Dodging holy men and sacred cows: Orchha and Khajuraho

I'll be completely honest. India has been a challenge for me. After Delhi I wasn't sure I could handle two more weeks here. The tranquil beauty and spirituality I've read so much about was nowhere to be seen in the city that is desperately seeking a status with the likes of NYC, London, and Paris. Agra, of course, had the Taj Mahal and no words can truly describe how incredible that is but both of us were still a little wary of the next 12 days. Until we arrived in Orchha.

 Rickshaw ride into Orchha

The very first thing I saw when we stepped out of our rickshaw was a woman dressed in a beautiful green and orange sari carrying vegetables she was selling to local shops in a woven basket on her head. The streets were much cleaner (still not to western standards but better) and everyone just looked happier. We checked into the Hotel Ganpati. The entrance was down a narrow alleyway lined with doors into peoples houses. We were amazed to see the incredible view as we walked in, the hotel overlooked the 500 year old Jehangir palace. The room was cozy and the staff of 3 was friendly. The cook/gardner/handyman had a mustache that would make Tom Selleck envious, his helper, a young boy, was constantly running up and down stairs in the direction of his yells. Throughout our stay you could hear the prayer songs from a nearby Hindu temple. It was like a lullaby and we found it surprisingly calming. The owner of the hotel woke us up every morning around 5am ringing his bells of prayer which was a little less calming but I still found his dedication inspiring.

The village only has about 8,000 people in it and while the main streets and market stay busy it's not overcrowded. There is never a moment a cow is not within sight and while the people encourage you to stop in their shop to 'only looking, you are guest to Orchha', there is no pressure and you can actually enjoy a walk down the street. The first day we were there Mark stayed in the room to nap and I ventured out to take some pictures. I wandered up to the temples to snap some shots when I met a holy man. He kept asking me to take his photo but I politely declined at first since I had  no money to pay him. A teenage boy came up and knew a bit of English exchanged a few words with the holy man and told me he agreed to let me take the picture anyway. Free of charge. There was clearly a major misunderstanding and he was yelling things that I can only assume a holy man shouldn't yell as the boy and I ran away back to the safety of the market. He saw me shying away from passing cows after a near trample experience earlier in the day and smiled petting them as we passed saying 'my God, no afraid.'

 Woman selling vegetables to the local shops

 The view of the palace from our hotel

The notorious holy man of Orchha

We toured the palaces that featured original paintings from 400 and 500 years ago. I was amazed at how well these paintings were preserved. The guide told us stories of the artwork, usually featuring the king and his 6 or 7 wives. The architecture and their means for dealing with day to day issues like heat and running water are pretty amazing. We ventured back into the market where there were rows of shops selling food we didn't recognize, cooking it right there in front of us. There were tons of souvenir shops and women offering henna designs with brilliant colors to choose from. Just before sunset we walked to the river and set up on some rocks just across from the cenotaphs we visited earlier in the day. It was pretty spectacular to watch the monkeys playing in the trees nearby, some water buffalo crossing the river and locals bathing and washing their clothes in the river. We set up the camera and got some pretty fantastic shots.

 The sunset at Orchha

That night we ate at the only restaurant we ate at the entire time we were there. They don't turn the lights on to avoid attracting bugs so we ate in darkness and took in the small town. It was almost like going to a play and sitting in the darkness of the audience and the busiest intersection in the village was center stage. Cows lazily walked through getting an occasional smack on the butt when they got to close to a shop keepers goods, people rode their bikes and the occasional car went by. The locals mingled and laughed together playing cards and all crowding around the few tv's in town to watch a favorite show. It was one of my favorite nights so far.

We stayed in Orchha for 2 nights and were honestly sad to leave it but we were ready to see the Kama Sutra temples and we'd heard that Khajuraho was a small town much like Orchha so we set off.
We're only on our 7th day into the trip and it feels like we've been traveling for months. Not because we're already tired of being here but we've settled nicely into the backpacking lifestyle. We've developed our routines for unpacking and repacking our backpacks and we've hand washed a load of laundry. We've stayed in 4 hotels and have only prebooked one, the rest we've found upon arrival. (It's amazing how quickly your standards for hotels change when you're backpacking.) We've learned how best to negotiate prices for rickshaws and taxis and aren't as stressed out by the mob of people that surround you as soon as you step off a train/taxi/bike..or if you just stand in one place for more than 30 seconds. I'm writing this tonight from our room in Khajuraho where our balcony overlooks the garden complete with a pond and a Hindu statue. The smell of incense burning for the statue floats into the open windows of our room and its lovely. We sat in the garden earlier and had our first cold beer while the sun set and flocks of parrots flew overhead.

The journey here from Orchha was less romantic. We booked a taxi for the 4 hour journey after seeing the alternative, a bus that was packed so tightly with people (and probably live stock) that they were hanging out of windows and doors. The total journey only cost 1800 rupees--around 25 pounds (37 dollars ) for a 180 kilometers (around 140 miles). The Chevy 4x4 was probably the nicest vehicle we've been in since the beginning of the trip but we became painfully aware of the lack of cushions in the seats early in. We rode through Indian country side blaring Bollywoods greatest hits and dodging herds of annoyed goats, cows and water buffalo and the occasional bus. Most of the roads are paved but not very well, leaving Mark convinced that one more hour and his back would have been broken. We passed a Rickshaw designed for 4 with around 20 people, breaking the record we've counted so far.

 New record for people on/in a rickshaw

We met some local guys when we arrived who walked with us everywhere. Spending time in India makes you skeptical of every single person you talk to because normally they are trying to rip you off, but these guys were great. We were annoyed at first but they ended up showing us around the village, to the temples and around the market and never asked for one rupee. We hired bikes the second day we were there and after a false start (we found out my tire was flat and I had to ride it back) we cycled through the city to the outskirts where the free temples were. Here we met Ramesh. He is a soft spoken temple guide who is clearly happy to be doing what he does. These temples are not overrun with tourists, in fact we didn't see another tourist while we were out. He took us around the temple describing each of his favorite sculptures which tended to be the Kama Sutra figures. His English wasn't great so watching him try to describe what they were doing with hand gestures and lots of the word 'fanny' (sounded like funny when he said it) made the experience even better. We tipped him for his information and then sat to  talk where he told us about his family and his life in the old village. He seemed so happy to have someone to talk to and he asked us to take pictures with him and promise to send them to him. He wrote his address saying each letter as he spelled it out and then gave me his sons email address just in case -thank God because I'm not sure we can count on the Indian postal system as his address is
Ramesh Tiwari
Temple Guard
Old Village Khajuaraho

 One of the eastern group of temples at Khajuraho

Close up of the erotic carvings (these were tame compared to some)

At this point the Indian heat was starting to get to Marks dainty English demeanor  so we headed back to the hotel for a break. Later we went to the western group of Kama Sutra temples and just enjoyed the quiet and calm inside the grounds.

Kama Sutra positions carved onto a thousand year old temple

One of the gigantic western temples

Close up of the sculptures

It was my sisters birthday back home so I rounded up a group of the local boys and had them say happy birthday to her on video. They were really excited about helping and all hoping that she would fall in love with one of them and move to India.

Happy Birthday Amber

(Link to the video)

The morning we were set to leave we decided to book a yoga class through the hotel. I am really interested in learning yoga and meditation and there's no better place than India to start. Mark agreed to join in and we were both ready and waiting on the roof of the hotel at 7am. Our instructor arrived and we got straight into our OM's and began our class. We spent most of the time trying not to laugh at the cartoon like teacher. He told us not to eat meat or drink wine because it causes gas and sexy thoughts, then he proceeded to burp throughout the class. We had a really great time and did end up learning a thing or two. We ended the class with laughing yoga and a song and dance. Surprisingly, Mark still wants to take yoga classes.

 After an interesting class with our yoga guru

So next is Varanasi, the heart of spirituality in India.

-Heather