Advertisement
Leaving Bandhavgarh National Park, we took a 6 hour bus ride to Khajuraho. The bus ride gave us another chance to see a lot of towns and villages in the countryside.
When I first read about Khajuraho, it said they are famous for erotic temples. I thought it was a typo and should have read exotic temples. But it was not a typo. The temples were built 1000 years ago by a Chandela dynasty. We’re not sure why, but they depict some fairly graphic sex acts. Their isolation in the jungles allowed them to survive through the centuries from the more conservative cultures. Today it is big tourist destination.
In the afternoon we were driven in jeeps out to a canyon several miles away to do some hiking. Driving through the villages, we felt like rock stars. About every house we passed, kids would run out into the streets waving at us. We stopped to say hi to some of the kids once and they kept holding out their hands and saying ‘chocolate, chocolate’. I guess some tourists in the past must have been handing out candy.
At our hotel in Khajuraho, we got to see highlights of
President Bush’s trip to India on BBC News. He spent 2 days in Delhi to talk to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about a nuclear program and trade deal. The deal would have India separate their civilian and military nuclear programs, lower tariffs, provide India with nuclear technology and fuel, and allow inspectors view their civilian (but not military) nuclear facilities. This could be a big step forward, since India and Pakistan both refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Bush also visited the memorial to Gandhi that we had visited a week or so earlier. The visit was a huge story in India, obviously. There were protests all over Delhi with thousands of people, some burning American flags. Some of the protests turned violent. Luckily we were far away from Delhi those days. Security for the President was very tight though. His entourage rented out an entire 500 room five-star luxury hotel, the Sheraton, and had all of their food flown in. We heard that the Delhi airport was completely shut down for a day or so. The protesters were all kept far away from any of the routes Bush went on.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.103s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 13; qc: 79; dbt: 0.0734s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
