Hello,
We just got back from our short trip to Khajuraho. It is an interesting place. The architecture of the temples is so cool, and the carvings are so intricate. It all looks so cool. However, they are known for their, shall I say, "erotic depictions". Really, I think that the temples themselves are awesome, I am very surprised actually that
the Indians play up the erotic part so much. I guess they do it for the tourists, but personally, I felt a bit violated by the things some of the vendors were showing me and saying to me. But I am a stuffy American, maybe they have more success with tourists from other areas.

We hired a driver and drove there, since there is no train and we were not going to go on a bus again! Not after our bumpy ride from Bikaner to Delhi. I don't think I have mentioned that here yet. I will have to fill you all in later, it was quite the experience...

Anyway, we were told that the drive would take about 5 hours. It took over 7 and it was such a horrible road! It was also further than we thought that it was, so when we thought we were almost there and saw a sign that it was another 120 km, we were bummed.
Our hotel was good though, our rooms were right off the garden restaurant. Our tv was messed up (so was jorns and lise's) oh, by the way, I learned how their names were spelled. Our beds were pretty hard, or firm you could say. But that is to be expected.

We had a pretty nice time getting to know jorn and Lise better. It was fun and pretty nice. There was also an "authentic" Italian restaurant right across the street from our hotel. It was really good. I was so glad because Kevin got his appetite back and finished his meal and half of mine nearly every time we ate there! We ate there 3 times in our 2 days that we were there! They had real mozzarella cheese, and even had gorgonzola my favorite! Gee, it was good.

These temples had really high domes with carvings all the way up. Some were even like temples within temples, with the carvings on the inner temple as well as the outer temples. I wonder how they were built whenever I see structures like that. The domes were so high, but inside, the ceilings weren't. I guess that they were just hollow, or they would be too heavy. Also the insides had these multi dimensional ceiling sections that were also really intricately carved. I thought it looked like a puzzle box or something.

They aren't sure why these temples were different. There were originally 84 temples or something like that, there. But now only 25 remain. Mostly Hindu temples but there were also some Jain temples. But both had the same architecture, though the Jain temples didn't have the Kama Sutra carvings. Personally, I think that they were built by some Hindu fundamentalists or something, an off shoot of Hinduism, and worshiped only particular gods, the ones that were more "erotic" in nature. Of course I probably am wrong, they were just so different and interesting, almost confusing. Maybe the workers who built the temples were just tired of getting underpaid and decided to make some interesting carvings in protest, or as a joke. Our Lonely Planet book also stated some interesting ideas as to why these temples were the way they were. The most prominent one being that they were a sort of manual for the Brahman boys, who went to all boy schools and they didn't teach verbally about the birds and bees there. Whatever.

The only sour spot in the trip was when we decided to go see Raneh falls. It is about 18 km outside of Khujaraho. We drove out there and our driver pulled over where the booth was to pay, though the actual falls were another 2 kms. Kevin got out and Jorn started to open his door, which was on the street side... He got it open just a few inches when we all heard this horrible sound. Two guys on a motorcycle had been speeding past the car and hit the door when Jorn opened it. They must have been going fast and were super close to the car! I mean, Jorn opened the door just a few inches and they hit it!! They crashed, but were okay, just one had a scrape on his knee.

Our driver got out and spoke to the guys and we thought everything was worked out. Well, we knew we were not in the USA anymore when we decided that we weren't going to go to the falls after all, because it cost more than we wanted to pay and Jorn and Lise were a bit shaken up by the accident. The car door was bent a bit too, it didn't swing shut anymore, though it would shut if you pushed it. So we pulled forward through the gate to turn around and the next thing you know a whole group of guys closed the gate and wouldn't let us through! Then, when our driver protested, they all started yelling and getting really animated! I don't know what they were saying, but we knew that they wouldn't let us go until we probably paid them. Our driver was very calm and handled it well. He went back out and talked to the guy who was driving the motorcycle and it looked like it would all be okay. Our driver got into the car and looked upset, he said they wanted Rs 3,000! Kevin was vexed , he knew that it wasn't our fault. So he asked if the police were coming. Our driver said they were on their way. So Kevin responded, "then we will just wait for them." But then we all saw the look on our drivers face and knew that having the police come wasn't going to help our situation at all, just make it worse. We were four white "rich" tourists. The more people involved, the more money they are going to want. So Lise said they would just pay. Our driver said "only give Rs 2,000", and they took it. We were glad to get out of there, though Kevin and I were both pretty dissapointed that we didn't get to see the falls, but oh well. Stuff happens sometimes. (we found out later that our driver had already talked those guys down from Rs 5,000!)

The drive back didn't take as long, our driver took a different route, but the road was pretty bad and full of trucks. So many were broken down on the road, broken axles and stuff!! That is how bad the roads were!

We were exhausted when we got home yesterday, I am not sure why, I guess sitting in a bouncy car for 6 hours kinda wears you out. But we still had a nice little church meeting in our room.

I am always a bit surprised when we go on a little sight seeing trip and I am so happy to see our little Visitors Hostel when we get back. I guess it really is home for now.

It is getting really hot here and my jeans I brought are just too heavy to be comfortable in. The only other bottoms I brought were my capris. So I bought a nice cotton wrap around skirt to wear. I wore it for the first time today and though it comes down to mid calf, I felt.........
...uncomfortable I guess. I have only seen girls show their legs above their ankles here about 4 times. I felt like I was wearing a bikini or something. I know I was silly, and it was probably in my head that everyone was looking at me. I think that my need to stay cool will override that worry though!

So, I know that I didn't finish telling about the exciting points of our longer trip. But I am going to skip to near the end now and tell about the "luxury private bus" that we took from Bikaner to Delhi.
There is no train to Delhi from Bikaner and we had originally planned to take a night train back down to Jaipur and then take another train up to Delhi (an extra 400kms or so!). But then the guys at our hotel in Bikaner told us that we should take this "private" bus. It was faster and really nice. It was a sleeper bus so we could just "sleep on our way there if we got a bunk". They even got us the tickets. So we get on the bus around 9 pm on Friday night. It was like a regular tour bus with a few exceptions. There were bunks up top with curtains to make them more private, and NO bathroom on board. I guess that I was pretty naive in thinking that an overnight bus that was driving on an 11 hour trip would have a bathroom.
So of course I had to go to the bathroom about an hour and a half into the ride. We both were really tired too, so we just went up into our bunk and laid down (after I thoroughly wiped it down with wet wipes). The bus kept stopping and picking up more people as we went along. I figured that it just had a few places that it stopped to pick up its ticketed passengers and once we left town we would just go straight to Delhi. So we kept stopping and picking up more and more people all along the way until the bus was completely full and people were sitting and standing in the isles on their sacks of clothes and grain! I think they would just pick up anyone who was willing to pay something for a ride. I don't know if it was the road or the bus but it was the bumpiest ride I had ever been on! There was no way we could actually sleep, and I was completely miserable with my full bladder. So when I had held my bladder for around two hours more, I HAD to go! So Kevin and I climbed and squished our way through all the passengers at the next stop and Kevin asked if there was a bathroom to a bunch of guys sitting outside the bus. They all looked at me and then started laughing and said "no!" "no bathroom, go around corner, that is bathroom!" I decided that I could hold it. There were too many people there for me to go squat somewhere!
It was sad, because we were in the desert and kept passing long stretches of empty desert where I wouldn't have minded relieving my bladder, but the bus didn't ever stop there, only in the towns full of people and buildings. Oh, and no matter how late at night it was, there were always a bunch of people in the streets doing stuff! I don't know when these people sleep!
Finally, I really couldn't hold it anymore, every bump was torture and there was a bump about every second! (not exaggerating). So at the next stop, Kevin and I got out. Right there next to the bus was an empty spot between buildings. All the men were using it as the bathroom, so I went through it and around the back of a building where no one was, and made Kevin keep watch and finally went. WHAT A RELIEF!!
Kevin did manage to sleep for about 20 minutes on the bus that night, but had bruises on his feet from them banging together! Crazy! So it was also really cold because our window wouldn't stay closed, it kept opening more and more as the bus bumped along and we couldn't get it to latch. So when the bus stopped around 6 am, we decided to get out and get our jackets from out luggage which was stowed under the bus. We waited until some of the people started getting off so we could get down from our bunk, and went outside. We found our bag and I pulled our jackets out, and put the bags back in and the guy helping us looked at me and said, "no, take bag, last stop." Kevin said, "what? is this Delhi?" "yes Delhi." The guy said. We were two hours early, and it was still dark. You don't know how unusual it is for transportation to be early here, or at least to us. Our friends the Smiths weren't going to pick us up until 8 am. So we sat at a bus stand and waited.
So, an interesting experience, but not one we will repeat.

Well, thats all for now. I hope that these stories aren't sounding too negative. You should know that I am laughing as I write most of them, though some are frustrating. It's all good.