Hi Guys,
I visited Khajuraho-Panna-Orchaa from 22nd to 25th Dec. Here is a brief travelogue -
I and a friend with our families reached Jhansi on 22nd Dec morning, after spending a few hours at in-laws place we left for Khajuraho at about 11:00 AM. The choice of vehicles was Scorpio and Esteem; somehow I have never felt confident in Scorpio's cornering abilities so I chose Esteem.
The road from Jhansi to Mau Ranipur is decent but after that it is hell. It is evident why Digvijay Singh lost the last elections. The road is just broad enough to let a car and a two-wheeler pass; anything bigger and one has to go off road. And off road means a drop of 6-8 inches. I really regretted my decision of not taking the Scorpio.
Anyways we reached Khajuraho at about 3:00 PM, there as planned we met fellow t-bhp member maverick_atam, who had driven from Delhi in his new 2.2 VTT Safari. Checking-in/lunch etc took another 2 hours, and we managed to enter the western temple complex by 5:00 PM. And what a sight it was. Khajuraho is hyped for it's erotic sculptures but they are very few and IMO ir-relevant. The real beauty lies in the magnificent architecture of the temples, which are more than 1000 years old.
Vishwanath temple -
Kandaria Mahadeva temple going through some restoration work -
Another pic of Kandaria -
In the evening we attended the light and sound show, where the voice-over is by Amitabh Bachchan. It was very informative and interesting.
Next day, on 23rd Dec we visited the other temples and clicked 100s of photographs. In the evening we went to a cultural show - Lokranjan, which was going on.
Next morning (24th Dec), we went to Panna Tiger Reserve, which is about 30 KMs from Khajuraho. We went there in Atam's Safari. There we spotted umpteen deers, antelopes, spotted deers etc. but no predator.
And guess what we found in the middle of a jungle - a picnic spot. There is a very deep gorge of granite in the middle of Panna, and we found signs of bon-fire, coffee cups, daaru bottles etc. Our guide says that by bribing forest officials many people camp there and party at night.
Atam's Safari, see the dust on it -
In the afternoon, we left for Jhansi, and visited Orchha en-route. It's a beautiful little place.
We spent 25th in Jhansi, and reached Delhi on 26th morning, back to reality :-(
Cheers
Nitin