Bundi is a small town about 4 hours drive from Jaipur. Public transport was looking like a nightmare so we hired a car through the voluntary organisation. We visited the fort & the palace. The palace was amazing and had some great views across the town. We wanted to visit the fort, the palace, a place where Kipling had stayed, and a step-well.
The town is really small, which was a welcome change from Jaipur. Jaipur is really intense- so busy, noisy & smelly, & it was nice to get away from that for a day. Don't get me wrong, Bundi was still noisy, smelly & hot, but less so...
The fort was shut but here is what it looks like. So then we went to the palace, which was of course up hill... Have I mentioned how hot it was?? We did stop for a bit of lunch first... but we did not attract any monkeys- which Claire was pleased about but I wanted a photo. Apparently monkeys are sacred as well (many animals are, as well as cows...), even though they can be quite vicious & too clever by half. We were given a stick to scare them off with so that was ok!
The palace was built by one of the Marharajah's in the 1600's. It had fallen in to decay, and had been left to the ba
ts for about 80 years. Now it has been cleaned up and opened to visitors. It still has bats it in, and it is still gently decaying. There is also a lack of handrails and other safety things which you wouldn't be able to move for in the UK. This is view of the outside of it, from part of the way up the hill..
The fort was shut but here is what it looks like. So then we went to the palace, which was of course up hill... Have I mentioned how hot it was?? We did stop for a bit of lunch first... but we did not attract any monkeys- which Claire was pleased about but I wanted a photo. Apparently monkeys are sacred as well (many animals are, as well as cows...), even though they can be quite vicious & too clever by half. We were given a stick to scare them off with so that was ok!The palace was built by one of the Marharajah's in the 1600's. It had fallen in to decay, and had been left to the ba
ts for about 80 years. Now it has been cleaned up and opened to visitors. It still has bats it in, and it is still gently decaying. There is also a lack of handrails and other safety things which you wouldn't be able to move for in the UK. This is view of the outside of it, from part of the way up the hill..
This is the main entrance to the palace:
The palace is built around a courtyard. There were also cows grazing the front 'lawn', but once you have seen a hundred cows in the dtreet, it doesn't really surprise you anymore..
Once you are in the palace, as you get higher, the views across the town get better.. I love the blue buildings.
Some welcome shade.. The view was amazing & the photos don't really do it justice. This is looking out up a valley. Behind me are more hills.
Claire, and view across the man-made lake. The monsoon has not been great this year, so far, so the water level was a bit low. Why not have a lake in a desert region???.. But it is great...In the courtyards, there were these areas, which I called 'dancing rooms'. They had some really lovely mosaic covered rooms which branched off them..
This is one of the rooms with all of the mosaic in. It really was lovely. As you can see, it still very much in decay, which only adds to the building.
This another of the rooms...
And another of them. There were 3 levels, and mosaics were in most of the palace.
This was the room at the top..
I love these dancing rooms....!
We then went to the second part- called Chittr
a-Sala. This is one of the photos of the courtyard area. It had even more mosaics but was bat free!On the way out, we had a low-key encounter with a monkey..:
As we were getting so tired, we did not have time to visit the place where Kipling had stayed. We went and found somewhere to have a drink (I am drinking so much fizzy drinks at the moment, as well as juice & at least 2 litres of water a day!!). We ended up buying some drinks from a street vendor & sitting in the post office for some shade..
We next went to a Boaris, which is a step-well. Step wells were places where people came to drink & collect water. They are well decorated with religous images, as the act of collecting water had religious significance. The queen who built the Baoris which we visited, built 20 of these wells in total in Bundi. It was closed when we
got there but the guide still let us in..This well is 40 feet deep & 200 feet deep... It also has bats living in there but the photo I took was rubbish so I binned it..
It must have been quite an experience, coming here to get your water on a daily basis.... It was a great end to the day.
We met up with our driver & went home. We got back for about 10pm.. Driving at night on Indian roads was another experience. We were still stared at when we stopped off for chai- not a surprise..
Sunday 9 August- recovery & melting
This was another really hot day and we did very little. The last of the other volunteers left so Claire and I have the place to ourselves, for the next few days... We prepared for the week's work, tidied the volunteer house and dossed about basically. We went out at 8pm for a wander to the local shop and it was still very hot- maybe 30degrees..
Am loving reading about your travels! x
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