Jhansi-Orcha-Kajuraho-Gwalior

It was again a marriage occasion of one more of our close friend in Jhansi. For a long time we were planning to visit Gwalior and the marriage presented a good opportunity. On further enquiry we found that Khajuraho and Orcha were two more near by places which we could include in our trip.

Day 1:

Though there are many trains from Delhi to Jhansi, we decided to take the Mangla Lakshadeep Exp which brought us to Jhansi by 3:30 pm. Due to the tourist and marriage season in February we had difficulty in finding a suitable hotel. After much searching we booked at hotel Tulsi which is near the station for next 3 days. The tourist season in Jhansi and Gwalior is throughout the year (baring the peak summer months), hence it is advisable to book hotels beforehand.

We spend the rest of the day at the marriage venue and came back to our hotel well after midnight.

Day 2:

We had planned to cover the local spots as we were in no shape to brace a long journey. Keeping that in mind we left for Orcha at around 9 am after a sumptuous breakfast of aloo parathas. Orcha is about 20 km from the main city therefore we hired an auto for the journey. It took us around 45 min to reach there.

Orcha mainly consists of a cluster of prehistoric temples and cenotaphs. The auto dropped us in the main market from where we had to visit the spots walking.

First we went to the temple complex of which only one is still in use. There was lot of security and photography was not allowed. The unused temples, though still standing, are in a state of neglect and are at the mercy of local monkeys. How we wished that these structures could also be preserved like the main temple. All the temples are constructed using huge boulders. One cannot find much carving but the conical structures of the temples are unique.

We next headed towards the Rajmahal which is separated from the main market and temple complex by a small river. The palace is well made but again we find that the restoration is very poor. With the whole generation of monkeys living in this place, it is no doubt that the cleanliness of this place becomes such a difficult task. With monkeys there can be only one warning, be careful with your belongings being snatched away!

The fort lies just beyond the palace complex. You might tend to get lost in the maze of small and narrow by-lanes so don’t be shy to ask for directions from the local people. Entry ticket for the fort priced at Rs 10 per person but there is no ticket for any other electronic gadgets. The fort area is quite big but again the pictures and colours on the walls were mostly missing. There are only visible at a couple of walls. The fort overall is in good shape. We also managed to search out a couple of dark dungeons. What’s a fort where you can’t find a couple of dark alleys or abandoned dungeons! It enhances the mystery of that place.

A small part of the fort has been converted into a restaurant and a heritage hotel. Since it was a quite hot day and we were tired after all the dungeon discovery, we decided to take a break at the restaurant. We relaxed there for some time and rejuvenated ourselves with a couple of cold drinks. The person at the reception told us to visit Chatris. The Chatris are located down the river bank and with some direction from the locals we reached the Chatris. Though the Chatris were not very far from the main market, we were completely exhausted by the time we reached there.

The Chatri complex is completely inside an enclosed area. Tourists are not allowed inside the complex which is well maintained. We were disappointed that there was no entrance to that place. So we had to satisfy ourselves by just looking around and peering from the wall gates. We could manage to capture some pictures though. We spotted an auto there and requested him to drop us to the market place from where we can get our auto. It was not far away but we didn’t want to exhaust ourselves any further. We returned to Jhansi by 1:30 pm. The trip to Orcha and back cost us Rs300 but that can be bargained to Rs 250. We decided to relax in the hotel for the afternoon.

Jhansi has just two places worth visiting, the fort and the Laxmibai palace. At around 3:30 we set out for out city sightseeing. We again decided to hire an auto for our city tour and reached the fort in 20 min. The auto charged us Rs30. The fort itself was not too large and we were able to complete our visit in 45mins. The main point of attraction was a board on which it was mentioned “Laxmibai jumped from here on her horse with her son tied to her back.” Peering down the steep slope, it was difficult to imagine anyone jumping off from there on horseback. We were yet again reminded what a courageous lady Laximibai was! Since we had lot of time on our hands, hence we decided to explore the fort further and went to some remote places where other visitors rarely ever come. There was a small Ganesh temple and also some doors which lead to the city below. The doors are now closed.

From fort we again hired an auto reached Laxmibai palace which is near by. The auto didn’t even have to start the engine as it was moving down the slope. We reached the destination in 5 min and felt cheated when we had to pay Rs 20. Photography was not allowed inside the palace. It was not much of a palace as it was a haveli. Entry ticket was Rs10 per person. The ground floor had a collection of some archeological items and the first floor had items which Laxmibai had used in her time. The rooms were very beautiful and well maintained. It took 30 min to complete the palace visit. We were back at the hotel by 6:30 pm. We were quite tired by then and hence decided to take the evening off.

At around 8 we went to visit the near by markets for dinner and some shopping. Jhansi is not the best place for shopping as we could not find any shops selling memorabilia. We had planned to visit Khajuraho the next day so we enquired about ways to reach there. We were very disappointed as no one was able to give any precise answer. People seemed to be confused about the starting point of the busses leaving for Khajuraho. Some told buses leave in morning at 6 from the railway station some told it starts from the main bus stand. After lot of discussion we decided to go to bus stand next morning. We couldn’t find any good restaurants in the market so we had our food at our hotel.

Day 3:

We had to wake up very early as we had planned to catch the 6am bus to Khajuraho. It is around 180km from Jhansi. When we reached the bus stand we saw the bus for Khajuraho ready to leave. So we quickly went in. To our bad luck, it turned out to be a private bus and the sitting space was quite congested. It also took 4 ½ hour to reach Khajuraho. It was a torturous journey. Luckily we meet a couple on the bus who were also suffering like us. We mutually decided that we won’t return by bus and will hire a taxi/cab on shared basis.

We reached Khajuraho and hired an auto from the bus stand for the whole day. The standard rate is Rs 350 but the price can be negotiated to Rs300. All auto drivers have a rough map of tourist area where all the temples are located. There are about 6-7 temple sites to visit; keep on tracing the places on the map it so that no place is left out.

We started our tour with the Jain temples. It consists of a main temple where the statue of Mahavir is worshiped. The rest of the complex consisted of a couple of well maintained temple structures. The work done on the stone wall of these temples was truly amazing. We would come across similar body of work on all the temples we would visit in Khajuraho.

Our next destination was a single quaint temple on the banks of a small stream. Since these are small structures, many tourists give them a miss, but these small temples are a miniature versions of the larger once of the Western complex. Each one of them has got a unique tale to tell. We got to explore these temples leisurely and they also made some very enchanting pictures. We also paid a visit to a small house where they had a small collection of items that was found in the temple excavations. We had no idea how authentic these items were but we did like a set of royal guards and we bought them for a sum of Rs400.

We visited all the remaining small temples by 2:30pm. We still had to visit the largest group of temples called the Western group. This complex is situated in the central market place. We had our lunch at a small restaurant where we had freshly cooked food. There are many such small eateries where the house owners share their home made food with tourists for a minimal price. The food is simple and people are courteous.

After lunch we headed towards the main western temple complex. It is a huge complex with many temples. It is in these temples where you come across the famous sculptures associated with Khajuraho. The small temples previously visited did not contain these sculptures. With an exception of only one temple – the Devo Mahalaya, all the other temples do not contain any idols. All the temples were devoted to Lord Shiva. The temples are exquisitely carved and contain many erotic sculptures. If you look carefully, you can find an amazing number of sculptures depicting intercourse with animals.

The daily puja is performed at the Devo Mahalaya. The Shivlinga inside the temple is huge. There was an ongoing yearly Khajuraho festival and a light and sound show was scheduled in the evening. We had to give it a miss since we had to return to Jhansi in the evening. For people who want to stay a day there are lots of lodging options in the central market.

Sightseeing over, it was now time to return. Since we had decided to not return by bus, we had to arrange for a taxi. It was a nightmarish time for us to arrange for a taxi. There are two things to keep in mind, a taxi that has come from Jhansi and is to return empty to Jhansi will cost around Rs 1000 to Rs 1200. If you hire a taxi from Khajuraho, it will also ask for the return fair, so it will cost almost Rs 2500. We had decided in the morning that we would share a taxi with another couple, so we were in total 4 people. After a lot of struggle we managed to arrange an Indica but we had company in the form of the taxi owner apart from the driver. So we were in total 6 people. At first we rejected it, but in the end when all options were exhausted and we saw no other way out we agreed to it. The journey back to Jhansi was not as bad we were expecting with 6 people in one small car. We reached Jhansi in 3 and half hour. We were dead tired by then and after dinner had a good sound sleep.

NOTE: It is advisable to book a taxi for the round trip from Jhansi to Khajuraho and back. It costs around Rs2300 – Rs2500 so sharing the taxi with other tourists can bring the cost per head down. All kinds of options from Indica to Innova/Sumo are available from the railway station. You can also take the help of your hotel since they mostly have some options available.

Day 4:

Our next destination was Gwalior. There are a lot of options to reach Gwalior. Since it is just 1hr 45min from Jhansi, we did not bother to enquire about the train timings. We thought we will just reach the station by 8am and book ticket on the next available train to Gwalior. We could not have been more wrong! We reached the station by 8am and got the tickets to Gwalior for the next train but to our horror we found that the train was to come at 9:30 am. We waited at the station thinking whether we should have gone by bus instead. At around 9am an announcement was made that the train was running 1 hour late. So we decided to cancel the train ticket and go to bus stand as it was getting late. On our way to the bus stand we saw a bus to Gwalior that had just left. When we reached the bus stand we got another bus which was to leave after 1 hr and to add to the pain it was told that it takes more than 2½ hr to reach by road. We felt trapped. We were now cursing ourselves for not bothering to find out the train timings to Gwalior. We finally reached Gwalior by 2:30 pm. We kept our luggage in clock room and quickly had our lunch. We had our return tickets to Delhi which departs at 5 pm from Gwalior station. We just had around 2 hr on our hand to visit all the spots in Gwalior.

The two main places to visit in Gwalior are the Gwalior fort and the Madav Rao Sindhia palace. We hired an auto to the fort first. The fort is spread over an area of about 10km. To cover it on foot will take around 3 to 4hrs. We reached the fort entrance from where the auto couldn’t go forward as it was a very steep road till the main fort structure. People generally take a walk to the fort from there admiring the huge figures of Buddha carved out in the mountains on the way. The fort is almost a km away from there. For people who do not want to walk all the way, there is guide service available along with vehicles like omni/indica etc. which cover the entire fort area. As we were running short of time so we took the omni service. He charged us Rs300 including guide charge and entry tickets. We reached the fort in 10 min. The fort looked splendid from the outside. It was undoubtedly one of the best palaces we had seen in a very long time. It had three underground levels and we went to each. The guide kept on explaining all the things. He also showed us a bhul bhulaiya. Then from there we went to a near by place, a shiv mandir (temple) but there us no trace of temple there. The guide explained us about the place. Next we headed towards the sas bhau temple, a temple having structure similar to south India temple architecture. Since it is at a good height hence the entire Gwalior city is visible from here. The site was great. We were running short of time, so we moved quickly. On the way we also saw the famous Sindhia School and also saw a pond. It was time for us to proceed to the next site. We covered the whole fort area in 1hr which will generally take 3 to 4hrs easily.

We quickly reached the Sindhia palace. We had about half hour to spend in the palace. About one half section of the palace remains closed to the public. The royal family still resides in a part of the palace just outside the main gate. The main palace complex is divided into 3-4 big halls containing various royal memorabilia. The first hall contains the portraits of the entire generation of Sindhia’s which ruled in Gwalior. The second and largest hall houses one of the largest royal courts in India. There are about 4 huge chandeliers suspended from the ceiling. It is said that before hanging the chandeliers the strength of the roof was tested by making 100 elephants stand on the roof. Now you can imagine the shear size and weight of those beauties! Another attraction was the silver train that is kept on the dining table. Once in a day the train is started for the visiting public to see though we were not able to find out the exact time.

We were able to finish our Gwalior trip in the desired time, but we missed the pleasure of leasurly looking at all the places. We reached the station on time and boarded our train to Delhi.