Temples, Palaces and Forts oh My

Sunset over the Orchha River

Between tiger searching our tour of India took us to several small cities and villages . As our trusty guide Yaddu says “India doesn’t live in the cities, it lives in the villages”.  Driving, or dodging as I’d call it, through the countryside you really get the sense of how locals live here in India, you also get the sense of how short life really is.  I say dodging because driving here is really just about pointing your vehicle in one direction and dodging whatever happens to be coming at you with your horn as your only defense. This could be anything from large trucks, people walking or pedaling, goats – lots of goats, cows – lots and lots of cows, camels, buffalo and even the occasional chicken. We were pretty used to the roads in Asia but even we shut our eyes a few times when sensing oncoming doom.

Barreling through villages and towns you can see life moves at a slower pace. People don’t seem as pushy, fields are still plowed with Oxen, food is cooked over open fires and kids may have to walk a long way to school. We did see kids and adults going to the toilet on the side of the road but always just shook off those images. There’s not many signs of urban development accept for the occasional mobile phone tower and maybe that’s a good thing. I found I enjoyed myself much better in the smaller towns/villages of India as compared to the larger cities of Delhi or Jaipur.

Traffic jams in the Indian state of Rajasthan are very interesting. In Los Angeles you might catch someone picking their nose, here you can see all sorts of interesting things. In this case we were waiting for a train and talking to camels.

Khajuraho – The Temples of Kama Sutra
A “quick” seven hour, 176 kilometer drive from Bandhavgarh brought us to Khajuraho which was our first stop on the temple tour.  Khajuraho is famous for its temples depicting figures of Kama Sutra. There are many temples in the Western, Eastern and Southern groups of temples but we only toured the Eastern group of temples which was a short five minute walk from the Hotel Surya where we stayed. Although these fabulously preserved temples are famous for Kama Sutra, really only 2.5% of the figures depicted are in sexual poses. The other 97.5% of the carvings are traditional Hindu and very beautiful to look upon. That being said, we found most people came for the naughty carvings and the temples without naughty carvings seemed to be pretty empty. All the temples here, not just the naughty temples, have an interesting history and very nice carvings.

Temples in Khajuraho

Kids close your eyes. 2.5% of the carvings on these temples are erotic in nature. Check out the link at the bottom to see additional carvings.

Orchha – A Hidden Gem
From Khajuraho we took a quick and bumpy five hour, 143 kilometer drive to the small town of Orchha. Orchha, which literally translates into “hidden”, is home to many different temples and palaces that flourished during the 17^th century. Like many people, prior to this trip we hadn’t heard of Orchha, hence it’s hidden name.

The beautiful river Betwa runs alongside Orchha and is a really great place to watch the sunset. We got several good pics just after we arrived. While taking some pics we met some Indian tourists who wanted to get their picture taken with Pamela.  That night, Yaddu, our fearless guide, took us to the Ramraja Temple where we watched a Hindu prayer service. It seemed as though many of the temple-goers were more interested with us and what we were doing than what was going on in the temple. Ramraja Temple is unique in that it was originally built as a palace for the queen so it doesn’t resemble a temple at all from the outside.

Pamela, Dave, Carole, Linda, Steph, Liz and Yaddu. Our tiger searching team.

The next morning we awoke and Yaddu treated us to a really good explanation of the basics of the Hindu religion. To say that Hinduism is complex, at least for me, is an understatement. I’m not sure how anyone can remember everything and I’m still unsure if there are 3.3 million or 33 million different gods. In either case it was a great introduction to the Hindu gods of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.

After the talk we ventured out for a tour of the Raja Mahal and Jehangir Mahal palaces, both built in the 17^th century and both very well preserved. The Jehangir Mahal palace, the grander of the two, was built over a 22 year period for the Mughal King Jehangir. King Jehangir visited the palace and stayed for one night before leaving for Lahore. Twenty-two years of work for a one night stay! I’ve heard of a one night stay leading to 22 years of work but not the other way around.

Pamela in the Jehangir Mahal palace in Orchha.

The Raja Mahal palace was built by King Madhukar Shah and contains some very nice paintings in the bedrooms of the King and his concubines. The king had six concubines living in the palace, each with their own room. The kings room contained passageways to each one of his concubines rooms. The passageways were constructed to prevent other palace goers from seeing which room the King was visiting. It’s said that he had six concubines, one for every day of the week except Sunday, which was his day of rest.

Karauli – Maharaja and Maharani for the Night
Our tiger crew stopped in the small town of Karauli for the night in between Agra and Ranthambore. Our hotel used to be used as a residence for the local Maharaja, similar to a governor or mayor, of the area. The main villa, constructed in 1938, was full of old photos from times past. Many photos included the local royal family on hunting expeditions where they would kill tigers, leopards and deer. The main dining room contained two stuffed leopard heads and the main entry room contained a stuffed tiger, probably one that the royals had hunted and killed.

Relaxing in our Royal Suite in Karauli

Now we're talking. Any hotel with hunting weapons on the wall is okay by me.

The front of our hotel in Karauli

Pamela and I were shown to our room and were surprised to find a huge suite, complete with a large porch, fancy chandelier and two separate smaller bedrooms. We were told by the porters that we were sleeping in the Maharaja’s old room. This was a treat for us after some of the rugged rooms we’d been in over the last week. That night we dined al fresco in a fancy courtyard surrounded by colorful lights. The whole stay had us feeling very royal indeed. We were a bit disappointed the next morning when we had to pack-up and leave. Our one night of Maharaja and Maharani was over. We did have one bad experience while at the palace. Pamela was eating a bowl of corn flakes and found a piece of rat poop in the corn flakes, mind you this was her second bowl of corn flakes. She felt a bit sick to her stomach of the thought of eating rat poop but she was okay in the end.

All our photos from our visit through rural India can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/117257906652666550268/KhujarhoOrchhaKarauli?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Cheers for Now -

Pamela and Dave