Day 32: Alipura

Today was the first morning where we had nothing planned, so we could wake up whenever we wanted, perfect since we made it a long night yesterday. I really wanted to go visit the river that was right behind where we were staying. It was very rocky and reminded me of the 3 rivers that are in my home town, Saluda, Broad, and Congaree river, where I have spent plenty of time jumping from rock to rock, fishing, or floating down the Congaree. My wrist watch has many functions on it, one of which is reading the current altitude. Unfortunately, when I woke up I looked at my watch and thought that it was 8:20 (I use military time, so I don't ever see am or pm) and went back to bed since we had to leave at 1:00. It was actually telling me that I am 820 ft above sea level. When I woke back up and saw the same time, I knew something was wrong; it was actually 11:45am, so I only had enough time to pack and eat before the bus departed.. Oh well.

Right outside of Orchha, we stopped off at a recycling facility that makes paper. In Orchha there are not many job opportunities for women, so this facility was created to mainly employ the women of the area. Here, they take used cotton clothes, shred them, wash and dye them, mix them with some chemical that makes them sticky, and then compress them into a thin sheet of paper. It was cool to be able to see the raw material, clothes, turn into paper.

Aside from the paper facility, not much really happened today. We had a four hour drive from Orchha to Alipura. Where we are staying is pretty amazing. We are staying in another noble family's palace. The architecture is similar to some of the old temples we have visited with greenery filling the inside corridor. We all gathered on the rooftop terrace to watch the sunset; we have a great view of the rural city mixed with farm land as far as the eye can see.

When I was in Istanbul, I met this guy from the UK. During dinner, I asked everyone what is a sport that is significant to where you are from. The guy from the UK was telling me about a game, similar to pool, call snooker. The table is about twice as big, the pockets are smaller, and there are much more balls. Ever since he told me about it, I have always wanted to see it played. Oddly enough, this palace we are in in Alipura has a snooker table, my room mate is from the UK and knows how to play; of course, I had to play a round. It came down to the last ball and he was up by one point (the scores can get up into the 100's) and he ended up scratching. Not a true victory, but for my first game, I will consider it a win in my book. I will admit that the game is very hard and went on for over an hour. What are the odds that a snooker table, a sport I have never heard of until a couple weeks ago, would be in the place we are staying in in little Alipura?