Uttar Pradesh to Madhya Pradesh

Agra
Our first and best experience with south Indian food. Our best experience with lime soda. Oh, and I guess we did go see the Taj Mahal. 

First a little note about our journey. On our drive we passed through a rather incredible stretch of countryside. I managed to not be able to take any pictures, so here's a description: the land was filled with canyons, but they didn't seem like water made canyons.  They were all about ten meters deep with  really steep sides. Nestled into these canyons and cliffs were small huts and fields. The ground was a dull deep brown, darker than most soil we'd seen, but still with that dusty dullness that seems to permeate the country. The fields however were a deep rich green, crisp and clean with new growth. Really stunning. The whole image was really striking and may form one of my clearest images of this trip. Another interesting find was a truck stop. It was a bit different from ours... Really just an open kitchen, some rather questionable facilities, and a hose for truck cleaning. Indians really put a solid effort into keeping their vehicles clean. Mahaveer always welcomed us each morning with a positively spotless white car. Pretty incredible really. 
Our arrival in Agra was interesting and sad. We said our goodbyes to Mahaveer, not realizing how much we were going to miss having him around. He was heading home, so we wished the best to him and his family and checked into our hotel. We had made a pit stop on our way into the city, we stopped at a bird sanctuary. There were a lot of storks, we rented bikes and rode a long way around the park. It was neat.
Back to Agra, we checked in then went off in search of some food. We read about a little south Indian spot, and since we were a little tired of north Indian potatoes, we decided to check it out. It's called Lakshmi Villas. It was just a bit down the road from the main bazaar, and that little bit was the darkest, sketchiest stretch of road we'd been on so far. Scary stuff. We turned back and asked for directions twice (we found out the next day that the building that filled the sketchy space in-between was in fact a government building...). This was our first introduction to Dosai. A Dosa, for those of you who are unfamiliar, is a thin rice-flour crepe, which is filled with whatever you choose (I recommend the masala, but there's onion and loads of others) and served with curd and sambar (which is kind of a soup for dipping). When we first came in to Lakshmi Villas, our helpful waiter served us the best lemon sodas in India, then gave us a suggested meal. It was amazing, we had a Masala Dosa, a Rawa Masala Dosa (made with semoline, not that we know what that is, or how to spell it...) and Rice Idlies. It was almost more than our mouths could handle, it really floored us. We went back the next day for lunch. After that lunch we wandered down the wrong road (this would not be the last time we were lead astray by the abysmal maps in the Lonely Planet) and after putting ourselves right, we witnessed a street fight. As we made ourselves scarce, we heard (far behind us don't worry) what sounded a lot like gun shots, then there were a bunch of ambulances headed in that direction. We never confirmed it, but still pretty scary stuff. Then we were at the Taj. Well, we were at the first set of gates. Loads of touts, but they all seemed to be waiting for other (probably bus) tourists, and we were mostly left alone. We strolled down through the grounds that surround the complex that the Taj is in and made our way to the ticket gates. There we found out that it would be 1500 Rupees for us to get in, three times the usual rate. Which isn't surprising, what fool goes to India and doesn't see the Taj Mahal after all? Not us, but we didn't have enough money on us, so we had a nice walk up to the bank and back. After which we discovered that we were really close to the closing time, so we mad every minute count. It really is a colossal building, all the pictures that you see of it have to be quite far away in order to get the whole thing in, so you kind of lose perspective. Other than that, it's just like it looks in pictures. The inside, which is a no photography zone, is hollow, all of it. It is a tomb, and the beauty in there is really something you have to witness for yourself if you can. Sorry to build you up for a let down like that, but that's the way it is. After that, nothing special until we left for Orccha. Except that I tried to buy some shoes, which is impossible, I'm a 45 here and no one carries anything bigger than a 44. Bummer. 
So we almost missed our train. I set the alarm and forgot to turn up the volume... Oops. We only made it because the train was late. As a result, we skipped breakfast and sat on the platform hungry for about an hour... That sucked, but was I going to learn from it? No. It just happened on our last train ride too. Anyway, after a really pleasant ride through the countryside, during which we were fed and given some tea, we arrived in Jhansi. There we found a nice little man with lauren's name on a sign. He was the agent it turned out and took us to our driver. Our drive likes the simple things. He loves to drive fast and honk. In the first twenty minutes of our ride I think he easily passed the one hundred honk mark. After a hair-raising ride (he had a habit of passing on blind crest/corners) we got to Orccha. We'd been told that it was a pleasant little town, with a temple and a fort. Turns out it's a nice fort and temple with a village. The fort was massive! We never did go in it, but it dominated the view along the southeast side of the village. The temple was equally grand and sat further away from the town along the river. We spent our day there exploring, we walked up to the top of the hill to rent bikes, found out that there were none left, then strolled over to the river then up to the temple. The river was amazing. It was our first really happening body of water in India. There was a lake in Jaisalmer, but it doesn't really count, it was pretty dried up and murky. This river was doing all the things that healthy rivers love to do. It was rushing, tumbling, roaring, splashing and generally reminding us what it was like to be near to the life blood of the earth. We loved it, we sat watching it for almost an hour straight without talking much, just taking it in. The temples were neat, but we couldn't go in them as they were being cleaned up to be a proper site to visit. Our hotel was also under renovations, which wasn't very nice. It also had a mosque nearby, and the four until seven morning prayer session, was an exercise in sleeplessness.
Next up: Khajuraho

Calm. I think that that's the best description that I can give to Khajuraho. Oh, and sexy. This is the home of the erotic temples. Apparently a lot of the temples in India had erotic carvings, but the Mughals came along and tore them down. Word is that these ones were so remote that they stayed hidden for a really long time. Talk about sweet movie set ups: "there is a legend of great temples hidden in the remote jungles of India. Lost to the world for hundreds of years they no doubt hold countless treasures, but can our hero overcome the dangers of the jungles to reach them? And if he does, will he be defeated by the other, more sinister dangers, of the temples themselves?"
Well, I'm no Indiana Jones, but I made it through...
Our ride was a scary as the one before, and we happily said goodbye to our speed crazed driver and checked into our hotel. Other than the Guests Are Not Allowed To Do Laundry In Rooms sign, it was great. They even offered yoga! That turned out to be a bit of a bust, get Lauren to tell you that tale... I've got a great tale to tell though. We went for a bike ride! We borrowed bikes from our hotel, and headed out to see the eastern temples. They were neat, but as we'd been warned they pale in comparison to the western temples. Which is why we did them first. Halfway we picked up a nice little kid who showed us the way to the other temples, he was really a quick rider. He booted off before we could give him anything for helping. We turned that ride into a loop back into town for a snack. Then we decided to ride to the falls nearby. First I'd like to describe our bikes. They were easy-riders. Long handlebars that curved back to be parallel to the bike, a front wheel that was so far out in front the turning radius was a few meters, and the brakes were reversed. Oh, and most important, they were one speeds. Also, mine didn't fit me... So, after a long uphill to start things off we headed into some rolling country. Rolling hills are normally ok on a one speed, you build up speed on the downs to deal with the ups. However, these bikes aren't the most reliable and building up speed takes a bit of nerve. This workout lasted for 18km. Upon our final arrival at the falls we discovered a crucial difference between Canada and India. In Canada falls stop when they freeze, but are otherwise a year-round kind of thing. In India, there's a dry season. Yup, the "falls" were in fact just a big canyon. We took some pictures and a good long rest then headed back the long weary ride to town. On the way school was out and a bunch of kids tried to sell us pens...?
I think that's enough for this post, time for bed. 

Just kidding, the temples are beautiful, but unfortunately mis-hyped. They have some naked people and general eroticism, but we think that the focus for the hype should be on the beauty and intricacy of the work. The detail of the carving all over the temple is astounding, and the naked people only take up a few panels on the temples. The rest of the carvings depict levels of karmic ascension, from gods down through the castes, to animals and beyond. I took lots of pictures. We also saw a neat bird in the complex. It was black with almost neon blue feathers on it's back and down it's tail. Fantastic.