Khajuraho is one of the places we have always wanted to visit, but never visited, during any of our North India trips because it is not well connected. The closest rail station is Satna/Jhansi and it is nearly 3-4 hours away. So, we planned to visit only Khajuraho during the short Diwali break in 2007. The flight which we took had two stops from Mumbai and it took us nearly 6 hours to reach the place. The hotels and temples are all near the airport itself. The weather was very pleasant at that time of the year. What surprised us the most, was that there were more foreign tourists who had come in tour groups and by themselves, and less of local tourists.
We watched the sound and light show on the day we arrived so that we could soak in the history. There are sound and light shows in English and Hindi everyday and we found it excellent. The temples are open from 6 am to 6 pm. So, we decided to go in early before it gets too hot to look around. Though we had booked a local taxi, the rickshaws which are available right outside our hotel, Taj Chandela, are a cheaper option. We hired a tour guide outside the main gate of the Western group of temples. Guides are available for foreign language tours too like French, Japanese, Chinese, etc. The guides are so much in demand that our guide said he was already booked and would be available till his party turned up. The rates are fixed and no negotiation is required. The guide gave us some background on the history of the temples and also spiced it up with his own stories to make it more lively. There are 7-8 temples in the compound area of the Western group of temples. The main temples though are the Lakshmana temple and the Viswanath temples. There are no poojas conducted in the temples as the statues of the Gods are incomplete. The outer walls of the temples have the figurines of women of that age in different activities. The panels depicting the kamasutra are restricted to less than 15-20% of the entire sculptures, but somehow, to us Indians that is what Khajuraho is known for. The temples are very beautiful and show us the architectural superiority of our ancestors. There are also the Eastern and Southern group of temples which have Jain and Hindu temples. The sculptures are repeated in most of the temples. We revisited the temple the next day on our own, as we felt the guide was hurrying us up. This time we took an audio guide which takes us thru in 2 hours. We have seen audio guides in Europe and must say that the standard of the audio guide we had was as good as the ones we find overseas. The audio guides are available for hire at the main gate for just Rs. 50.
We also went to Panna Tiger Reserve and Ken Gariyal Sanctuary which is about 25 km away. We were quite disappointed as we just saw a couple of deer, bisons, peacocks and no tigers.
The Museum which is near the Western group of temples had very good exhibits. The new museum is under construction and should be operational soon. The train track also is laid and the services of Indian Railways will be available shortly direct to Khajuraho.