We had a longish mini-bus drive today to a town called Orchha, where lunch was provided at a local "resort" and there after a tour of a local 16th Century palace. Following the palace tour the bus ride continued to the city of Jhansi where we took a train to Agra.

The drive proved quite interesting as it gave us a look at "life in the country side".

An unplanned stop at a village school was probably the highlight of the day. We learned that the Indian Government provides schools with lunch for the pupils as a way of encouraging the villagers to send their kids to school. At the end of our school visit our group descended on a local merchant and bought up a good supply of books, pencils and other goods for the school.

We arrived at the railway station in Jhansi just on dark and after a bit of a wait, we pushed our way through the throng into the station and onto the platform. We had a bit of a wait for our train as it was late and so got a chance to observe "rail travel Indian style". The platform was so crowded that it was hard to find a place to stand. The trains seemed almost as crowded. One train that loaded at our platform had people standing on the entrance step hanging on the handrail as it left the platform. Our guide reassured us that such crowding was only in "second class" and that we had "upper class" tickets that would ensure we got a seat. And so it proved. There was a bit of pushing and shoving getting into the train but once inside things were more organized with rail staff ensuring that seat reservations were honored.

We got to our hotel about 11:00pm and were pleased to fall into bed.