Bundi - girl

A fairly painless train journey and we found ourselves in a pleasant haveli guesthouse in Bundi. Bundi is a million miles from Udaipur. It's small, not very touristy and quite relaxed. Its main attraction is a hillside palace cum fort that hasn't been restored to its former glory. Wonderful. I just love poking round old, crumbling buildings. It always reminds me of a family holiday to Ireland where we seemed to spend all our days climbing up to, and examining, old castles. Something I've always loved.

 

The palace is famous for the (accidental) preservation of C17 wall paintings. The detail in the paintings is phenomenal and we were suitably impressed. We then climbed up to the fort with a young American guy named Pete. We all needed each other at this point since the route was, by no means, clear and we weren't terribly sure it was safe or permitted. He was nervous of the wild dogs and we weren't convinced it was a good idea. Egging each other on, we made it all the way to the top, even to the top of the prohibited police tower at the very top (thanks Pete!). The views were just stupendous and the opportunity for us to be so alone and so un-bothered in India was extremely special. The fort comprised labyrinth style courtyards and stairs - I felt as if we'd stumbled into an Escher painting at one point.

 

Not much else goes down in Bundi. The place is also famous for its baoris - water tanks from the C17. One we saw is 46m deep and really very impressive although no longer in use. Today these magnificent water tanks are either collecting stagnant water or plastic water bottles. .Such a shame.

 

Da Dana Dan (?) - the latest Bollywood release. If anyone's considering it; don't. We did. It seemed like a good idea to go to the cinema and experience the 'Bollywood experience'. What we got was a terrible movie in an empty theatre. Thankfully, they still have intervals here so we left. We really didn't need to see the end to know what happened to the poor servant whose mistress treated him badly.

 

Our train to Agra leaves from Kota - a town around 45 minutes away from Bundi. We have two options; 1. take a bus for around 50 Rupees; 2. take a taxi for 700 Rupees. A tricky decision, I think we would both quite like to take the cab but neither of us wants to be that wussy. We discussed it and agree that we don't need to make our lives difficult for the sake of £10, we're not destitute and we're certainly not trying to prove anything to ourselves. We've both done travelling on the cheap and that's not what this trip is about. However, we seem to have decided that we'll take the bus this time. Doesn't fit our logic but it doesn't need to, not every time.