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Published: April 29th 2011
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Before we left Agra, we were introduced to another traveller called Kat who was a journalist from Poland. She was catching the same train as us so we shared a tuk-tuk to the station. The train journey to Khajuraho was very uncomfortable on AC3. Angelo as usual wozzed out of sleeping on the top bunk as he thought he might roll of the bunk!!
On arriving to Khajuraho we decided to stay in Hotel Surya and we shared a tuk-tuk with Kat. On arrival we noticed that this area was not very densely populated as other places in India and also did not look as polluted! This was a great sign!
The hotel was reasonably priced, we haggled our room down to Rs 550 (Debbie had a little moan, as she felt she did not haggle well!). The hotel has a really beautiful garden and was very peaceful and serene. Our room came with a balcony overlooking the garden which made a nice change from the windowless rooms we have been getting used to! A massive change in atmosphere in comparison to the hustle and bustle of Mumbai, Delhi and Agra. Despite things you are still greeted with rather
annoying kids/beggars/taxi drivers/shop owners interrupt you and ask you to come buy/look/take a tour etc.
After checking in we planned to go and visit Khajuraho’s temples, famous for their erotic carvings, but instead fell asleep. We booked a massage for the evening, which was very nice and it made us feel a little better!
Next day we were up early to go and see the western group of temples and were quite impressed. It’s quite amazing to think people from so long ago were so skilled. The Walls of the temples are covered in scenes of shapely women, some seemingly impossible karma sutra moves and men getting jiggy with various animals. Apparently the men were not allowed to take women to war and so instead got friendly with their horses and various other animals… hmmm.
Thursday we visited the southern and eastern temples which were much the same as the western but still worth a visit. In the evening we took a trip to Raneh falls, described in our guide book as 30m high waterfalls next to a wildlife reserve where you can see crocodiles. They were indeed 30m high waterfalls, at least in monsoon season. In
the dry season they are rather, well, dry. Basically just a canyon with a bit of water at the bottom. We went into the reserve but did not see any crocodiles 😞 we did however see some deer, loads of monkeys, a hyena and some kind of horse/deer animal, we were not sure what it was but I’m sure the guys who built the temples would have appreciated them. One the way back our taxi driver decided to give some locals a ride back, which was rather amusing as we had people hanging off our tuk tuk. There were 9 of us!! Luckily not one sat on the back seat with us!
On Friday we decided to have a lie in and we watched the royal wedding. It was great to see the wedding as we felt a little homesick. Angelo has started to blurt out random food he misses usually “ham, sausages, fish n chips, shepherds pie!” We are off to Varanasi tonight which is on the River Ganges and is considered a spiritual place visited by Indians all year round. Till then…
Ang and Deb
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