Khajuraho (1)....

Saturday, 27th February 2010

After getting quite frustrated at the apparent 'lack of urgency' and a lack of " SOP" ( standard operating procedure) of the hotel staff in handling the theft at the coffeehouse, Ravee and Siti decided to follow pakdokter to Khajuraho as planned in our original itinerary. In the van to the airport, Ravee dialled Siti's handphone and, voila!, whoever it was at the other end had pressed the button on but forgot or did not know how to switch it off. Over the phone, Ravee could hear several voices talking in Hindi and mentioning his room number at the hotel etc etc. This made us all very suspicious that perhaps some of the hotel staff were involved in the scam. Attempts to get the hotel executives by phone to look around the hotel proved futile, further evidence at the hopelessness of the hotel staff at handling such a situation.

The flight to Khajuraho left New Delhi via the new domestic terminal. The Jet Airways flight was delayed by about 1 hour. Enroute to Khajuraho, the plane stopped for a short transit at Varanasi, a popular tourist and pilgrimage destination. We arrived at the little Khajuraho Airport at around lunch-time and was picked up by the local tour agent and transferred to the Taj Hotel, the best, if not one of the best hotels in Khajuraho.

a stressed-out Dr Ravee trying to look relaxed and reliefed

after checking-in at the Taj Khajuraho...

the lobby of the Khajuraho Taj Hotel....

The afternoon was a 'free and easy' programme and we decided to ask our driver to take us to places not covered on our official tour programme. We drove to the nearby village and town for a look at this small farming community ( Khajuraho is a farming town with about 20,000 population). And apart from this, the driver also took us to the sites of 2 ancient temples not included in our itinerary. These were 2 smaller Hindu temples, not normally included in the standard 0ne-day tour of Khajuraho. Pakdokter's group had requested for a 3day/2nights stay in Khajuraho for we did not want to be rushed through the tours.

a farmers' village in Khajuraho...
wheat and mustard appear to be the main crop...

The first Hindu temple we visited was a single structure with some reconstruction/restoration work still in progress. Pakdokter photographed the explanatory plaque about the temple with a few pictures to highlight the features of the temple.

The second temple we visited was slightly bigger and was already completely restored. It was located in the centre of a well-tended garden.