Friday evening we caught a train to Jhansi with Sam, Michelle, Jonathon, and Sam's friend Siler. We got in around 1am and then had to drive about a half hour to a smaller town called Orchha where we were staying overnight. We got to our hotel and were shown to our rooms...which were less than ideal and had bugs everywhere. Unfortunately, it was too late to try to find anything else, but we were able to barter the price down a little and booked it out of there early the next morning.
That morning we explored Orchha, which was a small town that received far less tourist traffic than most of the other places we had visited. We had breakfast, walked around the market square, and saw a temple before heading to Khajuraho. Jon, Michelle, Shalini and I did what I might dare to say was the more sensible thing by hiring a car (about a three and a haf hour journey), while Sam and Siler opted for the more adventurous option of taking the local non-AC bus (a solid seven hours). Upon arriving, we settled in and had dinner at Mediterraneo, a “Dutch-managed Italian restaurant,” where we sat at a table next to an enormous Dutch family which appeared to be having their family reunion in Khajuraho, Mater Pradesh. Who knew.
Later on, we went to the lights show at the temples park, which involved sitting out on the lawn while various structures were alternately lit up. Meanwhile, we listened to a narration by a voice that was supposed to be the spirit of the stonemason who had built the first temple at this site. He recounted the stories of each temple’s construction, complete with sound effects and the occasional guest narrator who would recount another part of the story in the same strange faux-British accent. Needless to say, we thought it was great.
The next morning, we arose bright and early to see the temples. For almost every historical site in India, Indian nationals have to pay only a fraction of the entrance fee demanded of foreign tourists. This time, Shalini decided to try to pass as an Indian and spent about fifteen minutes trying to convince them that she was an Indian from Bangalore who just happened not to speak Hindi and was only showing her foreign friends around her India. Alas, the gatekeepers were not fooled and she ended up having to pay the foreigner fee. She gets an A for effort though.
The temples were really cool and interestingly carved as promised. After our second temple however, Shal and I decided that they all looked the same and let the others go on as we sat under a tree. When they were done, we had lunch together and headed out to catch our train. This time Sam and Siler saw the light and came with us in the car.
Our train back was the Shaderbhad Express, the nicest train in India. They fed us five different courses, and we were about an hour and a half late only. A huge improvement over our Varanasi experience.
khajuraho retains a very important place in the World Heritage list. It is a small
ReplyDeletetown in Chhatarpur district, which is famous for its Nagara style and Panchayatan
style carved temples built in the 10th-11th century. Many of you must have visited
Khajuraho and seen those famous and indeed infamous temples. Whether you’re a
admirer of architecture, spirituality, tantra, heritage, art or culture, you will find
Khajuraho truly compelling in its beauty. And the novel ;Lapka by khajuraho ; has
successfully captured this hypnotic nature of the place.