Kajuraho

From Varanasi we headed to Allahabad. Just picked the place randomly on the map, something that would be close to Varanasi. But we did not know one very important thing about Allahabad - it is one of the most famous places for Hindu marriages and another thing that we did not know was that, it was just the marriage season.
So, as a result, all the hotels and lodges were fully booked.

It was already dark and we still did not have any place to crash.
Fortunately we found a rickshaw-puller, who said he knows few hotels that might have few places. He drove us around the city, looking for hotels, just for 5 rupees (0,08 €) - what a kind and honest soul.
Eventually as finding a room, we gave him 10 rupees, which made his eyes shine.

The hotel room however was one of the most expensive and at the same time one of the worst ones we ever stayed in the whole India.
There were no windows, but holes in the walls instead. And there were other rooms behind walls, of course. On one side was a crazy noisy Indian family, consisting at least of 10 members and turning on the TV at 5am. On the other side a lunatic, who were having conversations with himself the whole night.

Besides, Branko´s stomach went out of order after Varanasi....

So next day we decided to try to change the train ticket for one day earlier. We succeeded in this, so we left Allahabad the same evening.














The biggest church of Northern India is in Allahabad, at least according to the friendly priest in charge of it.

















A rickshaw-puller sleeping in his home behind the church fence.

After the night in train and few hour bus-ride to the Kajuraho, we came down the bus, drive off the annoying auto-rickshaw divers and just sat down to check into tourist "Bible" where to go.
Suddenly a fancy car stopped in front of us and a man came out offering us a nice hotel room for 250 Rupees and free ride there.
Of course we were skeptical at first, but after a short conversation with him decided to go along.
We ended up in one of the best hotel rooms, that we ever stayed in India and only for 250 Rs, which is usually just an average room with dirty walls and cold water.

For most of touristic places applies the main rule: cheep hotels with good standards and expensive eating places with bad standards.

Kajuraho is a place, which is known for its temples, decorated with Kama Sutra sculptures.
Today there are only 25 temples survived out of 85.
Most famous legend says that erotic figures were carved on the walls of temples to show adolescent Brahman boys "how-to-manual", who grew up without maybe seeing any woman more closer.












The main temple that is just in the middle the tourist hub, costs 250 Rs for foreigners. For Indians it is almost for free.




















Shiva festival going on in front of the main temple




















After we become friends with a local man, a Brahman, we got to know that the other temples few km-s away are exactly the same and for free.
So, one day we hired bicycles and drove to see the other temples and the famous Kama Sutra sculptures more closer.













going....


























There are also stories connected with the sculptures. The inner 3 scenes tell a story about a man who had a beard, and whose wife refused from sex because of that. After, the man shaved, woman was happy and they practiced Kama Sutra together.



























coming....

Throughout the stay in Kajuraho, Branko still had stomach problems, so we bought dry bread, as recommended in this case.
One pack of dry bread tasted so badly, that we decided to get rid of it somehow.
After leaving Kajuraho and going to train station, we offered the breads to dogs first, as they are in the most pathetic situation in India - carnivores living in the vegetarian environment. Even though the dogs were so skinny, they refused the bread.
Next we saw a cow and gave few pieces to it, but the cow was so slow that we would have missed our train after finishing feeding the cow the whole big pack of breads.

The creatures that most appreciated our offering were rats. All of the sudden there were so many rats running around, so that each one got its nice piece of bread.















































cow wandering on the platform












The chaos in Northern India had entirely exhausted us, so we stepped into the train with the huge anticipation to wake up in the "Promised Land" next day - In Southern India.