The Kama Sutra Temples

---

Though the title should make it perfectly clear, I'm stating it anyway:
There are photos here depicting The Kama Sutra. I'm of the opinion that we're all adults and I'm posting them. It's these carved depictions that draw people to Khajuraho and it's why the area is famous. If you don't like them, don't look. But don't complain and don't say I didn't tell you.


A bit of an adventure to get here, to say the least! Our train ride was suppopsed to start at 730 pm, reaching Satna at 630 am. Instead we left at 835pm and arrived.... at 930am. In class 3A. No one seemed to know anything and we nearly missed our train since we couldn't find anyone to help us read our tickets (they tell you which car to get on, and our helpful driver misread them and we were totally lost).

Upon arriving at 931am, we found out we missed the 930am bus to Khajuraho and the next one was at 230pm and was around a 4 hour ride. Hmm, wait 5 hours and then take a 4 hour (or longer) cramped bus ride? Or pay over 1000 Rupees to get there in 2 and a half comfortable hours? We decided to fork out the cash, especially since we didn't know when Samuel was joining us, just that he was. And we didn't want to keep him waiting.

Money well spent, we relaxed in the back of our car, passing a few broken down buses along the way. We watched golden flax fields fly by and saw farm houses without electricity. Women in colorful saris worked in the fields and schoolchildren walked in small clusters. Towns and farms blended into one. Some shops (like the barbers') were only as large as a bed.
We arrived around noon, ready for showers and naps.

We ate dinner that night, Samuel-less, at a restaurant next to the temples. It was rooftop and the view was nice, but the food was only so-so. I enjoyed looking at the stars but I don't think Kent really cared.

The first full day we hired a tuk tuk to take us to the eastern and southern temples. The temples are a UNESCO World Heritage Sight. We left around 10am and paid for 4 hours of service, hoping that would be enough. We planned to see the western temples with Samuel the next day before heading back to Satna and then on to Varanasi.

The ride out was beautiful. Lots of farms and fields. The temples were really spread out and we could only see one at a time. They are in the process of restoring them which is both good and bad. On one had, they are more majestic and you can really see how they used to look. The stones are clean and it's easier to see details. On the other hand, it's a less authentic experience and you can't really see how the temples have aged. There used to be 85 of them and now only 22 remain. They were built in 100 years, from 950-1050 CE. All of the temples we saw that day had depictions of daily life, not of love and lust. We only saw a few of those with more to come when we explored the western group.


We took a tour of a small village (see other entry) with our freshly acquired tour guide (it's like they grown on trees here) and then headed back to do some email and rest and see if we could figure out where Samuel was. Just as I finished hitting send on an email to him asking him where he was staying and telling him where we were, I heard a familiar voice. He arrived! He'd gotten his passport and visas in a week and a half, flown to Delhi, then to Satna, and then to Khajuraho to meet us. I'm not sure who of us was smiling bigger upon greeting.

We caught up over snacks and told him about what we had done and about seeing the temples in the AM. He told us about what had happened after we left and his adventures in getting here. I'm really glad he's here. He'd been the one to first suggest a trip to India back in November, he'd had a lot of ideas about what we should do, he was probably the most excited about the trip. It seemed a cruel twist of fate when his passport got stolen the day before we left.

I did find myself wondering if Khajuraho would be the best place for Samuel to start his India experience. Everything else Kent and I had experienced in India was the opposite here. No one asks for money the second you step out of your hotel; they ask you to come to their shops, just for 2 minutes. People talk to me here. It's quiet, peaceful, fairly clean. I don't worry about getting robbed or hit by a car or cow. It's also small with a slower pace. In essence, it's the opposite of everything we know to be true about India so far. Khajuraho is making Kent and I out to either look like liars or crazy.

After our snack we took a tour around town (it didn't take long) and Samuel actually tried to bargain down the price of our beer. It didn't work. (No surprises there.) We took a tour of the village from this morning again and Samuel took pictures. In a few hours the town had changed. I don't know if it was because more people had returned from work, or if because mroe tourists were in the village, or if it was Samuel's camera, but we got harassed and pestered the entire time. I think that seeing him (in addition to the other tourists I saw) with a camera reminded the villagers that we're tourists with more money than they. So we got asked into shops and asked for money. It was a far cry from my experience in the morning.


On Wed we planned to rest in the hotel in the morning (while we still had the room) and visit the temples in the afternoon before eating a large lunch/dinner and catching our taxi back to Satna.
Samuel knocked on our door at 6am to borrow a pocketknife. The airline had overly secured his bag and he couldn't get the plastic rope off. By 830 I could hear him eating breakfast. I guess he's still on China time, 2 and a half hours ahead. I stumbled in at 845, desperate for coffee. The plan for the day was changed to visit the temples in the AM. Kent and I explained that we only get one entry. You don't get a ticket, visit, leave and eat, re-enter, etc. We still checked out at 10am.

The temples in the west were better than then ones we'd seen Tuesday. And by better I mean more of what we were expecting: more Kama Sutra depictions. I've seen so many depictions of gods and elephants and horses that a change was needed! Besides, this was why we came! It was almost a game for us to try and find them. I ended up sneaking into a tour group and watching the guide point them out with his flashlight. Some of them were really high up and some of them were hidden away in corners. And some of them were right there, plain as day, just missing a flashing, neon, arrow light.

Around noon (a whopping one and a half hours after we got there) we had four temples left. Samuel said he was hungry and wanted to eat. Kent and I looked at each other, baffled. It had only been 3 hours since breakfast and he'd eaten more than either of us. Kent and I are used to eating our toast breakfast early, and then eating lunch when we can get it on the road, often later rather than earlier. When traveling in India you can't eat just anywhere and our driver wouldn't let us. (Two women we met in Pushkar said they had been eating at cheaper places where there were fewer tourists. At first we were jealous until they both said they hadn't been feeling 100% for a few days. You eat where you know it's safe, not necessarily when you're hungry.) We looked at him like he was crazy.

"Well, how much longer do you think you guys are going to be?" Samuel asked us. Kent and I replied in unison that we intended to see the whole site. We paid 250 Rs each to get in! And this is the only thing to see in this town! Besides that, once we left and ate, there really wasn't anything to do but stare at each other. And if we eat too early then we're hungry mid-train ride. Food doens't magically appear on trains. I pointed all of this out and the fact that I had only eaten 2 hours ago and wasn't hungry yet. I got the feeling he didn't care, he just wanted to eat. He said he was willing to wait until we were done. So put off by all of this, I decided to take my sweet time.

Kent and I found a temple with stone benches inside in the shade. There was even a breeze and the cool stones were calming beneath my feet. It was sunny and I was hot. It was a beautiful day and I was really happy to just relax and bask in the warmth of the sun and the coolness of the breezes.

After a leisurely 2 hour lunch (AKA Samuel eating and then me eating, with Kent eating the whole time) we headed back to wait for our ride to Satna. We stared at each other in the courtyard of our hotel, wondering when our driver would show up. India time means always allowing extra time.

Our pre-planned ride turned into a switched driver two times over (once by them and once by us) and then the car ride from hell. Our driver from a few days ago had begged us to let him drive us back to Satna, so why did he send a different driver? He was filthy, arrived 20mn late, and then disappeared into town because he wanted to get some money from someone. Every hair was standing straight up, and, as Kent called it, my women's intuition was screaming at me.
I made Kent go find us another driver, not caring how much it cost us. And he did. Though I'm not sure how much better this one was. Not only did we run out of gas (our driver didn't believe us when we said that was the problem, insisting it was the fuel filter, not the E mark on the gas guage), but I have never ridden with my face buried in my hands in my lap and hope I never do it again. Oncoming traffic with missing headlights, cows, and bicyclists? I must have imagined all of it. Oh, I wish.

We made it just in time to wait for our delayed train and promptly befriended all the people we had seen at our hotel and around Khajuraho the past few days. They were also all headed to Varanasi. We even met a group of Chinese tourists. Samuel chatted with them while Kent and I talked to the Brits and 2 French girls.

Our train was only 30mn late and I had the end bed by the window. But since we rode in class A2 this time, the walkway was silent and I even had a thick, red curtain to close making my bed a cozy space. I arose at 415am just in case we were close to being on time and I didnt' know if they would wake us. I munched on the Parle G biscuits and orange cookies we brought with us. Always take snacks on a train.
Of course, we were 3 hours late (again) and they did go around waking people. At least I got to see some scenery and watch the sun rise.

---

Photos

The drive there
2 and a half hours of beauty.

Inside one of the temples
The eastern temples were bigger and you could walk into them. This was taken inside the Jain temple.