Hello Kama Sutra!!!

Nagina and I arrived in Ochra late last night after the hellish day trying to get to Khajuraho due to our canceled flight.  On the morning of the 8th we were up bright and early and dressed and had breakfast and checked out of the hotel by 9:00.  We loaded into the car with our driver who in the light of day I could see had the most amazing light blue eyes.  They were really gorgeous!!!  We took a half hour and drove around Ochra which actually has some amazing ruins and a palace.  It was fun to drive around a small tourist community in India and if I can I would like to go back and spend more then a night there.  While driving through the city I was surprised to see a lot of tourists sitting out at coffee stands and internet cafes.  It seemed like a nice pseudo relaxing spot to stop during a tour of India.  At least it would out of the big cities for a few days.

Well, after our picture taking we headed out for the 3.5 hour drive to Khajuraho.  Nagina and I spent the first half of the drive talking and it made the time roll by fast.  We stopped for coffee about half way there then jumped back in the car to finish out the drive.  The second half was spent with Nagina sleeping and me reading my book and looking out the window.

We arrived in Khajuraho about 12:30 and met our guide at the hotel.  We checked in and went and had lunch at the restaurant before leaving for our day tour.  The tour was really all about the 2 groupings of famous temples in Khajuraho and we headed out for the east temples first.  It was surprisingly hot that day, easily over 80 degrees which was a surprise.  The eastern temples, 7 in all, were all built by the Chandelas in the 9th and 10th century.  They are famous not only for the amazing carvings that cover the temple but also that they lack a courtyard and are raised on a high platform.  However they are probably best known for the erotic carvings that cover the outer part of the temples.  Hello, Kama Sutra!!!

We skipped a guide in favor of wandering around and checking out the temples at our own speed.  It took about 2.5 hours to get around to see all seven of the temples.  I think I took about 100 pictures just of these temples alone which were all phenomenally beautiful and different.  And yes I got pictures of the erotic sculptures, especially a few for Lisa.  I even got some pictures of the temple they were restoring and a guy working on the restoration showed me the brush they are using for cleaning the sculptures.  I was a little surprised to see that it was just a piece of bamboo that had one end frayed like a brush.  He gave it to me and I sat watching a group of guys scrubbing away at the temple for a little while.

After our stint at the eastern temples we met the guide and driver who drove us over to the western temples which sadly were not nearly as impressive as the others.  It looked like only two of the western temples had not been altered in some way.  I was a little depressed to see that plaster was used to cover up some of the carvings or they were painted different colors.  Why you ruin an amazing piece of stone sculpture by painting it blue I'm still not sure.  But we walked around and took more pictures before heading out to a small temple outside of town that was dedicated to Krishna.  The Krishna statue was gigantic and took up almost the entire inside of the small temple.  The guide told us the statue was made out of one solid piece of marble which is impressive when you think someone had to carry it up about 15 stairs to get it in the temple.  We got some pictures of the temple and the area around it then headed back to the hotel for a break.

Once back at the hotel we decided to skip the sound and light show after our experience at the Red Fort and go to a cultural dance program instead.  I spent my break on the internet checking my email and downloading my pictures off my camera only to find out that my file that contained all my pictures up to that point had a virus and had been "corrupted" and I lost all my pictures.  I was freaking out and seriously pissed about loosing my pictures.  Luckily before I left Bahrain I burned all my pictures up to the day before I left onto CDs which I mailed home to my parents for safe keeping just in case.  Thank goodness I had the foresight to do that otherwise I really would have been screwed!  Once I stopped hyperventilating and remembered I only lost my pictures from Chennai to now and that I had all of Nagina's pictures I could surely get copies of I relaxed a little.  So I finished up and met Nagina up in our room.  We relaxed a bit more then met the guide and left for the show.

We got to the little theater early only to find that most of the seats were reserved and we could only get seats in the back.  A little bit of a bummer as the theater was not very well tiered and it made it hard to see around peoples heads from the back.  We walked around  a bit and looked into an antique shop which if nothing else was fun.  The show was great and showed not traditional indian dance like we thought but folk dances from different areas of India.  We saw dances from Tamil Nadu, Andra, Rajasthan, and Punjab.  I opted to watch and enjoy the performance then try to get pictures of everything.  I like to be in the moment sometimes which involves not viewing things from behind a camera lens.  After the show was over we met our guide who drove us back to the hotel where we had dinner at the buffet.  Then up to our room to relax before bed.

The next morning we were up bright and early and got dressed and had breakfast then checked out of the hotel and met a different driver who would be driving us back to Jahnsi to get on the train to Agra.  It was yet another 4 hour drive back so we settled in and I read my book while Nagina slept and read.  We stopped for coffee at the same place as before and had them pack us up some sandwiches just in case we didn't have time to get lunch.  We ended up getting to Jahnsi early and since we had our stanches we decided to take a run through the Jahnsi fort on the hill.  And we literally ran through  it taking pictures and were back in the car in less then a half hour and on our way to the train station.

We arrived early and had porters to carry our luggage to the platform.  It's still crazy to me to think about these skinny little guys hefting my 50 lbs suitcase and one of Nagina's on there heads and walking around the station and up and down stairs to the platforms.  I was bummed when I realized I lost my pictures of the porters in Chennai carrying all our bags.  It was a cool picture and illustrated what I'm talking about.  We hung out and talked and when the train arrived we got on and got our luggage sorted out.  Because we both have big heavy suitcases we wanted to get on early and put our luggage in the last row behind the seats so we didn't have to try and lift it to the overhead rack.  And honestly it was a good thing we did because just before the train left our compartment was bombarded by a 2 giant tour groups.  One Japanese and one Korean (I think).  But they took over all the rest of the available luggage space and I was glad we beat them to it.

We ate our sandwiches and chilled during the ride.  I attempted to journal but with all the train movement my already crap handwriting became unintelligible so I stopped and opted to read my book.  We arrived in Agra about 6:45 and were able to get our bags down and out with help from the dozen porters that jumped on to get all the baggage.  We met our guide right outside the compartment and separated our luggage from that of the tour groups and then headed out.  We had  the same car as the one we had in Delhi even after our discussion about that fact that we wanted a larger car and didn't want to leave our luggage tied to the roof for the entire rest of the trip.  Yes, we drove from Agra to Rajasthan and then all over Rajasthan in that car.  Surprisingly I didn't name it which I usually do with inanimate objects I'm with a lot.  My car at home is Lucy and my suitcase is now the Great Green Beast, or just Beast for short.  Anyways, the guide and driver (not Dinesh a different one) drove us over to our hotel in Agra and we checked in and relaxed.  We went down for dinner a the restaurant buffet which was actually pretty tasty.  After dinner we relaxed in the room and I journaled while Nagina watched Hindi TV.

And tomorrow we're off to see the Taj Mahal, I can't wait....