Khajuraho

Alisha, Prue, Mary an Phillip and the two of us decided to take an optional excursion to Khajuraho which is 175km away from Orchha. We had to leave at 6am as it was a 3 hour drive and we needed to be back by 5pm. The roads were horrendous and it ended up taking 4 hours to get there. The driver was very good having to dodge cows, dogs, people, cyclists, cars, busses and trucks. We had breakfast in the town  and met our guide for the day then headed off to the Western group of monuments of Khajuraho. The temples were built between the 9th and 12th Century AD in an Indo Aryan style. They are all intricately carved and as they are a world heritage site some of them have been restored and they are now surrounded by lovely gardens. They have many different types of carvings but  they are most well known for their erotic images of Tantric sex. One of the temples was taken apart for cleaning and it took 3 months to disassemble and 7 years to reassemble. We had 1/2 an hour of free time to wander through the complex and then it was back to the car for the 4 hour journey back to Orchha.

Back in Orchha we set off with the whole group for a cooking demonstration and dinner. The lady running the demonstration showed us how to make masala chai first then potato and spinach, eggplant with onion and tomato, vegetable palou, and dahl. Her sister-in-law showed us how to make chapatti. The meal was deliscious and everyone was encouraged to have second helpings.David and the rest of the group finished the meal with Goulab Jumon a desert made from wheat flour and covered in a syrup. After dinner Mary had her hand painted with henna and we sat around chatting with the lady until it was time to head back to Jhansi for the overnight train to Allahbad.

We were again in a 3 teir sleeper David on the bottom level and Catriona in the middle. We were expecting to arrive in Allahbad at around 7am but there was heavy fog so we were delyed just outside of the city by just short of 4 hours. We went to a hotel for breakfast and because of the delay missed seeing the house of the first President, but set off directly for our Ganges boat trip.