It's pronounced "Boon-dee," which is fun to say three times in a row.
It's a town a little off the beaten path in Rajasthan (where the beaten path is flogged near to death). I'm here, and my internet cafe is about to close, so I don't have time for much of an update other than to say I'm safe, and having a ball. I moved on to Pushkar from Jaipur, which is a crowded little town filled with tourists and religious pilgrims for the over 300 temples around the lake (well, actually, lake bed, given the dry season, and weak monsoons). It was a fun stop, but not nearly as fun as it will be in a couple of days, when the Camel Fair starts, which brings thousands of Camels and tens of thousands of visitors to this tiny little town of 15,000. I'm going to try to stop by again when it's in full swing. Bundi is southwest of Pushkar, and it's biggest claim to fame is that Rudyard Kipling wrote Kim here. In addition it is one of the most charming and beautiful towns I've been to. My room is located on the roof of my guest house, and I step out to a view of the palace, and a nearby artificial, rectangular lake, with a temple in the middle. They light the palace and the temple at night, and the view is breathtaking. The food is amazing--I had an amazing spinach paneer dish atop a roof in town, and watched the kids in the houses nearby fly kites from their roofs. It was delightful. At sunset I took a walk up to the now-overgrown fort, where tourists and monkeys squared off for prime sunset real-estate. It was a veritable simian city up there, so the tourists all scrounged up the areas not taken over, and were treated to a beautiful sunset--no rain, and bad smog make for the most brilliant, red orb you've ever seen. In fact it never even reaches the horizon because it disappears behind the thick haze a degree or two before it goes down.
Sorry, that's it. I'll try to make a fuller post sooner than I have been doing so recently. Tomorrow I rent a bike and scope out the surrounding area on a pair of wheels.
Much love,
Dave
