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Published: October 19th 2011
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We caught the 6pm train from Varanassi to Khajuraho which was meant to take around 11 hours. Again we booked AC3 class. We got on the train and found it was pretty empty so we had the compartment all to ourselves. True to Indian trains we arrived 2 hours late so 7.30am which gave us little longer in bed. We had pre-booked one night accommodation with Hotel Zen, we had 5 nights in Khajuraho but Zen was pretty expensive for 1000 rupees so decided to see what it was like before booking more days and we are glad we did. The room I would say should really of been around 500 rupees with what we have paid before. We did walk around town and found a lot nicer place for only 250 rupees a night so will definitely be moving for our next 4 nights. We did email to see if the hotel offers train pick up to which they replied they do for 250 rupees!! We knew it should only cost around 50 rupees in a tuk tuk due to the distance so decided not to take them up on their not o kind offer. However once off the train
a guy from the hotel was there with our name. We told him we had not prebooked and agreed it would only cost 40 rupees with the tuk tuk drive but the cheek of them does still shock us. However we are waiting to see whether they try and charge us the 250 rupees for the guy from the hotel coming with the Tuk Tuk to greet us, we will see, I am ready to fight. In fact India so far is beginning to feel a bit like one battle after the next but maybe we work ourselves up too much...
14/10/11
We checked out of Zen the next day and was glad to see no taxi charges. We moved to Yogi guest house which offered free yoga for a donation but we decided not to go. Not that we are becoming cynical and I am sure it would have been good but it seems here that every second person is a yoga teacher or a masseur, so decided to play it safe.
Khajuraho is famous for the many temples which the majority of the temples called the western temples are located in the middle of town within a gated
Terry and the waiters
From blue sky restaurant area. For an entrance fee you can walk around these temples. On the board it says foreigners pay 250 rupees, Indians pay 10 rupees – least it's advertised that you will be charged more! There were built around AD 950 to 1050 and are covered in half naked men, women, animals all doing some kind of erotic pose. There was around13 temples all together and was really nice to explore them, bare foot of course as they are temples you must remove your shoes before entering. Once outside the area you are surrounded by touts trying to sell you Karma Sutra books, cards which did make us smile.
We met a great waiter at the Blue Sky restaurant which we visited most days. We shared stories of his life in India and our life in England. Best was he could not understand why Terry and I were not married. I of course answered that you must wait for the question to be asked and he just could not understand why Terry would wait, I did not like to say that you it is very common to date a few people in your 20's before maybe settling down, not sure he
would of understood. Was funny to see Terry looking awkward though when the waiter kept asking why he was not married why why why...haha.
Terry often gets mistaken for being from Israel or even from India, with his sun tan, long hair and beard I guess I can see why. The waiter said that in India any people from Europe, North America etc are charged maximum price. People from Israel are charged about half of what we are asked and people from China or Korea are charged the same as Indians. Now the second most asked question Indians seem to ask us is where are we are from, which the waiter said is to see how much to charge you . We are going to try and see if we can get away with being from Israel to see it it's true and if not still be funny as you probably do get asked this questions at least 20 times a day (no joke) could be even more so be nice to change our story.
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Richard
non-member comment
CANT
WAIT TO GO NEXT MONTH!