Day 141, Bundi [Monday 21st April 2008]
Previous day: Day 140, Jaipur [Sunday 20th April 2008]
Next day: Day 142, Bundi, Rajasthan [Tuesday 22nd April 2008]
We get the bus to Bundi, a town of weaving alleyways and temples set around the base of a fort and palace dating from around the 1600s.
We check into a gorgeous haveli, a cool stone multilevel building set around a central courtyard. This one is a few hundred years old, and the owner has restored it very well — coloured, patterned glass fills the windows, there are marble mosaic floors and Rajasthani murals on the walls. It is so hot here. About 40 degrees centigrade. We lay under the fan and sleep for a while.
Later, we climb the steep cobbled path to the palace, a crumbling old ruin dotted with faded murals and balconies overlooking the blue painted town. Further up the hill, guarded by white faced monkeys and a white haired old man, is the Chitrasala. A later addition to the palace, it has a square grassy courtyard with some rooms on one side containing incredibly detailed paintings and murals. They are mainly scenes depicting life in the palace or religious stories. If you look closely you can see individual hairs in the subject's moustaches!
That night we get accosted near our hotel by a young girl, maybe 10 or 11, wearing a long black evening dress. She invited us to her parent's hotel, which is in the haveli next door to ours. She promises home cooking and beer. We're not really hungry, but we do go in . The beer is deliciously cold and the company of the girls — Anishta and her older sister Saiyuta, educated, well spoken and funny — is delightful.
Next day: Day 142, Bundi, Rajasthan [Tuesday 22nd April 2008]
Previous day: Day 140, Jaipur [Sunday 20th April 2008]