Spirit of India Day 4 Banaras to Khajuraho

Tuesday April 12^th

Happy Birthday Nomadic Joe. Today is the day my driver's license expires back home.

We were up and out of the hotel by 5:00 am to take the bus back to the ghats of Varanasi. The bus dropped us off a ways away and we walked through the narrow streets of the old city with lots of other tourists, mostly Indian pilgrims, who were coming to the Ganges for the sunrise. We boarded a wooden boat and we were rowed up and down the Ganges for a couple of hours. It is amazing the things you see. People sleeping along the streets, in the shops and on the steps, men and women bathing in the river, stray dogs and goats, people doing laundry by beating it on a concrete slab while they stand in the river (not sure the clothes are any cleaner!), holy men praying on the steps, people swimming in the river, people preparing piles of wood for more cremations, etc.

After our ride we negotiated the narrow streets on the way back to the bus. Again the things you see: beggars, merchants selling touristy trash, cows, motorbikes, blind men, monkeys living in the city, etc. A beehive of activity.

Back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and then head to the airport to catch a flight to Khajuraho. Again I got through security just on my International Drivers License, thankfully. The flight was less than an hour. Another bus picked us at the airport and took us to our beautiful hotel, the Clark's Khajuraho, complete with a large clean swimming pool. Really hot here, probably 35 degrees. After checking in, some of us went for a swim, while the rest went for lunch in the restaurant. I swam first for an hour and then headed into the hotel for lunch.

Late in the afternoon we were taken to a couple of Jain temples that were built in the 10^th century. Jain is an offshoot of the Hindu religion. The temples are very intricately carved from sandstone. The statue of their god looks very similar to Buddah. Parsvanatha Temple was the largest and the oldest one. The second one was called Adinath. The third one was Deladeo Temple. These temples were found intact in the jungle by British explorers last century and are now designated as World Heritage Sites. Just as we exited the temple area a small parade of local people was going past singing hymns to one of the gods (this was the end of a nine day celebration to the same goddess that they were honouring with the free food line I saw in Delhi).

Then we went back to the hotel to prepare for the evening program. First we went to an out door theatre to watch a performance of cultural Indian dance. It lasted about an hour and was quite good, even though Sameer fell asleep!

Back at the hotel again, and Sameer surprised me with a birthday cake and everyone sang. After that eight of us went to a local restaurant for another delicious Indian food dinner and a pint. Back at the hotel for the night and I had a chance to read a few e-mails from home before bed.