Bundi

From Udaipur, we were looking for a smaller town to relax in for a few days, something more like Pushkar, and a break from the fairly punishing pace we'd kept up, with exhausting overnight buses whisking us [conveniently] from one town to the next. We settled on Bundi, where we arrived in the pitch black of a chilly 5am. After knocking on a lot of doors, we found rooms in a unique guest house run by a mom and her two daughters, extremely unusual in India.

Bundi didn't have quite the peace and loveliness of Pushkar, but it was a good stop nonetheless, a better taste of small-town India than we've seen anywhere else I think. We strolled through the market areas of the newer side of town, and around the small lake in the older part of town which was overlooked by its own castle and fort perched dramatically on the hillside above town. We followed the antics of the ubiquitous monkeys, did laundry, played cards, and generally slowed our pace for a few days.

On our last afternoon, Ben and I made it up to the castle and had a great tour of the buildings and old art-gallery, painted directly onto the walls of a building the king had specially set aside for housing the works of arts he commissioned there. To the right is the imposing front entrance, the elephant gate.






Above is the room where the king would have met with emissaries. There is a little room behind a carved screen where the queen could have listened in so as to provide private advice later.Above is the central courtyard of the palace. On the left you can see several platforms... the lower one would have been used to mount horses or camels, and the higher one to mount war elephants!Above is an interior chamber, and you can see how much damage has been done to the murals by people trying to scrape off the gold leaf. The palace has only recently been protected, and it is unclear whether it will be restored in the future.
This painting has a cool trompe l'oeil effect... check out where the animals' heads are locked in combat!
This second painting is one of a long series depicting that womanizing trickster, Krishna. Here he has charmed the dresses off all the court ladies and hung them up in the tree!

That evening we embarked on our first train trip of the India leg, a little apprehensive as we were still unsure about the intricacies of the India Rail System. Our tickets said "RAC" which means that you are guaranteed a spot on the train, but you don't know what spot, or where, or whether you'll have a berth to yourself, or have to share. The train arrived an hour and a half late, and we could not find a soul who might have worked there and who could help direct us. We wandered up and down the platform for about 5 minutes, at which point the train began to pull away and we leapt into the first open doorway that passed by. It was a second class, wooden chair car. The people there were extremely nice, clearing a bench for us and wobbling their heads in welcome. After an hour the train made another, longer, stop and we were able to find someone who worked there and search his list for our names. Despite our concern, the system worked perfectly, we had berths at last, and eventually settled down to sleep the rest of the trip through in a sleeper car, the main travel class for Indians, and our main means of transport for the next week or so. It has 6 berths to the left of the aisle, and 3 to the right. To the left you can see what they would look like, with the middle bunk up for daytime, or down for sleeping. (Train photos from seat61.com/India)