Holiday Inn Khajuraho

... before) our blurry pictures before heading out of the park which itself was great just for the landscapes.<br>Our driver then took us to a waterfall area a few kilometers away. We weren't expecting much but it was actually a beautiful place. A small waterfall cascading into a fairly large lake of water which contained fish. On one side a cliff face which had some stone built rooms, this was another place claimed to have been visited by the Pandavas who stayed in ...

... us with our bags throught the streets late at night before we caught a cycle rickshaw to the train station. Nadine gave her new son enough baksheesh (500rupees) so he could take a month long swimming lesson course and learn to swim in The Ganga. Once at the train station it was the usual scattered palava. It was late at night and many bodies were sleeping in every available slice of platform space. Loads of starving beggars too including one kid with emancipated arms and legs that ...

... fresh samosas, similar dough-shaped parcels of vegetables, drinks, snacks and fruit. I bought 2 lovely samosas and waited to arrive 1hr later in the morning. To my horror, the train actually arrived 4 hrs later, meaning I'd missed the last morning bus to link up with a local shuttle to Khajuraho.<br><br>I found a local bus to Amitabha, which then linked up with an 11km shuttle to Khajuraho. I met up with Gorvan, an Indian who had cheap rooms at his hotel. The room ...

... s * tot*l f*rce *nd the bus still h*dn't left *t 9*m, so * riot ensued, with the bus driver *d*m*nt we couldn't h*ve our money b*ck, even tho' it still w*sn't moving! Succinctly, we m*n*ged to *rr*nge * lift with * guy returning to V*r*n*si with * c*r, who ch*rged us the s*me *s the origin*l bus f*re Unfortun*tely, wh*t he h*dn't told us w*s th*t he'd driven to Sun*uli thro' the night *nd w*s m*king the return trip without much sleep<br><br>We m*de * few stops for s*mos*s ...

... with your hand luggage thru a metal detector. We learned that we had to pass this exam each time we entered the hotel. The Jaypee is very luxurious, but not our style-very snobbish. We wandered around the grounds and looked at the pool which was very nice, but a little too formal. At least the main restaurant looked good, so later on we had a good dinner and then walked around some more before heading to bed Tomorrow morning at 6AM-the Taj Mahal!!

... shen*****ns with horses *nd stuff. Cle*rly the guy did not wish to *dmit his f*scin*tion for the pl*ce in front of his wife! However he w*s right, the pl*ce w*s re*lly nice. Luckily it w*s some world herit*ge d*y on the S******y we were there so did not h*ve to p*y to get in *nd it w*s * welcome relief from the rest of Indi* *s the temple grounds were *lmost empty, lots of pe*ce *nd quiet. The touts were not *llowed in either so it w*s nice not to h*ve people ...

... line this train had only one class, so everyone was in together squished onto hard wooden benches. Children were thrown around the carriages, passed from passenger to passenger, lap to lap. A collection of men gathered in the corner sitting on their sacks of food, gazing at me slack-jawed and grinning as they muttered to one another.<br><br>Yells echoed up and down the carriages as food sellers touted their wares. Women pushed through the throng ...

... a panoramic view of the village (I didn't, I got vertigo - no health and safety in India!, and Rumi got lost!), and we visited the palace before taking a taxi for Khajuraho. Khajurao is another small village, but much more on the touristy than Orchha, because it has loads of temples with erotic carvings on their walls. This was the final day with Rumi because she had a plane to catch for Delhi. Nikki, Nats and (especially me) cheered ...

... will take 3 months via ship (so they say). Khajuraho: Getting to Khajuraho was a total pain as we were stuck waiting in the train station until 2am for a very late train to arrive; I'm starting to realize late trains are the norm here. At least we had several families of monkeys that lived in the rafters of the terminal to keep us entertained, hehe Since our train got in so late it made us miss our connecting bus to Khajuraho which meant we would have to wait for hours ...

... l'autre. On regarde et ne voyons aucun numéro dessus et aucune indication sur les pseudo panneaux d'affichages. Lorsque le train était rentré en gare la destination indiqué dessus ne correspondait pas à la notre. Nous sommes quand même montées dedans sans conviction aucune alors qu'il commençait déjà à rouler, en espérant que l'homme n'avait pas encore menti. Après avoir demandé à plusieurs personnes y compris (par chance) un genre de contrôleur de train on réalise que c'était bien le ...