On Monday morning we caught the local bus from Ajanta to Jalgaon (it was absolutely jam-packed) – to catch the overnight train to Jhansi. This time we were travelling in AC3 – this meant that there were 6 beds in our berth (as opposed to 4 beds in the same space in AC2). We saw a small boy pee on the floor which his mother soaked up using the brown paper wrapping from the bedding – but not before a few people had walked through it!
We arrived at Jhansi at around 4 am on Tuesday morning and caught a rickshaw to Orchha in the dark – it was really nice and cool. We arrived at the Hotel Sheesh Mahal and had to wake up the night boy to let us in. The lobby was full of real antiques as the hotel was contained in a wing of the Jehangir Mahal palace. Unfortunately our room was a lot less impressive than the lobby. It seemed to be in the stables and the doorways were really low, so we kept bumping our heads!
When it was light we went for a walk around the palace grounds. We took some great photos of the Jehangir Mahal palace which was in surprisingly good condition with some outstanding Islamic architecture. It also had some large grey vultures circling and landing on the domes. There were lots of friendly but very mangy thin looking dogs and the grounds were full of cow dung.
In the afternoon we decided to have a haircut – not very happy with the results. Suzie's "hairdresser" told her in the middle of the first snip that she was a "computer operator" and her haircut took less than 5 minutes. Suzie has a very short fringe (much like childhood haircuts from mum) and Keith has a kind of asymmetrical tonsure. Oh well – it will grow back!
Wednesday was really busy for us – we purchased an entry ticket which allowed us to visit all of the sights in Orccha – but the ticket was only valid for one day. First we visited the Raja Mahal palace. On the ground floor the caretaker showed us the maharaja and maharani's bedrooms which were lavishly painted with Hindu religious scenes, hunting and dancing scenes. Apparently the maharaja had 6 wives – and the dark skinned ones were allocated bedrooms without any decorations. Then we went to the Jehangir Mahal. There were still lots of good turquoise tile detail left and we saw a vulture shielding its baby from the sun with its wing while perched on top of a dome. There were absolutely no safety rails which meant that sometimes you were leaning out over huge drops hoping that the stone balcony would not give way. There were great views of the town, the Chataburj temple, the Betwa river and the surrounding countryside. We walked back through the town and caught a rickshaw to the Lakshmi Narayan Temple. We walked around the inside admiring some lively paintings that were very clear in some sections. We walked around the top and climbed up some steep stairs to the central tower. Afterwards we walked back to the Chaturburj temple where we got the caretaker to take us up onto the roof which was spectacular. We were the only ones up there (except for the vultures).
We headed back to the palace grounds of the palace to see the camel stables, Khana hammam (bath house) and the Raj Praveen Mahal (pavilion and formal Mughal garden). The pavilion and the remains of the formal Mughal garden were peaceful and quiet. The views from the top of the camel stables were really great at that time of the afternoon.
At dusk, we walked around the Chhatris (fifteen cenotaphs to Orchha's rulers) along the Betwa river. We walked around the back of the complex, where we had to go through a gate into a field where they had harvested wheat which was lying in sheaves. We'd seen the golden fields of wheat surrounding the town. We caught the last of the light, the river, the Chhatris and the vultures roosting on the Chhatris.
That evening we got ready to leave for Khajuraho, famous for its Kama Sutra carvings.
On Thursday morning we got up at 6 am and caught a rickshaw to the train station. Suzie was up all night on the toilet so she did well to make it at all. There were people sitting in the corridors and doorways so it was difficult for us to get on with our back packs. The train started moving and Keith had to jump on to the stairs and hang on until some room was made. Luckily some people got off at the next couple of stops so it wasn't long before we got a seat. It was 2 pm before we arrived after passing endless small wheat fields baking in the sun.
The next morning we headed out to the Southern Group of temples. We visited the Chaturbhuj temple which contained an impressive 4 armed statue of Vishnu and the Duladeo temple which had very detailed sculptures including sculptures of couples in various erotic poses – but you had to really look carefully to see them. After that we drove through the potholes and over the vicious speed bumps of Khajuraho village to the Eastern group of temples. Our first stop was the Jain temples – there were three of them within a walled enclosure. All the temples had incredibly complex patterns on the exterior and then large sections covered with extremely beautiful figures, some human, some gods and some combinations eg human body with elephant head. There were common themes – jet black sculptures of seated Buddhas, apsara dancers, erotic figures having sex in various positions, a bearded man with knotted beard, and dragon headed demons. We left the Jain temple complex and headed off to the Vamana temple with elephant figures on a platform off the roof corners and a beautiful archway of dragon heads twisting over the entrance. We saw the Javari temple, the tiny Brahma temple with 4 faces on the lingam. Lastly we saw the ruined Ghantai temple which had exceptional bell and chain decoration on the columns which were all that remained of the temple.
We set the alarm for 6 am on Saturday so that we could check out the Western Temple group while it was still cool. The temples in this group were much better preserved and some of them were much larger than the temples we had seen on the previous day. There were a couple of notable sculptures – a garlanded Nandi (Bull God), a woman caressing a lion and a giant Boar (one of the incarnations of Vishnu) with tiny beautiful carved figures all over its body. Around the outsides of the temples were bands of carvings and sculptures featuring gods, goddesses, musicians and animals (real and mythological). The main themes seemed to be war and sex. There were some beautiful carvings of sensuous female nymphs (with impressive vital statistics) dancing, carrying flowers and looking into mirrors. There were many carvings of acrobatic couples in various erotic poses (some of them looked improbable and positively dangerous – eg handstand position). There was even a carving of a man performing unnatural acts with a horse while a shocked nymph peered out at the scene from behind her hands! It took us a couple of hours to view the 10 temples within the walled enclosure, after which we visited Khajuraho's only working temple just outside the enclosure.
Suzie was still feeling dodgy so went back to the room for a rest while Keith went to collect our laundry, find out about buses and visit some museums.
The archaeology museum was small but full of terrific carvings. The best was a complete dancing Ganesh (elephant god) standing about two metres high. Unfortunately no photography was allowed! At the Tribal Art museum saw some good art including carved wooden doors, carved wooden stools, masks, metal carving of woman with babies on each breast, large pottery elephant, metal crocodile with men on its back, and the best of all was the paintings on canvas the attendant rolled out at the end. One showed a mongoose eating a snake and the other showed a cat catching a rabbit with exquisite birds in each corner.
On Sunday morning we set the alarm for 5 am, packed up our stuff and walked across the dusty paddock at the rear of the hotel to the bus stand to catch our 6 am bus to Chitrakut – a small town of particular religious significance to Hindus. When we got there we were told that the bus was cancelled due to "technical difficulties" and directed to another bus which dropped us off 11 kilometres away at Bamitha. From there after about a twenty minute wait we caught another bus to Satna. Three and a half hours later the bus dropped us off at the Satna central bus stand where we were able to get straight on another bus to Chitrakut. We were lucky to get on early and get a seat because the bus was soon packed to the rafters. The landscape was incredibly flat and dry for the most part with much of the vegetation appearing to be dead and the remaining trees suffering heat stress had dropped a lot of their leaves. There were long stretches of dry stone wall which must have taken an enormous time and effort to build. We arrived at Chitrakut bus station a little after midday – exhausted and covered in dust.
After a rest, we decided to go for a walk to the Ram Ghat (stone steps down to the water from which people wash themselves and their clothes). We walked along the riverside where small boats were moored with white rabbits on board. There were loads of scrawny looking pilgrims wearing robes in various shades of orange robes walking along the banks and bathing at the Ghat. A giant statue of Hanuman the monkey god and an old white mughal style palace topped the white and red ghats on the far side. Shops, temples and old buildings in various stages of decay lined the near side which sloped up steeply from the ghats. We walked around taking photos and saw a lot of spiritual paraphernalia for sale but none of the usual tourist rubbish. We found out that because Chitrakut is a holy site, there was no alcohol or meat available. No one appears to speak any English and we did not see a single tourist!
The people here were very friendly and prices extremely low, but it is very hard to communicate or to easily enjoy yourself without a certain amount of infrastructure. We decided to try to leave for Gwalior by the 11 am train tomorrow.
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