22 hours to Khajuraho!

After a night on a train and 5 hours on a local bus, I'm finally in the UNESCO World Heritage site of Khajuraho, the temples from 1100 AD with images of the Karma Sutra on the outside. To keep this PG, I'm not posting photos -- but you can always google. On the bus, I had the good fortune to meet Rakesh, a local guy who graduated University last year and now superintends his farm here. My travel agent in Delhi (crook) booked me 7 kilometers from the city center -- making it hard and expensive to get downtown. Argh. So Rakesh offered to chauffeur me on his motorbike. It was really fun! We had lunch, then I met his family and spent some cool time inside, and then in the late afternoon we toured some of the temples. They were really beautiful. Rakesh asked me why I thought there were erotic figures, and I answered that it must be a celebration of life -- enjoying life, and creating it. He said this isn't a bad answer, but that there is another reason too. When these were being built, the King of Khajuraho was fighting a neighboring king, and many people died on both sides. At the same time, his city was full of holy people -- they were only interested in worshipping at the temples, or going into the forests to be ascetics. Afraid that between war and devotion, there would soon be no subjects left to rule, the King placed erotic sculpture around the temple. When people completed their prayers, they'd walk around the temple, clockwise, for good luck. By putting these images up high, between images of earthly duty and heavenly delight, the King hoped to encourage them to see love as part of duty, worship and a good life. I guess it worked -- there are still people living here today!

PS -- if you heard about the small protests in Delhi, and the bombings in Jaipur, I'm safe -- and Kerri and I may cut Jaipur from our journey.