This is how to soak in the forgotten splendour of Orchha

Deep inside the temple town of Orchha…

A polite ticket-checker thanks each passenger, bright-red uniformed staff deliver breakfast goodies and pleasant station announcements guide you along the route. Office-going commuters jostle barefoot villagers at smaller stations. You’re rewinding to memories of childhood train travel. Racing the electric poles, beating the running tracks. Vibrant green fields climax into a glorious last stretch of lush hills-and-valleys between Delhi and Jhansi. You’re in a trance…hypnotised by the languorously curving slow train, blackened old monuments of Datia town and the muddy Betwa river cross-over. From Jhansi, its a 45-minute taxi ride down a narrow road through thick of a forested landscape. Prelude to a drama waiting to unfold in the unusual temple town on the banks of the Betwa. Aptly named Orchha (the “hidden”). Ready or not, here it comes…

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Why India for the most exciting safari in the world?

Because you’ll go hunting down the tiger

So you think there aren’t too many good reasons to take a wildlife safari in India? You don’t need that many. Because one good reason beats them all. The tiger.

No one can go wrong with Bandhavgarh, which has the most dense population of big cats in India, especially the Royal Bengal Tiger. This 440 square km wildlife park, nestled in Vindhya Mountains, is abundantly stocked with deer, chital, nilgai, hyena, langur, rhesus and even leopard and sloth bear.

Continue reading “Why India for the most exciting safari in the world?”