Orchha
Have you ever dreamed to travel in time? If the answer is yes, Orchha is a small historic town which can help you with that! If there is a place like that in India, this is it! Town was founded by Bundela Rajput chief – Rudra Pratap in 16th century in Niwari district of Madhya Pradesh state, India. Nowadays, it contains some of the most fascinating and untouched temples, monuments and palaces which retain their original grandeur even to this day.
Most of the sights are located close to one another and it easy to reach them by foot. We enjoyed wandering around the city and exploring all the spotted unique sights like Ram Raja temple where Lord Ram is worshiped both as a God and as a King, Laxmi Naryan temple which exhibits a unique architectural style of a fort and a temple mixed together, the Jahangir Mahal which was built in honor of Mughal Emperor Jahangir and as a cherry on top was the famed Chhatris of Orchha – cenotaphs that were constructed in honor of city’s previous rulers with an amazing garden. The city definitely has its own charm and while here you must spend in a roof top restaurant, enjoying the city’s panorama, local food and the fight over it with monkeys.
Helpful tips
Restaurants. After traveling through India, we gathered experience and tips from locals which we want to share with everyone who will be reading this. If you come to India for a short period of time it is good to know that here certain bacteria are in almost every food, water and even air which can put you to bed for couple days if you have too much of it. To adapt to it, your body needs time and small amounts of the bacteria.
First, it is better to avoid eating too much of street food as it contains quite a lot of bacteria even though it is so cheap. We do not say that you should not eat street food at all, just keep it small quantities at a time. If you cannot wait to try and eat all sorts of street food just try it little by little and not everything on one go.
Second, when choosing a place where to eat, pay attention to other travelers’ reviews of the place. It is very important how the people from abroad felt about the food rather than locals.
Third, if there are any doubts regarding the hygiene of the place, we encourage to eat vegetables and avoid meat dishes.
We are well aware that everyone is different, and you feel your body the best. So, do what you want to do and keep in mind that these recommendations worked for us, we did not get sick while in India even for a day.
Markets. Prices in grocery shops are the same as through whole India, prices are printed on the packages, thus, you never need to wonder whether someone is taking advantage of you.
We would advise against drinking tap water in whole India, especially if you come just for a short time (couple weeks) as your body needs time to adjust to certain bacteria which is everywhere and taking too much of it at the same time can put you bed for couple days. Even though in some sources you could find that water is safe to drink, or that filtered water is alright we suggest to double check with your host or locals before you do that. We did not risk it too much, especially in the beginning of the trip, however, we did drink quite a lot of filtered water which was kind of alright just had a bad taste in most places.
Transportation. To get to Orchha you can use train, bus, bike or car. As it is a small city and highly visited by many people it does have great accessibility, on top of that you can use any other transport you feel like using.
In the city it is common to use public transportation such as Tuk Tuk’s which are the fastest way to get around the city. Tuk Tuk’s are a quick and cheap option where you must bargain though. Most of the time we walked as it is a small city and it also helped to get to know the city and see not only the touristic places and we recommend you do the same if you have a chance.
Best of luck planning your holidays in India!
Is there anything else you would like to visit while in India?
If you have anything in mind, please let us know and let’s discuss it.
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