Just outside of the village there is a compound consisting of a number of huge ancient crumbling cenotaphs. These magnificent buildings have now been claimed by the vultures. The real kind, not the property speculater types - so far. I was lucky to catch a few pictures of these magnificent birds preening and basking in the sun. Also around Orcha are a bunch of wild sadhus who are vultures of another kind tapping western tourists for rupees in return for a photo or two.
For me Orcha is one of those places that has the wow! effect. With it's massive palaces and temples dominating the village and lining up along the river, the views are nothing less than eye candy. The village itself is tiny probably as small as Hampi and like Hampi it is blessed with an important temple which has a cute story of it's own, " Built as a palace for Madhukar Shah’s wife, it became a temple when an image of Rama, temporarily installed by the rani, proved impossible to move"
Unlike Hampi there is much more Street life, sure there's the usual tourist cajolments but it's not the pushy kind and overall the local folks are friendly and chatty. even though it's bloody cold morning and night.
The palaces and monuments although pretty beaten up and crumbling are still magnificent and a set of huge cenotaphs on the edge of town have been claimed by the vultures for their nests.
One thing you don't come to Orcha for is the food. Although the main street is lined with tourist restaurants, it doesn't take more than a dish or two to understand why they are all empty. My porridge for breakfast - chillie spiced millet was a new low. The best food and it would seem most popular is the street food and this evening I enjoyed a very tasty potato dish cooked in minutes in front of me and served in a banana leaf bowl... Scrumptious.
The best thing about the tourist restaurants here are their Menus with their very cute spellings for favourites like corn flex and meshed potatoes.
Nashik turned out to be a fine place to spend a few days. It was a busy town but laid back and friendly. The Ghats were the real attractions with Hindu life being lived to the full. But my biggest Nashik surprise was the old town, crumbling and disheveled the buildings all had the most amazing iron work that was reminiscent of the Mediterranean and little squares that would not have been out of place in France. And must not forget the amazingly colourful market place which knocked spots off the overrated Mysore place.
As a key destination I probably built Hampi up in my mind to be more thrilling than it really was. True the landscape and embedded ruins are nothing short of breath taking but the overwhelming tourist infrastructure wasn't quite what I expected. The village itself could have been anywhere in the Med and over the river the scene was more Goa than rural Karnataka.
Having said that I did enjoy the 10 days I spent there even with the last three marred with a cold and an infected gum... Ouch!
My time here in Hampi coincides with a large cultural festival of music and dance. The Hampi Utsav draws crowds of thousands to enjoy a wide mixture of Indian music from local village performances, through virtuoso classical music turns to wild and exuberant Bollywood set pieces. A kind of Indian Glastonbury without the mud. There's too much going on to take it all in but the performances I have seen have been superb and sometimes a little crazy even for me.
Arriving in Hampi after dark was a little stressing. The hotel touts swarmed and wouldn't give us any space. However after about 30 minutes we found rooms for the night but would have find another place in the morning.
Waking up to Hampi's surrealist splendour was a delight and our guest house rooftop restaurant must have the finest breakfast view in all Hampi.
After walking around looking at guest houses l found a decent place so accommodation was no longer a problem. It was time to explore some more. A short ferry trip to the other side of the river proved uninteresting but when I got back.... The local temple elephant was taking a bath in the river http://youtu.be/I-KQNammmCM
