Not eating at all works on travel days, but the heat wave that struck India certainly does not help. Nothing like 100 degree weather with nausea, stomach cramps and your bones aching like you have the flu. Bah.
Despite the whimpering and whining, Derrell got us to Orccha on a train that took only two hours longer than the expected 1.5 hour trip. After arriving at the train station, we had a bumpy, dusty, adrenaline raising 40 minute ride at dusk in an auto-rickshaw on a pothole laden road and realized that headlights are an optional feature in the evening on moving vehicles and then had an equally astounding second revelation that buffalo standing in the middle of the road at night absorb light like a cluster of black holes in space. We were glad the auto-rickshaw was new and the brakes worked.
Orccha is a small town of 8,500 people and surrounded by temple and palace ruins. The ruins have just been sitting for the past 200 years with no one bothering with taking off with the sandstone or rebuilding on top of them. We wandered the set of ruins on the island in the middle of the river and got some good views of the countryside. We paused in the shade to consider that winter is at a close with summer temperatures running rampant. Throughout the countryside, many of the trees are without leaves or are holding a winter bare branches look and a few are displaying a last holdout of yellow fall leaves. This became so noticeable as we looked over the land from the top of the palaces. The trees near the river were lush green and full of monkeys and birds, and the distance just a soft gray backdrop. There were Hindu temples with pennants flying dotting the landscape, many more than we had expected, about one every kilometer or so. And despite my state of health and Derrell turning into a human sweating machine, we had to admit it was a good view.
