Temples in the western group
When we arrived in Gaya we thought we would quickly settle into a hotel, eat and go to bed. But as we are learning nothing is as easy as it should be in India. For a fleeting moment it seemed like we would be returning to Bodhgaya for the night after four hotels told us they were full. Apparently, hundreds (or thousands?) of students flooded the small city in order to take the NIT engineering entrance exam the following day. The city was swarming with young men. The last hotel we unsuccessfully checked for accommodation suggested the Siddhartha Hotel International, which did have rooms – for 1650 rupees (about $38 USD and we usually don’t pay any more than $12 USD), almost our daily budget. I started to walk out the door and thus the obligatory negotiating and head tilting commenced. We got one of the five staffers down to 1320 rupees ($30 USD) and we felt like we had just bought a car!
At 5:45am in the morning we made our way to the train station to begin our long journey to Khajuraho. A direct train wasn’t possible so we took the train to Satna, a bus from Satna to Bamitha (through a beautiful forested area), and finally a jeep from Bamitha to Khajuraho, arriving in time for dinner at Raja’s Cafe.
Khajuraho was known to us for the “Kama Sutra carvings” on the outer walls of many of its temples. Once there we were
Carvings
easily impressed by the beauty and artistry of the intricately carved temples. It was our intention to visit the Western Group of temples at dawn but I guess two early mornings in a row didn’t agree with us – we made it to the entrance at about 6:45am, only because the temples were across the street from our hotel and we skipped breakfast. After spending an hour at the UNESCO World Heritage site we learned that even though our tickets were valid for one day it really meant one day with no reentry. Despite our grumbling stomachs we managed to spend about 4.5 hours visiting the Western Group temples before devouring a South Indian feast of dosa, uddapam, paratha, and puri across the street at Madras Coffee House.
The Western Group of temples were very majestic and beautiful. Each is dedicated to a particular Hindu god (i.e., Vishnu, Shiva, Surya, Parvati, etc.) and the architectural layouts have similar elements. Our tape cassette audio guides (you remember those, right?) described the temples as celebrating women and the various sculptures displayed a range of human activities. If you looked carefully you could see a woman pointing to a thorn in her foot, reading, bathing, holding a baby, etc. We had fun on the scavenger hunt looking for those carvings along with a few others mentioned in the ASI (Archeological Survey of India) guidebook and on the audio tour. Before leaving the temple area we were once again approached for photos! First a man asked if he could take a photo of me with his wife. Shortly thereafter three teenage boys asked to take individual photos with me. Marc and I were perplexed because not one of the boys had a camera.
More temple madness
In the afternoon we rented bicycles and took care of a few errands before visiting the Eastern temple group. First, we bought our train tickets to Agra and Jaipur at what turned out to be the easiest train reservation center in India. We had attempted to purchase these tickets in Gaya several nights earlier but the agent shut his window promptly at 8:00pm right in the middle of booking our ticket. Before moving on we drank chai at a small shop while a tailor sewed a hole in Marc’s battered day pack with his manual foot pedal sewing machine. The tailor must have been in a generous mood because he refused, at first, to take payment from Marc (although Marc eventually succeeded). From the bus station it was a quick bicycle ride to the four Jain temples in the Eastern Group. After a detour to avoid some deviously enterprising children in Khajuraho Village who attempted to scam us out of our bicycles we made it to the remaining three Hindu temples as well.
Our perfect temple-filled day ended with a sunset view of the Western Group over dinner… in a TREE! Precariously perched in front of the Blue Sky Restaurant is a tree house and table attached to an equally rickety walkway that shook the tree house every time someone walked on it. It was a novelty for us and the view was incredible with the sun setting beyond the temples. At 7:30pm a sound and light show could also be viewed (though not really heard) from the restaurant. We didn’t find it very interesting and left early.