WHERE ON EARTH HAVE YOU BEEN?!

Monday 4 October 2010

Chilling out in Bundi

Bundi is a really lovely town. There's a relaxed atmosphere here, the people are really friendly and we've been getting less hassle from touts than in other places we've visited. Last night on the way home we got mobbed by a group of kids playing in an alleyway - they were all smiling and screaming and cheering, and they completely surrounded us asking for us to take a photo of them (Stu: they also pinched me!)! Here they are:

Bundi is overlooked by an old ruined palace and a fort on a steep hillside. We went to visit the palace yesterday and you can explore a long way inside it, up through lots of little alleyways and stone staircases that open on to big open rooms decorated with murals and mirrorwork dating back to the 1600s. The whole place is full of bats and you can look out of the palace up to the fort battlements which are covered in monkeys.

Views from the ruined palace:


A parakeet in the palace (we see these parakeets everywhere; they're very pretty):

17th-century murals:

Yesterday we took a long ride in an autorickshaw to a huge waterfall in the countryside near Bundi. We drove through lots of villages (with children waving to us as we went by) and also through great expanses of empty land. At one point we drove around a big snake in the road, and later a huge sambar deer leapt across the road in front of our rickshaw and bounded off into the scrubland. The waterfall was beautiful and we climbed down to the bottom, past a busy Shiva temple, to have a swim in the pool at the bottom - so nice to have a cool swim after all the heat and the dust!

View from the top of the waterfall:


Swimming in the pool:

We're going to relax for a couple more days here in our gorgeous haveli room before heading on to Udaipur. Our room looks out over a small lake, and it's a lovely place to just sit and read.

And one more thing. This is what Boris Johnson would look like if he was reincarnated as a buffalo (Stu - this is possibly my favourite picture ever, well it's certainly up there with the best):

4 comments:

  1. Bundi sounds heavenly! I'm afraid you'll find Udaipur busy and dirty by comparison, though it has its glories too. (That Octopussy was filmed there? Way back when there was water in the lake.) The lake/waterfall where you swam sounds fabulous.
    I'm loving your blog. XXX

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  2. I hope you're tipping all the screaming, cheering, children, it has cost me a lot to spread rumours of you guys being washed up movie stars.
    All the movie posters I produced and placed 3 years ago were expensive! But totally worth it, I feel.

    Please confirm that you are enjoying my 'surprise'.

    Also, kudos on spotting the wild borisuffalo! Although, I can tell the photo is faked, there's no way you actually met him, I mean it's not like he's Bigfoot or something!

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  3. Wow Lloyd, that's some serious advance planning! I don't think we even knew we would be coming here three years ago, so that was quite a gamble on your part...! What movie were we starring in? Hope it had loads of ace bollywood dance numbers.

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  4. I knew it was Lloyd, I frakking knew it!

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