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Published: November 1st 2008
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Chittorgarh, Bassi and Beyond 26th October 2008
25/10/08 Our last night at Udaipur was spent cooking with
Shashi in her humble but spotlessly clean kitchen, just below the Sunrise Rooftop Restaurant at 18 Gangaur Ghat Rd (www.shashicookingclassesblogspot.com). Foolishly we had a snack at 4.00pm because you get (to try) to eat the food that you cook and there was a ton!
We made masala chai, pakora, naan, chapati, parantha, sweet parantha, veg pilau, aloo gobi, veg curry, veg biriyani, paneer........ Needless to say we couldn't eat all that and ended up taking chapatis etc with us for lunch the next day!!! Shashi was a really lovely person with an incredible story to tell, an excellent cook and teacher, well prepared with handouts and recipes for everything.
Unfortunately she was a little distracted because her 18yr old son was ill in hospital at the time with malaria!! There we were, hadn't seen a mossie in 3 weeks and poor lad gets malaria. Glad we are taking the homeopathic stuff from Liz, better slap on some repellant too!!
The taxi arrived next day to take us to Bassi via Chittorgarh Fort and then on to Bundi the next
Chittorgarh Fort
Ann outside a temple inside the Fort day.
C.F was very impressive. It was a city within fortified walls over 7kms long, with several palaces and more than 27 temples inside. It had been the state capital way back but was constantly being overrun and the men killed in battle while the women committed suicide inside the walls. Presumably it was too difficult to defend, so the capital was eventually moved by
Maharana Pratap to
Udaipur . I now know that a Maharana is higher status than a Maharaja....so there!
We arrived at the
Bassi Fort Palace to find that they didn't have a reservation for us!! The first time it has happened. We thought we would treat ourselves to this posh hotel for 1 night.
Bassi itself was very busy, as it was an
auspicious day for buying metal, like cars or fridges or tv's in readiness for
Diwali in 2 days time. The hotel itself was very plush with enormous rooms... well suites actually, costumed waiters and an ex army Colonel, who was our host. Fortunately the place was empty; the food was great and we got it really cheap but I don't think we would have stayed there long anyway!
On to
Chittorgarh Fort
View of Chittorgarh town ..... Not worth a visit but the Fort certainly is! Bundi which was a good 4 hours away by car. They are building a new dual carriageway to
Kota from Chittorgarh which is useable in places and rough in others. It seems to be being built mainly by hand, by gangs of men and women dressed in their beautiful saris (the women that is not the men)! Should be finished sometime in the next decade!
When we eventually left the
main road to head off away from
Kota and on to
Bundi, the road was actually more potholes than road.
Haveli Katkoun was a welcome sight. It'll be nice when they finish it but it is clean and tidy and again, the food is good.
Day 1 Bundi. We needed to recover from the drive and just wandered around locally. It is just a typical small town, with all the usual smells, animals in the open sewers etc but there is an air of excitement as people throng the local market making last buys for Diwali tomorrow. There are a few
divas (butter candles in little clay pots) lit but nowhere near as many as I expected tonight. These are traditionally lit to welcome back Rama and Sita
Chittorgarh Fort
We climbed to the top of this tower from their 14 yrs exile in the forest.
Day 2 Our hotel room is literally just below the
City Palace and Fort and is inundated with monkeys. Daren't leave the door open and apparently, if you visit the Fort you need to take a big stick to beat off the aggressive ones!!! So we decided to take our life in our hands and set off to Palace. It was just stunning with many 15thC frescoes and mirrors. It has only been re-opened for 5 yrs and there is no money for restoration which is a shame really. The guardian of the paintings took us into a couple of darkened rooms with a torch and gave us a totally unintelligeable commentary consisting mainly of 'what's your name....Maharana' or 'what's your name ...... Lord Shiva' whilst pointing at some part of the picture!
I have been suffering from a cold type virus for a few days, it was a particularly hot day and having left the guide book in the palace and having had to climb back up the particulalry difficult hill to get it back, I declined to visit the Fort. David, armed with a stout stick (to ward
Chittorgarh Fort
Jali window detail inside the tower off said aggressive monkeys), set off
alone.
Two hours later he returned having encountered not one monkey and reported that the Fort was almost deserted and apart from the views, not really worth the effort. Glad I saved myself.
This evening we walked around the lake just before dusk and then through the town to markets again. It had been very quiet all day with the exception of people calling out
'Happy Diwali' but at nightfall the
Diwali action started. Diva's appeared at every door way and shop and women dressed in their magnificent new saris walked from temple to temple with trays of lighted divas leaving a few at each. The market was thronging and men walked home with bamboo fronds which must be some sort of Diwali decoration. Our hotel was lit up with fairy lights and candles and the owner's daughter had been around and painted rangoli footprints at every door.
THEN the fireworks started. Well, more like large sticks of dynamite really. A few pretty ones but mostly small scale explosions that all but shook the foundations. This continued for most of the night!! Given what we know of "Elf and Safety" in India,
Chittorgarh Fort
Temple and Tower.....can't climb this one I am glad we were not out and about while this was going on. I believe there is another 8 days of festivities to come.......
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