Khajuraho, travel to the heart of India!

[rahulzzz]

great start yogesh and nice pics. Good to know you were able to control halt the bike.
waiting for more.

[anupmathur]

Amazing pics, YS! Again, the abilities of a P&S demonstrated superbly!

[mohanme_2000]

Excellent pictures Yogesh, and the second last picture is simple superb... Waiting for more..

[bhuwan singh]

Welcome back Sir, The Greed is rising as the sun rises, post all the pics soon and make the Sun set.

[BHARAT]

nice pics and log....aane do.

[pushpinder]

beautifully narrated!!

Originally Posted by Yogesh Sarkar

Amit I normally carry Iodex and Volini spray with me, however this time I forgot to carry it and hence had to apply Vicks.

I didnt know vicks had analgesic properties!!

[shankarmayaa]

Admin Babu, it is nice to see you in action. Nice captures there.

Enough of break post more.

[Yogesh Sarkar]

Day 2: Jhansi - Chhatarpur - Bambitha - Khajuraho

After ordering in breakfast, I started my ride from Jhansi at around 9:20AM; first stop was a petrol pump, where I got Rs. 400 worth of petrol filled.

Once out of Jhansi, I was pleasantly surprised by the road conditions. Even though NH76 was still a single lane one, it was mostly smooth and had some nice long turns, where there was no such thing as entry or exit speed, just the constant twist of throttle and some nice lean angles.

First photography break came on a bridge crossing the Betwa River, and boy was the river full!



Few kms down the road, I saw this simple yet attractive Jaray's Math (जाराय का मठ).



By now I had lost my will to try and reach Khajuraho as soon as possible, I was getting engulfed by the lovely scenery around me, with smooth road and sparse traffic enabling me to concentrate more off the road, than on it!



It felt as if I was truly riding into the heart of India, with fields filled with fresh produce and villagers, still time wrapped in the last century.



Surprisingly, not only was I getting full network on my mobile phones, but even the GPRS was working properly and as fast as ever! It is at moments like this, when I wonder, is everything as much wrong with India, as we city dwellers, make it out to be?

My love affair with the lovely roads continued and so did frequent breaks for photography and at times, simply to gawk in all directions.

My Pulsar 180, at one such pit stop



Soon it was time to bid farewell to NH-76 and take the NH-75, which didn’t at all looked inviting. And while the lovely scenery continued to be a constant companion of mine, road conditions were a mixed bag of good, bad and the ugly. However, truckers and local commercial drivers were fantastic and went out of their way, to allow me to overtake them. Something I seldom see in plains and it made the whole experience even more special.

Somewhere along the route, I spotted this old building in the middle of a field. And while it did look like in need of some restoration, it blended in perfectly with its surroundings.



At Chhatarpur I spotted a lake, not sure what it is called, but even with all the hustle and bustle of the city and afternoon sun, it looked serene.



At around 1 o’clock, I decided to stop at a small dhaba, around 35km before Khajuraho. At first I was the only customer, but was later joined by a cop on a motorcycle, traveling with his wife and a truck driver and cleaner.

Police officer kept joking around, till he spotted a rooster in the nearby shed. After that, his heart was kind of set on it and almost all of the conversations ended with him looking at the rooster and saying something about it. Dhaba owner it seems, didn’t wanted to sell it off to the cop and just kept himself busy with chores, till the cop eventually left.

But I had a feeling, he would come back for this poor rooster, and it would soon be ending up on a platter.



Commander Dhaba, where I had my lunch.



After having my fill, it was time to move on. Roads were as usual a mixture of good and bad till Bambitha, where I had to take left turn for Khajuraho. As soon as I took the left turn, I was presented with two roads and for a brief moment I pondered on which one to take, till I realized that there weren’t two roads, it was just a four lane one with a divider!

After having a good laugh at my foolishness, it was time to move on and it soon became clear, how rich a town Khajuraho is (compared to other towns nearby), thanks to tourism. Soon I was in front of Western Group of Temples and decided to check out Hotel Siddharth and eventually decided to stay there, as I was pretty sure that their rooftop restaurant would serve as a good vantage point for photography.

Got a room for Rs. 600 a night and after unpacking, headed for a warm shower, which did wonders for my shoulder and arm pain. Later in the evening, I decided to check out the temples and found that the ticket counter has been closed for the day, so decided to loiter around.

Sun was going down, but I just wasn’t getting the kind of sky I wanted, when I took photographs of the temple. So decided to ride down to a small lake I had saw earlier, and shot a few photographs of the sunset.



Came back to the hotel, picked up my tripod and went upstairs to their rooftop restaurant. Even though hotel staff suggested that I could see the sound and light show, however I wanted to save that for tomorrow night.

Setup the tripod and fired away, there was still plenty of light available, so while temple came out nice and fine, sky got washed out.

Visvanatha Temple



Waited for the light to fade and ordered a cold drink and started chatting with the waiter and asked him if the temples were illuminated at night, got a negative reply. Waiter also said that I wouldn’t be able to get any photographs later on, as there is hardly any light, I just smiled and continued drinking my cold drink.

Forty five minutes later (6:10pm), I setup the tripod again and started shooting; finally got the kind of sky I was looking for.

From left to right, Parvati Temple, Visvanatha Temple and Nandi Shrine



However it wasn’t until the sound and light show started at around 6:30pm, that things got really interesting.





Wasn’t completely satisfied with the shots I got and decided to stop shooting at around 8:30pm and had dinner. Though I wasn’t completely satisfied with the shots I got and didn’t like the palak-paneer due to excessive garlic in it, I would have happily paid more than the cost of dinner as entrance fee to the restaurant, for providing such a nice place to shoot photographs from. Returned to my room happy and vowed to return tomorrow night to the restaurant with my secret weapon. Once at the room, updated my blog and checked out BCMTouring, before going to bed.

Tomorrow was going to be long day...

<Previous Next>

Day 1: Delhi - Agra - Gwalior - Jhansi

Day 3: Khajuraho, Visvanatha Temple and Nandi Shrine

Day 3: Khajuraho, Parvati Temple

Day 3: Khajuraho, Lakshmana Temple

Day 3: Khajuraho, Lakshmana Temple, Part-2

Day 3: Khajuraho, Kandariya Mahadeva Temple

Day 3: Khajuraho, Jagadambi and Chitragupta Temples

Day 3: Khajuraho, Adivart Tribal and Folk Art Museum and ASI Museum

Day 3: Khajuraho, Jain Temples and Museum

Day 3: Khajuraho, Southern Group of Temples

Day 3: Khajuraho, Eastern Group of Temples

Day 3: Khajuraho, Sound and light show

Day 4: Khajuraho, Raneh Falls and Ken Gharial Sanctuary

Day 4: Khajuraho, Folk Dance Performance

Day 5: Khajuraho - Jhansi - Gwalior - Agra - Delhi

[cat]

Nice pics. I think I like pics of roads of India more than anything else.


PS: ooh, wow, a whole bunch of awesome pics came in now!

[Karthik3393]

Awesome shots again YS ... and the light show in the background really brings out some amazing colors on the temple ... 1 q... tho i know u have a P&S, which one do you have?

coz the photos are rich and beautiful. you are surely able to capture the beauty of the environs around you.

TFS and awaiting day 3.