Very tired and hot and sweaty, we arrived in Bundi. As the bus approached the town we saw an striking building on the hillside, built into the side of the hil, with a fort wall surrounding it. On closer inspection we could also see a large fort on the top of the hill. The town down below was full of neat, blue, freshly painted houses, it was beautiful. As we were passing on the main road Michele said, “Oh I really hope this is Bundi!!!” and lo! and behold… it was J.
We arrived at the bus station and had to take our bags off the roof as soon as possible as the bus driver was pushing us since he wanted to leave, as we had tied them on so tightly Marc had to sacrifice one of the straps of his bag in order to get it off. We grabbed a tuc tuc to our hotel for the night which was a 200 year old haveli just down from the fort. It had fantastic paintings on the walls (although it was super hot inside). We dropped our bags and went for a quick walk around this sleepy, quiet (by Indian standards) town. We walked through the small, winding streets and down to the colourful market that surrounded the square. We came upon an amazing stepped water tank with majestic arches adorned with elephants crowning the long set of stairs that went down to the water at the bottom. It was getting late and we were very tired, so we decided to go back to near the hotel and get some food (also because we’d been warned that after dark in Bundi huge numbers of bats fill the sky!). We found a really nice place to eat and ordered a lot of yummy Indian curry and Marc was very happy to be eating animal protein again!
After dinner we retired to the luxury of the old haveli and Jacqui and Michele sat up talking on the second floor of the courtyard inside the old haveli, sitting on dark wood antique furniture surrounded by wall paintings.
The next morning we woke up early and had a quick breakfast to be ready to visit the fort in the cool of the morning. The star fort is on the top of the hill overlooking Bundi and the palace and to climb up there was quite hard work. Even by 9am we were already hot and sweating. On the way to the star fort we met few families of evil monkeys (the nasty brown ones, not the nice white ones). They were very bold and not afraid of us in the least, so Jacquie brandished a stick to make them back off but one of the monkey became aggressive and bared teeth, almost declaring war, so they obviously understood what the stick meant. After half an hour of climbing, we finally arrived on the top of the hill and began to discover the ruins of the star fort. It was fabulous, we felt like we were in an adventure movie! From the fort we could see the view of the blue town nestled in the green and dusty valley. The fort was shaped like a five pointed star to make it easier to defend. We entered the main building by a huge door covered with spikes. The entire building was dilapidated but we could still see some of the former glory, some brightly coloured paintings were still visible and we could imagine the place filled with life and colour. In a courtyard inside the fort, an old woman was sitting drawing a troup monkeys which were sitting picking insects out of each other’s hair. It looked like she had been here for a couple of hours already and we tried not to disturb her or her subjects. After visiting the palace we tried to go to the bastion on the top of the hill for a view, but, arriving at the entry we saw “NO ENTRY” sign and we found out that this was being used as an antenna station.
After the fort, we walked partway down the hill and went to visit the palace. We saw the evil monkey again but we decided to adopt a peaceful demeanour so as not to be attacked by 10 angry monkeys. Approaching the palace from the cobbled road the first thing we saw was the huge entry gate which was comprised of two massive elephants fighting. Walking through the door was the characteristic sun with a face and moustache (which represents the lineage of the maharaja). Entering there was a grand courtyard below, a large veranda with a marble throne; this was the hall of public address. We walked up the stairs, onto the veranda and across another courtyard on the second floor which had a room filled with stone pillars which had little elephants at the top holding up the roof at one end. At the other end of the courtyard was a room filled with wall paintings that were extremely detailed and contained many colours but particularly featured peacock green and azul blue as well as gold leaf. This room was complete with mirrored doors and on the outside there was a lovely peacock design above one of the windows. Going up another level we entered another room in which the walls were adorned with many small mirrors surrounding the pictures, entering the main area we saw that the walls were completely covered by a painting of an epic war. It was very intricate and contained thousands of figures holding various types of weapons, also people riding horses, elephants and camels into war. It was an amazing sight. Up yet another level we entered a small, quite dark room with a geometic domed ceiling with the most fabulous paintings of abstract pictures of mystical animals (dragons etc), gods (with blue skin like Lord Shiva), women with bird wings etc. We spent 10 minutes in this room just looking at all the details discovering new things every minute. On the way back down to the main courtyard we were walking through one of the corridors which smelt rather awful. Then when we looked up we realised the ceiling was covered with bats roosting upside down- this explained the smell! I gave us quite a fright to see quite so many large bats hanging upside down not that far from your head! We took a few steps back before we stopped to look at them hanging there (especially since none of us had had the rabies injection!). After the palace we took Michele for a Rajasthani thali (and Marc had a highly nutritious meal of potato burger and chips = potato and more potato!!). The hotel owner hold us that there was a superfast Jaipur bus at 1.30 with air con (wow!!) but when we got to the bus station they said there was no such bus and we ended up on the local buses (again). It was the longest (and most rough!) bus journey of our whole trip and poor Michele was squeezed up against about 10 indian guys. (Question: How many Indians can you fit on a bus? Answer: More than you think and there is ALWAYS space for more!). It took 6 hours and it was really hot and smelly. We just sat there hoping that the engine would not blow up. The bus was already full and more people would get inside, there was not much space for anyone! We were all very glad to make it back to Jaipur and to stand up and relieve our sore bottoms by walking to the hotel. The air con and the cold beer in the hotel was exactly what we needed.
