Kama Sutra

• Kristen.hilbert's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Khajuraho

Trip Start Jan 01, 2011 Previous
Entry Trip End May 22, 2011

  Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh, India
Sunday, May 8, 2011

So, I arrived in Khajuraho very early in the morning, and took an auto with Peter and Mark to their guesthouse.  They had offered for me to take a shower and leave my backpack there for the day, since I was again leaving by train the same night.  We ended up visiting the Western and most famous area of temples of Khajuraho together.  The temples were crazy.  Most are thousands of years old, and a few have Kama Sutra carvings all over the outside.  These carvings included either one man with many women, or many women fondling each other.  I'm not sure about much to do with Kama Sutra, but I'm assuming it can't be all about orgies... which was portrayed on the outside of these temples.  I do know that Kama Sutra is one of the either six or seven sutras that Hindus are supposed to abide by and follow during their holy lives.  But, I'm not sure why it was apparently so popular thousands of years ago and not so much today.  I guess I'll have to do more research of the Sutras of Hinduism.

But, where these temples were located they kept as a nice park, so it was quite the contrast of old and new together.  The temples are obviously old, and look very old, and the park around them was bright green and colorful, and just looked weird to be so different like that.  And again, as foreigners, we got ripped off getting into the site.  At all these World Heritage sites like this... the Indian price is always really, really cheap, like around 20-50 rupees, whereas the foreigner price is very high.  Here, just like at the Agra Fort, I paid 250 rupees, and paid 750 at the Taj Mahal.  I'm not sure why they jack up the price quite that much higher... I could see you know, an Indian paying Rs. 20, and a foreigner paying around Rs. 100... but for it to be THAT big of a difference in price?!  I mean, come on... not ALL white people are rich!! haha.... especially not me!

Anyway, there wasn't much else to see in Khajuraho besides even more temples on the other side of town... so we decided to just chill out the rest of the day... especially because it is SO hot here in the North right now in the dead of summer... it was about 100 degrees here all day (and when I was in Agra).  But, I felt like a teacher all day to Peter and Mark... they had just arrived in India two weeks earlier, and still did not know much about the food or how certain things worked.  So I had to explain to them what a bunch of foods were before they decided to eat... where and how to buy street food... how to know when you can drink juice from the street (if it has added water or not)... etc.  So, it was definitely an interesting change... I'm not used to having to educate people on things in India... but it was nice to know that I have been here long enough to know how!  Obviously though, I couldn't answer every thing.  I even had some questions at the restaurant we went to dinner at.  In India... North and South cuisine is completely different... and since this is my first time in the North, I'm still trying to learn myself.  The curries seem to be pretty much the same so far, but it's the snacks and breads and certain way they even spell things that I haven't quite figured out.  But, I'm sure I'll get used to it... I've heard that North Indian food isn't as spicy as in the South though, so hopefully I'll still like everything I try!

So that evening, I left by train again to Varanasi... which was surprisingly on time!! Shocker! haha.  Anyway, I'll post again soon!

~Namaste~

-Kristen

Share

Previous Entry