Some local animals and an ancient temple

We have been dodging rain showers for the last few days, sometimes to the detriment of sightseeing. Yesterday we were supposed to climb up the side of a steep hill to see Buddhist caves but the (very wet) rain arrived as we pitched up at the ticket office, so we abandoned that idea.

But we did find a beautiful and rather intriguing site complete with Buddha, Ganesh and Kama Sutra images. The site was originally on the valley floor but moved in the 1980s, stone by stone, because of a new hydroelectic scheme.

The buidling which was constructed between the 8th and 10th century CE was rather more like a South Indian temple than anything we have seen so far:

It had all the hallmarks of a Buddhist site: Buddha image, stupa and Bodhi tree with Hindu embellishments:

And we have come across the odd bit of wildlife including a rather large elephant (whether or not he meets Raja’s replacement requirements, we’re unsure) standing at the side of the road at dusk. Sadly no more elephants to report.

But this monitor lizard was hanging about for a while outside our room this morning;

And there is an abundance of peacocks everywhere including the rooftops of cottages and parking places:

There are also lots of geckos lurking which Sue and I love, but Nikhil isn’t comfortable with: tonight we established that geckos aren’t poisonous but you can catch salmonella from them if you touch their poo or they have contact with your food. So guess what – we’ll be avoiding both those things.

The air is rich with the sound of frogs although we’ve failed to see any yet, but here’s a picture of where we stayed last night to help you see why there’s so much wildlife everywhere: that’s a bridge across water to the main reception:

Tonight – back to the beginning of the twentieth century in an old colonial building whose plumbing and wiring has scarcely been updated since then.