of hours of walking back and forth I was unable to find any sun burned faces. I was saddened and went back to the room with Manoj. We put on some music and started reading when there was a knock at our door...white people. They wanted to share a ride out of this place the next day which we also wanted to do. So with a little luck we had a shared ride to our next destination; at least something. They left, I sat down and five minutes later there was a knock on the door. More white people. They were in search of someone to share the safari with the following morning; perfect. This is how small this town is. They went a step further than I had and asked a couple people if they knew where a foreigner was. Apparently people watch me and where I go.



The next morning we were up early on our way to the national park in hopes of spotting a tiger. Soon after we entered the park our driver pointed out footprints in the sand. All I could think was that it was suspicious and I could imagine someone walking in the morning with a foot on a stick pushing footprints in the sand (I still half think this is what they do). This was the closest we came to a tiger. It was a scenic safari trip none the less and a good change of pace.



Soon after we were off on our shared ride to Satna, more or less a stopping point. We ate some good food, got a good night sleep and had some good chats with our fellow passengers.

The next morning we left for Khajaraho, famous for it's erotic temples built over 1,000 years ago. If not for these temples there wouldn't be one visitor here. They push sales like I haven't seen, but we got a place off the main road where it was a bit quieter. We found Hariom, a 12 year old boy who claims to be 15. (again, many have no knowledge of their age, it is as trivial as what they ate 2 weeks previous) He had learned english only from talking with tourists. He was happy and very clever. I hired some bikes, sat him on the back of mine and we were off to visit half of the group of temples for the first evening.

The following morning Manoj and I went to see the more famous of the temples; the western temples. Some beautiful carvings with many of them being Kama Sutra poses. They were as horny a bunch back in the day as ever.
On this one temple there are hundreds of elephants looking straight ahead like you see on the left. However, there is this one elephant looking to the side, his face obviously laughing while looking at the two next to it enjoying themselves.



Our next destination was Orcha/Jhansi. We were told that the bus ride would take at most 4.5 hours. This story is why http://www.onelovetours.net/ will work out well. I am traveling for 6 months so I have days that I can waste, sort of. For those people who come for 2-3 weeks and try to do public transportation, without a doubt they will lose at least 1 day a week dealing with it or having something happen in the middle of it.
After arguing about the high ticket cost for being a foreigner, we agreed on a price, his big selling point that it is a luxury deluxe bus. I have to say that since I was only medium crammed in, it was a luxury bus. After about a half hour drive we heard a loud noice which sounded very unnatural. For some reason this didn't bother anyone except me. Less than 10 minutes later we were on the side of the road with a flat tire.

They told us it would take half an hour to fix which meant at least half the day. After almost two hours they put us in another passing bus which definately wasn't deluxe luxury. We did get a seat on this bus that had about 45 seats but ended up carrying about 85 people. It turned into about an 8 hour ride since for some reason we would stop every hour and a half for 30 minutes.

I am complaining a little, but while it happens for some reason, it doesn't bother me that much. It isn't that a flat tire happened, it isn't that they say the wrong times, or people don't care about personal space. It can only be classified as "India happened". This is why I am starting the travel company for travel in India, to eliminate all of these things that would drive people crazy or waste half of a trip away. They sometimes make for good stories though.
We arrived in Orcha which is a bit like an island between two rivers. It is very small with the main attraction being old forts/palaces that were built about 600 years ago and untouched since. They really are incredible. Beautiful buildings that sit high above the city with views of the rivers, the palace walls and the city below. We hired a guide to tell us the history of it and spent a good part of today exploring this place. There is a small part of the for that was turned into a hotel. We went an checked out the rooms (8 all together) and they were really clean and in a unique setting. These are the kinds of places that I am shooting for to make as part of my tour. There are tons of basic hotels, but to be able to stay in the fort, part of history, is something special.


I have been helping Manoj with english and he has been helping me with Hindi. For some reason he thinks that my pronunciation is really funny, I think I'm his first student.
Instead of always saying "I go toilet" I explained to him that I say "I have to go pee" or "I have to take a shit"
Then when we were walking I told him not to step in the cow shit. He was thrown off that this is also called "shit"
He said "For us it's shit"
Me: "Yes"
"For cows it's shit"
Me: "Yes"
and for dogs?
Me: "shit"
Me: "when it comes out of that place from any animal, it is shit"
Manoj: (hysterically laughing)

At least we are covering the basics.