A trip to Orchha

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After all the pleading and convincing, our college authorities agreed to send us on a trip to a place called Orchha. None of us had ever had heard of the place and to be frank were not very impressed with the proposed place. But we all were so excited about the fact that we all would be finally going on a trip together for the first and the last time that we didn't even care about the place. I was so damn excited that couldn't even sleep the night before we had to leave and I am pretty sure I was not the only one.

Orchha is 451 Km from Delhi. There is no direct train or flight to Orchha. If flying to Orchha, get down at the Gwalior airport, and for train Jhansi is the nearest station to Orchha. From there you can hire a cab to reach the place. We left for Orchha on a Monday night in a bus. All of us were singing, dancing, screaming, jumping all over the bus throughout the journey.We reached there the next afternoon tired and exhausted, thanks to our driver who took the wrong, uncomfortable route!

About Orchha

Orchha is a very small town on the border of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh established along the banks of river Betwa by the Bundela Rajput, Rudra Pratap in 16th century  It is more of a village with a small population, few shops and a whole lane of hotels and resorts and small restaurants.

Betwa Retreat

We stayed at Betwa Retreat, a beautiful resort which is within walking distance from most of the monuments . The resort campus is sprawling and just across the Betwa river which provides a perfect view and natural ambiance. We stayed in swiss tents which were quite nice and comfortable. The resort has big enough gardens, a pool and an in-house restaurant as well and the service is good too.

Betwa Retreat

Day 1

In the evening we stepped out to visit the Ram Mandir which was 1 km from our resort though the distance didn't seem so long. On our way, there were many stalls offering trinkets which I just couldn't miss to go through. There are lot many such stalls in the market near the temple. We reached in time to attend the famous evening prayer at the temple. Guard of honour is paid to lord Ram at both the evening at morning aarti which is one peculiar thing about it. The place has an interesting mythological story attached to it which I will write about some other time. There are sweet shops around the temple from where you can buy the prasad or even take some for yourself too. There is a whole market setup around the temple.

Just across the temple is the Raja Mahal, where we went to see the light and sound show. The light and sound show is held in the courtyard of Raja Mahal from where you can have an easy view of both Raja Mahal and Jahangir Mahal as well. The light and sound show was very interesting and enlightened me with the amazing history that the fort and Orchha holds. It was a very beautiful experience though I would say it could be a little better if it had pictorial projects as well.

Raja Mahal

 The second day of our trip began with our very exciting  pool party at our resort. We had more than our fair share of fun at the pool.

In the afternoon, we had lunch at a local restaurant. There are plenty of options to choose from varying from rooftops to open seating restaurants. We picked Lonely Planet , a small restaurant just beside the Raja Mahal. The food was fine but the service was so very slow, we had to wait for half n hour or more for the food to reach our table. After getting done with our lunch we rushed out to start our tour of the fort.

The two forts- Raja Mahal and Jehangir Mahal are adjacent to each other. I, along with a friend of mine went to explore the Jehangir fort first. As I entered the Jehangir fort, I was awestruck with the greatness of the structure alone. The courtyard is wide with a fountain like structure in the middle. There are stairways and lobbies everywhere leading you from one place to the other. I entered  a bit dark and somewhat creepy lobby, and when I came out, I was standing at the back gate of the fort, from where I could have the perfect view of the fort boundaries and other surrounding monuments.

Entrance to Raja Mahal

The stairs in the fort were a bit difficult to climb up but the view from the upper storeys was surely worth the climb. The fort has several storeys. At each storey, you will find a lot many windows which give you the beautiful view of the city. The view from the Fort was so amazing that I run short of words to describe it. My mouth dropped open with the picturesque view, I just couldn't contain myself nor my eyes could gasp all the beauty in front of me at once. When I reached at the top of the fort I could see the Raja Mahal and the Chaturbhuj Temple in the front. The setting sun painted a silhouette picture of the view which took my breath away. Standing there, all my doubts that I previously had about Orchha vanished and I was so grateful that I got to visit such a beautiful place which holds such architectural gems in her lap.