Khajuraho oli tosi raskas kokemus. Temppelit olivat todella kauniita mutta ihmiset aarimmaisen rasittavia ja arsyttavia. Kaikki halusivat jotain. Yleensa rahaa. Nekin ihmiset, jotka eivat halunneet rahaa, halusivat jotakin... huomiosi, sielusi, whatever. Joka kerta, kun astuimme hotellin ovista ulos, joku roikkui hihasta, useimmin joko lapset tai kylan nuoret miehet. Tapasimme monia paikallisia lapsia, jotka eivat kay koulua vaan ovat paattaneet panostaa kielien opiskeluun. Keskiverto kahdeksanvuotias khajuraholainen pojankloppi puhuu sujuvasti viitta kielta: omaansa, englantia, espanjaa, italiaa ja ranskaa. Muutamat olivat erikoistuneet aasialaisiin kieliin kuten japaniin ja koreaan. Aika hullua! Ensin se jaksoi innostaa ja olin aivan aimankakena, miten he ovat voineet oppia kielia niin sujuvasti ja vain turistien kanssa rupatellen, mutta oppismistapa kavi meille pian aika raskaaksi. Meita seurasi jatkuvasti lauma lapsia, jota vain halusivat jutella. Ei siina mitaan, mutta me emme oikeasti saaneet olla ikina missaan rauhassa. Aina samat kysymykset, aina samat vastaukset:
- Hello, my friend! Where from? How many languages?
- Hello, kid. Finland, six.
- What languages do you speak, my friend?
- I speak Finnish, English, Span...
- I also espeak eSpanish.
Ja sitten oli ne paikalliset nuoret miehet. Huh! Heilla on kovin erikoinen kasitys lansimaalaisista naisista, mutta annetaan Grantin kertoa itse... (minun lisaykset hakasulkeissa)
"24/4/11 (EASTER!) KHAJURAHO SUN
Woke at 3:45, the pain in the arse guy who was sleeping on the train floor decided to be more annoying by playing some stupid song on his bloody mobile at a ridiculous hour in the morning showing even less consideration for people around him.
The train was clearly late as we passed a station on the map and still had a good 100 kms to go, when we should have been there in 15 minutes. As we knew it would take a while to get to a door as we had to step over a pile of bodies in the aisle, we did get to a spot where we could stand at about 30 mins later we got off in Satna.
We walked our way to the bus station which was a little further than we thought, found our bus, had some chai and then headed off. The ride was a little cramped but that was not the worst thing, not even the second worst thing. No, those titles belong to the crappy-arse Bollywood movie being blasted over the bus speakers and the damn bus horn that was a 16 note tune at an incredible decibel level!
It took 4 hours to reach Khajuraho and it was guesthouse seeking time. We fought through the tuk-tuks [who claimed it was a 2 km walk when in reality it took us 3 minutes], got mobbed by hotel owners, got passed commission guys and went in and out of places. It was soon clear this was going to be our cheapest place to stay. A 100 rupee room came up quick, but 60 was the best, but even all that price it wasn't worth it. We settled for 100 at the 3rd or 4th room that offered it. Amazing prices when it is not peak season!
Settled in, planned a lazy day, grabbed some lunch. I had chicken marinated in a special sauce and cooked in yoghurt and Saara had an egg curry, both were great, mine especially!! We also got a pot, yes a POT of chai! Did some internetting, Saara got some blog done. We had a small walk around the town and found ourselves wandering through the farmers' area of town. It was pretty sweet.
Later in the evening, once it had cooled (42 degrees the internet said 9 % humidity) we went wandering again. We met a Finnish guy where we had lunch, bumped into him again, so we had chai together and invited him to our guesthouse after we bought some beers at a place we found. We had a good chat about Finland, travels, Indian religion, etc., and no doubt we will meet him here again as it is a small place.
Looking forward to some "dirty" rock art tomorrow. Weather should be very hot again!
25/4/11 KHAJURAHO MON
1 month in India!
The plan was to get up early but that didn't happen due to the room being quite comfortable to sleep in. We eventually got up and headed for breakfast at a nearby street stall, had chai and fried dough balls with onions and chili in gravy.
We then hired some bikes for 25 rupees each and headed for the southern temples. Soon after a local, also on a bike, latched on to us, explaining he only wants to talk, no money, show us around, where to go and other stuff. He seemed harmless enough, so I let him. Of course we were suspicious though, we just can't help but feel that way. Our friend, Raja I think his name was, sat under a tree and let us look at the temples for ourselves calming our suspicions a bit that he wasn't doing it for guide money.
After we jumped on the bikes and thought of a plan of going back to the guesthouse might 'shake our tag'. We met Ville (the Finnish guy from yesterday) who was also riding a bike. Raja then came out and said he is collecting foreign coins and asked if we had some. That old trick! [Every kid, EVERY kid, in this damn country "collects" foreign coins.] This is an easy one for us because we don't, so we are not lying when we say we don't. The strangest thing he said came afterwards...
"Okay, at 6 o'clock I come to you hotel, hotel Jain yes? And then we go for beer. You and madam"
I was a little perplexed. Where did this idea come from? He didn't form it as a question but said it like we had discussed it earlier and everything was sorted. So, I had to stumble around it saying we could be doing anything at 6 so we don't know but this wasn't good enough.
"No, no, 6 o'clock. I be at you hotel. No problem."
We made sure we were not at the hotel at 6.
If possible he said something funny but stranger still...
"Saara, she is sexy, yes?"
"Raja, we don't say sexy. We say attractive or beautiful."
"WHAT? You don't know the sex?"
"Yes, I know sex, but when we speak English, we don't use that word to describe someone."
"Oh, no! My girlfriend, she very sexy. We go here-there, have the sex everywhere."
"Uhmm, that's great, Raja, but..."
"She has very nice milk."
What the---? I did not know if he was talking about his girlfriend or Saara as he was looking at Saara at the time or maybe his girlfriend is a cow. They are "worshiped" here. Obviously, I laughed. Thankfully soon after he left.
[Some time later] ... We moved on, grabbed a big bottle of Limca and headed for some more temples when another local on a bike latched on by talking about Alan Border. Then when Saara and I sat under a tree to drink our softdrink, this guy started yakking about his work as a teacher and that he has a restaurant nearby and asked if we would sit in it "just for 5 minutes, don't buy anything, just chat". Yeah, right! We stayed where we were. Next he invited us to his home and to spend some time at his son's birthday tomorrow!
"So, you be here tomorrow at say 12 and I take you to my home, OK?"
What the hell? Why are people making appointments with us when we say no thanks or we will be busy etc.? [I kind of wanted to see if he would throw a fake birthday party for his son to suck some money out of us.] It makes us feel awkward and we do want to meet the locals but we can't help that nagging 'brain talk' trying to work out which way they are trying to get money out of us. It is ruining any chance of a good conversation with anyone.
[After seeing some more temples]...on the way back Saara's rear tire went boom, so we had the short walk back to the bike rental place. Saara went to the room whilst I sorted out the bikes. Two funny things happened there. One; the guy tried to charge me for the tube. Not going to happen. [So, he wanted us to pay for fixing HIS bike.] And two; he asked if I wanted any Indian music. He put a disc in the DVD-player while I waited for a replacement bike for Saara and porn came up on the screen. I could do nothing but laugh. The only reason I went into the shop was because I was waiting for another bike.
"Umm, where is the other bike?"
"Oooh, you want bike?"
"Yes, please." Muppet.
'Oh, it's right there", pointing to one directly outside. It never ends. [The bike was there all along but the guy wanted Grant to wait for a new bike in his shop so that he would possibly buy something.]
[We went to get dinner and]... we hung around in there [the restaurant] until well past 6 to avoid our guide and then rode to the old town. We made it in 100 metres before we were mobbed by kids and even a man who showed us his house including inside and then of course he tried to sell us artwork that he said was his but were clearly prints. It got a bit awkward when price became an issue [the price went from 500 rupees to 5], so we eventually left and got mobbed by even more children as soon as we stepped out on to the street. All we tried to do is get back to the bikes. The kids were relentless with question after question. We finally found the bikes, jumped on and rode off.
Saara and I both let out a sigh of "Jesus"! It actually disheartened me and I sort of broke down saying "Are there ANY genuine people in this country? They all want something from us and it usually comes out of our wallets" I needed chai. It was the only thing that would make me feel better. I ordered two.
There has been a boy at the chai shop that has shown up each night who is a bit of a legend. He has a disbility and can't talk but just keeps pointing at the lollies and coke signalling for us to buy them for him. We don't but we would like to as we are sticking to our no money policy which includes lollies. [He is the only person we enjoy seeing and the only one the locals don't.]
Three local guys then showed up, sat down and the questions started all over again. This conversation took a bit of a turn though and sexist jokes and comments became the favourite topic. A little odd. The young guys here always seem to have a "friend" who has had sex with some foreign girl usually from Europe and from that experience all the girls are like that. Brilliant! [As a foreign, European girl I would like to state officially that there were no men in the town that I would even consider boinking.] The guy I was talking to wanted a Mexican girl because all you have to do is "lie there" according to him [or his friend who allegedly boinked one].
We eventually broke free from their vice like conversation ability, bought some mango juice and headed to bed. A crazy, crazy day!
26/4/11 KHAJURAHO TUES
...We were contemplating weather we had the energy or the will to go back to the Old Village to see what it is like but hopefully we wouldn't get mobbed. We did some internetting first and then decided to have a look around the town as we needed to buy some essentials. We hadn't walked more than 20 metres when the sexist guy from last night showed up, got off his bike and started walking with us and talking more shit [including how he knows Grant could shake the hand of a random person and then kill that person... just because he knows Grant so well now... righ-o]. We tried to hint at him that we just wanted to walk on our own but hints DO NOT work here. Then another guy tried to latch on but Saara let him know we just wanted some peace [in no uncertain terms]. So, we ended up looping back to our guesthouse just to get rid of them. We popped out a minute later, took a deep breath and headed for the Old Village and I'm glad we did.
We got a fair way on our own but we also had some kids walk with us explaining the village and how it works. I also played a bit of cricket with them in a small court yard.
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| A match interrupted by a water buffalo. |
When we left the kids asked for the usual pen or money but we said "sorry, we don't have any' and then one of the kids dug out a red coloured rock out of his pocket and gave it to Saara. How quickly our opinion changed of the village.
[A little while later]... we sat under a tree and four boys [aged 8-12] joined us. One was very chatty and showed us his fish he had caught during the day. Of course, he tried to sell them to us. He was chatting away about the usual stuff when he said:
"So, you and your girlfriend like tak-tak?"
"Sorry, what is tak-tak?"
"You know, jiggy jiggy!"
All we could to is laugh. What a little legend!
The jiggly jiggy boys
[We went for dinner]... and our little disabled friend joined us again. I can't remember his name but I like him so much I even got a photo with him. Early bus to Jhansi and then a train to Agra. Could be our fist glimpse of the Taj Mahal tomorrow. Pretty exciting!
27/4/11 KHAJURAHO (NOT AGRA!) WED
1 am. "Grant, Grant, I'm sick."
It was clear from that point we were not going to be able to make the 5.30 bus. Saara had a good old case of Delhi Belly with fever and very sore kidneys to boot. I also had the runs but not so severe and no other complications. We decided to give it until noon to see how things were going. I made a couple of trips to the pharmacy to get some re-hydration tablets.
12 came and past and there was no chance of us going anywhere, especially Saara. She resorted to some painkillers for her kidneys and managed to get some sleep. At about 6 we finally, I mean Saara, got out of the room. We tried to figure out what could be good for her to eat. She ended up getting some bread and eggs which seemed to go alright. I had some chai as I believe it fixes everything.
Our little disabled friend came running from the darkness and gave me a big hug. I had some noodles which was okay and I shared it with my new friend. We then grabbed a drink and also some biscuits for, well, I call him 50 rupees. Here's why: The kid can't talk and just makes noises, like a rapper. He uses his hands a lot to point and make gestures, like a rapper. He also has a limp, like 50 cent, the rapper. So hence, 50 rupees. Maybe I will find out his real name soon. He was appreciative of the biscuits and we gave him the leftovers of our Fanta. We also grabbed some diarrhea tablets, so we could make sure we get the bus tomorrow. Lets see how that works out. [Oh, they worked. It's been 6 days since I have visited a toilet.]
I then decided to print off the photo of 50 rupees and myself and then give it to him. Our guesthouse had a printer and after 10 minutes of stuffing around trying to get it to print, one of the owner's sons came in and connected the printer. Usually helps. I then went on a search to find 50 rupees. A young a boy asked me what I was looking for. "This boy in the picture", I said. He said that he lived down the road and may be in bed. I waited for 45 minutes or so and did a bit of a loop to find him but no luck. An older guy looked at the photo and said: "Oh, Tiger!" That name suits him perfectly. I left the photo with our guesthouse as I needed to go to bed so I really hope he gets it. Crossing fingers our tablets work and we can continue our travels."
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| Tiger and the legendary hat that NEVER comes off. |
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