Trip to Madan Kamdev Temple

This morning was a trip to Madan Kamdev Temple. This temple is mainly ruins andis known for the "erotic" carvings on the ruins. Though it is ruins, it is stillan active temple with priests and altars. Here are acouple photos of the Gonesh Altar, the main altar, some erotic carvings and a beautiful stone head.

This area was in a beautiful setting on a hill with beautiful trees and a great breeze. This place

felt wonderful and there is a section that would be wonderful for a group meeting. AND our

guides said there should be no problem having a group meeting here.

The only problem is transportation. We don't see big buses and the roads are narrow (picture some of the narrowest roads we saw in Ireland and imagine them a bit smaller. In the

city,towns and suburbs, the roads aren't that narrow put they are filled with cars, trucks, motorcycles, local small buses, bicycles, people, and cows all trying to fit through the same area. We've never seen traffic and driving like this. The site was only 25 miles from our hotel but took an hour and a half to get home and about two hours to get to. It was a very beautiful drive and very interesting.

While we were there we saw a couple of real interesting birds. The first was a blue throated barbet which Som said was very rare to see. They are heard all the time, but very hard to see. It is a beautiful bird. The other one was a spangled drongo which is a black bird with curled tail feathers (check out that tail!). I hope these photos show them good enough for you to see.

We're off in a little bit to check out the local shopping and museum. Then, tomorrow we're off to Kazaringa to see some endangered rhinoceroses, elephants, birds and other creatures. There IS a chance that we could see a bengal tiger. They aren't seen often because of the high grasses.