Khajuraho to Agra

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With Varanasi in the rear view mirror we were off to Khajuraho for more adventures. It struck us all immediately that we were out of the noise vortex and into a peaceful setting for the first time in a week. We were greeted by Anew and off we went to our first excursion in Sarnath where we visited the Khajuraho temples, they were beautiful!

24 temples of the original 85 remain intact and of the 24 a couple are adorned with erotic depictions. These few temples attract 95% of the tourism in this region.

We came across one of the many dogs roaming the grounds. Lesson learned......don t feed the strays because they will find you despite your attempts to distract them from following you.

After the temples all but Anna decided to rent bikes and have the tour guide take us around...the bikes were from around then 1950s, you remember the days of only one gear and that gear was difficult! The town was quaint and biking next to the cows, people and cars was a challenge on the narrow roadways. Hopefully we didn't cause an accident along the way because we were a hazard.

Its me Anna writing now..... I decided to stay behind while the group biked the village nearby. I wanted to get a taste of a life in this sleepy little town and with camera in hand off I went. It took mere minutes when I was approached by my first hawker. I told him right off the bat, I don t have any money, and he said, I just want to talk. We walked and talked near the busy central road and suggested we get off the beaten path to see the residential area. His English was enough that we could have a rudimentary conversation, he shared his views on life and asked me about mine. It was now time to meet up with the gang and so I said my farewell to raj. He said that if I wanted, he would gladly be my personal tour guide in India and I said, thanks but no thanks to this young man of 23 years of age.

Back to the story of the group as a collective........

Our guide recommended a local dance performance showcasing traditional dances of various regions of India. Costumes were outstanding and for a small town a well choreographed performance.

Our evening concluded with dinner on the rooftop patio at maharajas cafe.

January 18.

Up early for our 4 hour drive. You know you have settled into Indian driving styles when over a dozen near head on collisions and cow herds on the road don t make you flinch. We arrived in Orchha and were greeted by our next guide, Humund. He took us through the raj mahal palace.

As this is being written, we are on a train en route to Agra. Prior to boarding the train, we arrived at Jhansa by shuttle bus; porters were waiting to assist with our luggage. To say it was chaos was an understatement. Many porters clamoured around us jockeying to be the ones to be of service. They picked up our suitcases and placed them on their heads. Some weighing 50 lbs each. So we arrived on platform two approximately 1 and a half hours before the train departure. For some reason a crowd began to form around us increasing in size by the second. What started with around 4 men soon became 10, then15, then 20 and so it increased. We couldn't imagine that they would be hanging on our every word but this seemed to be the case. Then Doug twigged onto what all of the excitement was about! He whispered to Terry that Anna may wish to consider covering up her exposed leg skin because she was soon to cause a riot on platform number 2! What was considered a nuisance to Anna now became her saving grace...the winter shawl she had been dragging around now doubled as a maxi skirt and full leg coverage-riot on platform 2 averted!

As the train lumbers along we leave the last two small towns behind and look forward to our time in Agra and item famous residence the Taj Mahal...wonder what trouble we will get in there.

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