Ranah Falls

We met our safari jeep at 6:00am to take us to the Ranah Falls. The road was really rough, but the falls were really beautiful to see! Our driver pointed out all of the different types of trees, and explained how the monsoon in June had flooded the falls and the villages around the area. Once back at the hotel we had a quick breakfast and caught the cycle-rickshaw to the old village to check out the volunteer school. The kids were so polite, and the man running the school explained to us how they were trying to lessen the impact of the cast system. Our flight was 1 hour late, but got us back to Delhi with little trouble. We then enjoyed the English Pub with Ian's parents in the British High Commission for dinner.

The volunteer school set up in the old Khajuraho village for the children who cannot afford the private school. 

The waterbuffalo try to keep cool - Khajuraho. 

Ranah Falls, just 18km outside of Khajuraho. 

Khajuraho

We had breakfast at 7:00am and caught a cycle-rickshaw to the Western temples. We found a guide (or I should say a guide found us) to point out all of the 'interesting' carvings and started the tour of the 9 Western temples. The tour was a lot of fun, and the carvins were incredibly detailed for being 1000 years old! I wasn't feeling well (I think it was just the sun and the lack of water I had had the day before), so we went back to spend the day at the hotel pool. We headed out again around 3:00pm and toured the Eastern temples. The temples were also great, but we had been spoiled by all of the carvings we had seen in the morning. We then toured the old Khajuraho village, a local guy pointed out how separately the four casts of people still live. The mayor of the town even came out to give us a tour of his home (complete with shop! ha ha). We stopped by the Blue Sky Restaurant and enjoyed dinner in our own tree house with a view of the Western temples. The coconut cashew curry was incredible!

Our view of the Western Temples from the Blue Sky Restaurant.

Narora Sagar, near the old Khajuraho village.

One of the tamer carvings at the Western Temples...

A langur monkey decides to join our tour of the Western Temples.

Khajuraho - the Western Temples

Khajuraho - the Western Temples

Khajuraho - the Western Temples.

Orchha to Khajuraho

We woke up to breakfast on our private terrace and decided to go for a quiet walk through Orchha. We were surprised to see that the town had been taken over by thousands of pilgrims (many of whom had walked for many miles to come and celebrate). We fought our way through the crowds for a couple of hours, and even bargained with the locals to purchased our very own Ganesh idol. We met our driver from the previous day at 11:30am for the 3 hour drive to Khajuraho. In Khajuraho we stayed at the Holiday Inn (which was a little run down and smelled of mould, but had an amazing pool area!). Ian toured the southern temples while I napped by the pool, but he came back and picked me up to go and enjoy a cultural dance show. We had dinner at the Mediterraneo Restaurant.

Holiday Inn, Khajuraho.

The Kandariya Art & Culture centre put on a cultural dance show from different states.

Khajuraho - the Southern Temples.

Dyes for sale in the temporary market set up for the pilgrims in Orchha.

We were surprised to find the quiet town of Orchha full of pilgrims who had walked for miles for this festival.

Jhansi & Orchha

We caught the Shatabdi in Gwalior and continued on to Jhansi. In Jhansi we negotiated for a taxi (an old embassador car) to take us up to the Fort and then on to Orchha (20km drive). The Fort was neat with great views, but a little run down and there we no other tourists there. The locals, however, were quite proud that we had come to visit. We also visited the Rani Mahal Palace, but it was also a little disappointing. The drive to Orchha was not bad, and we were very impressed with all of the palaces and temples in the small quiet town. We stayed at the Hotel Sheesh Mahal, within the Jehangir Mahal Palace (the room was huge! with a private terrace, and our washroom built into the old tower on one side). We spent the afternoon exploring the temples and palaces, ending the day with dinner on the hotel roof top under the stars and enjoyed the live music.

Orchha at night as taken from our royal patio.

We stayed at the Hotel Sheesh Mahal in the 'royal apartment'. It was one complete floor of this wing of the Jehangir Mahal Palace.

Orchha had quite a few vultures.

In the Jehangir Mahal Palace.

The view of Orchha from the Jehangir Mahal.

Ian tries a balcony at the Jehangir Mahal Palace.

Old temples near the river in Orchha.

At Gwalior train station waiting for our Shatabdi to Jhansi.

Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh

We woke up around 4:30am (again) and caught the Shatabdi Express train to Gwalior. The train took 4 hours (scheduled to take only 3 hours and 15 min), and we caught an auto-rickshaw to our hotel, the Usha Kiron Palace. We enjoyed the air-conditioning in our amazing room and took a quick walk around the property before catching another rickshaw up to the Gwalior Fort. The rickshaw took us to the Urbai Gate on the west side where we paid for a guide and a taxi to take us around the Fort (it was 35 degrees and the sites were not well marked so we thought we could use a little help). In the Fort we stopped at Man Singh Palace, Jehangir Mahal, Shah Jahan Mahal, Jauhar Kund, Sasbahu Temples and the Teli Ka Mandir Temple. ( The guide even took us for the dungeon tour and pointed our where the bats hung over our heads. yikes!) We then caught a rickshaw to the Jai Villas Palace and Scindias Museum to take a look at the maharaja's bizarre collections which included; Belgian cut-glass furniture, stuffed tigers, a silver model train made to carry brandy and cigars around the dinner table and two 3.5 ton chandeliers. We walked back to the hotel in time for a swim in the pool, and a historical tour of the hotel. Ian even played a couple of snooker games on the 130 year old billards table!

Ian enjoyed playing snooker on one of the best billiards tables in India. It is 130 years old and General Tito has played on it.

We stayed at the Usha Kiran Palace in Gwalior.