Khajuraho and Orchha

Khajuraho found its way onto the tourist trail via its now world-famous temples devoted to various Hindu deities. The temples are all made of stone and feature elaborately detailed stone carvings depicting Hindu gods, great battles, and kama sutra. The western group of temples is the best preserved and charges a steep entrance fee of 250 rupees. They are in the heart of the newer part of town where all the tourist facilities. The eastern group are free and fewer in number but are also very nice to visit as well. They are a short walk away in the old part of town, where the old way of life prevails. People still live in segregation by caste. The touts here are annoyingly persistent as well, one guy had the nerve to come to the restaurant where we were eating and bother us two times.  Other than the temples there’s not much else to see or do here.

From Khajuraho it’s a 5/6 hour bus ride to Orchha. Orchha is a small town with a population of about 9000 and features some stunning palace ruins. When we arrived there happened to be a festival going on so the entire town was alive with activity. Given its small size Orchha is a nice place to kick back and relax but we were on the move so we only spent an afternoon here exploring the palace ruins before catching a shared autorickshaw to Jhansi and from there a bus to Agra.