Bundi's palaces, forts and markets

February 23-26, 2010

A few days ago we moved on from Shahpura Bagh to Bundi. We hated to leave Shahpura as it was the best place we’ve stayed in India to date and a wonderful oasis.

Bundi is a small walled city south of Shahpura in Rajasthan. It is an ancient city that looks up at a wonderful 16th century palace and old fort. The older portion of the city is quant, charming and very characteristically India. The city is also known for its wonderful bazaar.

What we love the most is about this city is it is non-touristy and we can walk down the down the streets without being harassed – until we start interacting, then we are mobbed by people interested in talking with us and having their photos taken with us. The shops and markets are plentiful and weave in between elephant temples, open sewer drains, cows, goats and pigs. The town is getting ready for the big festival called “Holi” on March 1, which is held throughout India to celebrate spring. This is the day all the colorful powders called kum kum are thrown on everyone then sprayed with water. We are told to not bring our cameras out and to wear old cloths. Looking forward to celebrating the festival in Udaipur.

We are in a funky hotel, with great cooks and wild murals all around the room, and a terrific rooftop restaurant with a fantastic view of the Palace and beautiful blue houses scattered throughout the town. The city mascot must be the monkey because they are everywhere. It is a riot watching them cruise the tops of the buildings at sundown and it seems as soon as the Muslim mosques have evening call the monkeys obey and start their way up to the Palace where they sleep like royalty at night. I almost ran into one on the roof last night and this morning one scared me to death at breakfast as he jumped on our table for a “snatch and grab” fast food breakfast.

We toured the palace which has all kinds of original murals of gods and animals that tells the story of its time. Very nice place and pretty well preserved; we didn’t even have to beat off any monkeys in the process.

We also did a city tour with a rickshaw to several historic sites (Raniji-ki-Baori step wells), one which was the small palace (Sukh Mahal) on the lake where Kipling wrote “The Jungle Book” then off to a small village that makes handmade clay water pots.

I continue my quest for the best massage and once again I am not disappointed. It’s the first time I had my eye lids massaged.

Rats, bats and cats: We actually saw some new wildlife on the streets of Bundi to add to the cows, monkeys, pigs, sheep, goats, elephants, camels, donkeys, horses and dogs that are normal inhabitants.

Laurie