Khajuraho- The temple town of Khajuraho is famous for the erotic, sculptures and often connected to the Kama sutra. It is only when you visit the beautiful town and it’s temples, you realize that the temples of Khajuraho are much more than just “erotic sculpture temples”.
Khajuraho is a small town with 20,000 people . During peak season it gets almost 600 international tourist a day, in off season this number significantly reduces. That said , it was nice visiting Khajuraho in the off season as roads are empty, we had the temples almost to ourselves for exploring, we cycled on the boulevards without any problem and most importantly, hotel prices are really low!
We flew into Khajuraho by the midday flight from Varanasi. A short 40 minute flight later we arrived at the beautiful secluded quite town of Khajuraho. The airport is a 10 min drive from the “downtown” of Khajuraho – which is a 2 kms long circular boulevard with hotels on either sides of the boulevard and the Western Temples .Khajuraho – the name comes from the numerous Date (kharjur) tress spread around the region during the period it was built in. Now, there is not a single Date tree left in the region.
Boulevards of Khajuraho
All hotels in Khajuraho have only two floors- ground and first floor. They also do not have lifts. Please request for a room specifically on the ground floor incase you cannot climb to the first floor. The airport is a 10 minute drive away from the hotels and normally Khajuraho gets 1 flight a day during off peak season and 2 flights a day during peak season.
While driving on the boulevard, you do feel like you are in the 1990 or 1980’s . This is because the hotels (the only construction you will see as you exit the airport) were constructed during those years. However, when you enter the hotels , you feel more like you are in the 2016
Since it was a nice and cloudy day, we choose to visit the temples in the afternoon. We visited the Western Temples with our guide and learnt about the history and architecture of the temples. The temples of Khajuraho were built between 950 and 1050 by the Chandela dynasty. There were originally over 85 temples which were constructed. About 25 temples are said to exist now.
Western Temples of Khajuraho
The western temple compound consist of 6 temples; the temple of Lord Vishnu is considered the main temple. We learnt about different theories of science and physics used to built the temple. From the angles the windows were placed at and the theory of ecology in the design to the depiction of all elements of a life, the temples were an extraordinary example of great architecture.
Khajuraho Temples
Later we walked around the compound and visited the other temples before returning to our hotel for some rest. In the evening we visited the temple site again for the Sound and light show. The show was nice with the temples light up in different colours. Shikhar Travels always recommends its client to do the Sound and Light show after guided sightseeing of the temples so it is easy to keep up with the story .
The following morning , we relaxed at our hotel before departing at 3 pm for Panna National Park. We were excited and hopeful to view a Tiger. The National park is a 45 minute drive from Khajuraho. Our naturalist and driver , both came with a lot of experience and made the journey very exciting. We spotted one tiger, three crocodiles , numerous white spotted deer’s, peacock , peahens, Gray Langur, Sambar Deer and some beautiful birds.
The best part of our journey in Khajuraho was cycling- we hired cycles from our hotel and went on ride on the boulevard. The roads are always empty during off peak season and it was simply a beautiful experience, specially since we do not get to cycle at all in cities like Delhi. We visited the Eastern Temples during our ride, which were not half as exciting as the Western Temples. We skipped the Southern Temples entirely! But the experience of cycling on the boulevard was just fantastic.
Cycling in Khajuraho
Shikhar Travels recommend Khajuraho as a two day destination. So you can enjoy the beautiful Ancient Temples and witness the Tigers at Panna National Park.