rediff.com Travel: Safarnama: A travel feature on doing India by road

Log Six: Sanchi - Khajuraho

Route
Sanchi - Sagar: SH 18 (82kms)
Sagar - Chattarpur: SH 15 (145kms)
Chattarpur - Khajuraho: SH 6 (47kms)

After seeing the stupas at Sanchi, we headed out towards Khajuraho. We wanted to make it all the way in one day, so we knew we had a long day ahead of us. Gyaraspur is a village along the way with five temples.

We stopped off to see the tenth century Maladevi
mandir , which was visible in its mountainside setting from the 'highway' and looked striking.

At first glance the temple looks like a pile of stones piled on top of each other, very artistically of course. On a closer examination one discovers in disbelief that the temple is a pile of stones!

The temple was struck by lightning and split through the centre. The archaeological department has since then pieced the temple together... but this is temporary. They intend to restore the building, taking it apart completely right down to the foundation.

An attendant from the Archaeological Society of India opened the door and walked us around. You can inquire for the gatekeeper at the village, below before heading up to the temple.The temple was once a Hindu temple but was later converted for use by the Jains. The sanctum sanctorum contains a Jain statue.

Some of the carvings on the outer walls are quite intricate. From the mandir (and the highway) we also saw the ruins of a fort.

The village also has a couple of other ruins of temples and stupas, which we didn't have time to check out. For someone driving from Sanchi to Khajuraho, Gyaraspur is a no-brainer as a short stopover.

Chattarpur pretty much just served us as the crossroads between Khajuraho (on the way from Bhopal) and Orchha (on the way back west). The town deserves little mention, though we did pass two or three interesting looking buildings that might be worth a peek.

But for hungry travellers passing through -- who haven't been able to lay their hands on a good meal for quite a while -- the food at Hotel Jatashankar Palace was absolutely amazing. Somebody on the roadside directed us to the hotel and when we walked in, the dining room looked unused in weeks. But the food was something to write home about. Although we didn't stay there, the rooms seemed quite reasonable, starting at Rs 400 for an AC single or Rs 500 for a double.

Road conditions
The road in general was very bad. Single lane and full of potholes. We must have averaged about 30 km per hour, which is why it took is pretty much the entire day to reach Khajuraho. The road from Sanchi to Sagar was worse than any dirt road I have driven on. From Sagar it got a little better (but there was more traffic).

The countryside was quite pretty, especially the further north we got, with little villages and farmlands on every side. But the going was still quite slow, especially given the number of cattle that just seemed waiting for a car to pass in order to dart across the road. Once we hit Chattarpur, we turned onto a well-laid pucca road. Evidently the Madhya Pradesh government has at least built a decent road for visitors to Khajuraho.

As soon as you turn off onto the road to Khajuraho, you know it leads to something important. The drive was so smooth -- freshly laid roads and little or no traffic. Getting out of Chattarpur on to the road to Khajuraho proved a little difficult. The signs have been covered up with local advertisements and can be easily missed. However, everyone in Chattarpur seems to know the road to Khajuraho so don't hesitate to pull over and ask your way out.

Accommodation
There is no dearth of places to stay at in Khajuraho. This place, over the years, has been developed into an important tourist spot. All the big hotel chains in India have set up shop in Khajuraho and compete furiously with one another (an advantage when bargaining for better rates).

There are some five-star hotels that cater mostly to free-spending package tourists. During the summer season these hotels get almost no clientele and are willing to cave in on their prices very significantly.
In Khajuraho, we were able to negotiate rates that were less than a quarter of list price at some of the biggies How does under Rs 1,000 for a double including tax and breakfast sound?!

The off-season in MP is typically March-August. So if you are travelling around then, you might be able to stay in luxury without emptying your wallet (though naturally food is charged at the normal extortionate prices). Most places were willing to negotiate 10-15 per cent discounts, though some were quite reluctant. We generally found MPTDC operated outfits unwilling to negotiate.

Coming Up: Temples of Khajuraho

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