India part 28b: Konark

To the famous Sun Temple at Konark, which is inevitably spelt with an extra 'a' ("Konarak") if you say it out loud to a local. It puts Mamallapuram's Shore Temple to shame, frankly. Our bus from Puri broke down on the way, which was quite a relief, because it was incredibly cramped and hot, and I felt a bit weird listening to Nicki Minaj cussing in my headphones while standing next to a demure Indian lady holding a baby. We managed to jump in a taxi - the bus was never going to be fixed in under two hours, whatever was wrong with it - with an American couple who liked rock-climbing and an English woman whose next stop was South America - she said she'd been offered a job as a weathergirl there.

Just a warning, before you scroll down: some of the temple's carvings are enough to make a Premiership footballer blush. Or, as the Rough Guide puts it:

Konark, like Khajuraho, is plastered with loving couples locked in ingenious amatory postures drawn from the Kama Sutra - a feature that may well explain the comment made by one of Akbar's emissaries, Abul Fazl, in the sixteenth century: "Even those who are difficult to please," he enthused, "stand astonished at its sight."

Or am I seeing an innuendo that isn't there? Here's what it all looked like, anyway.