Khajuraho

If you dont know the lure of this place do a quick google search to find out. to get here we decided to indulge and fly from Delhi, we booked the flight the night before and paid about £120 for both of us one way which wasn't too bad.

To get to the airport was straight forward but we got dropped off to the wrong terminal, nothing is ever simple in India, luckily we got a free shuttlebus to the correct terminal..

Once at the terminal we had to go through security to get into the terminal , after hunting down the correct desk we went to check in, once at the desk we were told that we have to go get our bags x-rayed and banded up, so we found the place and went through the process. We queued up again, only to be told that we went to the wrong banding machine as the plastic band said 'Kingfisher' not 'Indian Airways'! so at this point Preet lost her rag a little, but there was no convincing them that a band and security check is the same regardless of what machine you go to, Indians are so stuck in buerocracy they rarely understand why they are doing something! So we went back and got our bags x-rayed by the correct machine.

After our pleasent enough flight we arrived at the tiny but nice airport, and met with our tranfer chap to the guesthouse.

The temples around Khajurao are magnificently carved, some of the best we had seen on our travels, even compared to the Temples at Angkor, Cambodia. After all, this is the architecture which inspired the ancient Cambodians.

There is no explanation to why these temples have the imiagry that they do, but some explainations are they were instructions to the temple boys once they went back to their normal lives. Others say that it is a natural thing and one of the phases of the mind that one has to go through to reach enlightenment. Overall these famous images represent a tiny part of the temples.


Above is a very common image around the temples of Khajurao, dont know what it means though
Two figures being friendly, maybe sharing the latest gossip about Big Brother (please Boycott this program!!)
an example of the amazing carvings, its shocking to see how well the temples are preserved, even open to the elements the detail has survived, this is due to the dry climate and lack of rain, and dissolved pollutants when it does rain.
Some flowers growing in the main complex of temples, we got there as the sun was setting which made for great photography, or attempt at photography!

The above is the feet of a statue in one the temples. the temples were used and worshipped in and still contain imagry from the Hindu Religion. To preserve the temples, only one of the ancient temples in Khajarao is used to worship in.
Man made lake with the sun setting in the back. When we were there the locals were saying that there is a water shortage and because lack of rain crops were dying, it was indeed very dry around the town.

Me pretending to be one of the statues, not quite perfected the pose yet!