Bundi - a peaceful haven

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When we realised that Bundi was going to celebrate a festival we made sure that we arrived in town a couple of days before. The people are celebrating Teej - we were not sure what would happen but we read that it would be colourful! Bundi is a small town overlooked by a deserted fort and palace and though on the tourist trail supposedly not spoiled by the industry. We loved the town at first sight though we were tired when we arrived. We had booked a hotel room from Udaipur but upon arrival changed and went to another hotel (the wonderful Nawal Sagar Palace - this one a renovated palace on the main road and beside on of two lakes in the town. In the centre of the lake stands a small temple. The family running it were very friendly, spoke perfect English, and the hotel had a great view of the palace from the roof, and the best patch of lawn we've seen since Australia. The only room available was non a/c but after a very humid night we changed to a a/c room the next day. The daytime temperature was 42*.
We spent our first day in Bundi wandering around the streets - right along the surprisingly long main street to the city gates. The town is surrounded by the walls of the fort and has numerous entrance gates. There is no emphasis on tourism except a lot of guest houses and internet cafes but barely any souvenir shops and absolutely no pressure from the shop keepers - a real delight after the hard sell we got constantly in Udaipur. There were a lot of shops closed - it was Saturday and unlike elsewhere they seem to take a day of - but we were warmly greeted by all the locals around. There was plenty of colour - particularly the mens' turbans - they seem to be getting brighter the longer we travel. Orange, hot pink and multi coloured swathes of tie dyed cotton are the turbans of choice here. They are wound around the mens heads in big sausage twists.
Our hotel had a great view that evening of the palace which towers over the whole town. Surprisingly it is totally floodlit at night and it really glows! We found the town much larger than we first thought after spending the next morning exploring the back streets. The streets have very narrow passageways and it is easy to get lost. We watched a man making very intricate silver jewelery - wide and heavy ankle bands made from hundreds of tiny strips of silver. Most of the women here still wear traditional style jewelery in some form - whether it's ankle bands, heavy earrings or circular nose rings. I find it fascinating to look at the jewelery that many of the older ladies wear - lots of bangles, ankle rings, toe rings and large nose studs. And they all would be pensioners in Australia.
Bundi is known for it's milkmen - delivering milk (buffalo) from brass pots hanging from their motorbikes or bicycles. There are dozens around the streets. They go house to house and ladle the milk out of their brass pots into plastic milk jugs that the ladies bring out. All unrefrigerated and probably unpasteurized - we've been drinking the same since we arrived in India. We drink a lot of coffee and chai which is made totally on boiled milk. And drink lassis which are a yoghurt and fruit drink. In Rhajhastan they add saffron, cream and nuts to them which makes them very rich! We are not losing weight here!
All the ladies have hands and feet which have had dark patterns of henna applied in honour of the Teej festival and are wearing new clothes. I always love the markets where ever we visit and Bundi's were no exception. It is at the markets that you see all the local colour - not only in the produce but in local dress and culture. These markets have stall after stall hanging with the tie dyed cottons which the women wear draped around their bodies and over their heads. They trim the edges with a gold braid for everyday and sequins for special dress. The bangle market here is wonderful - mostly glass bangles though lac ones are sold as well. I bought bangles here - 20 rupees (50cents) for 8 glass bangles - 4 in plain coloured glass and 4 in matching colour overlaid with gold. I had to have every colour and no doubt half shall get broken when I post them home! Jerry bought a bamboo flute for 20 rupees as well - the young man selling it to him tried to charge more but the other local people got upset and made him sell it at the correct price. The increase in tourism here will change that gradually though. As a tourist you expect (and don't mind paying a little more) but like everyone you hate being totally ripped off. Again there were a lot of stalls selling all the things people need to visit temples - flowers, scarves, red cord which is blessed and worn around the wrist, decoration for the saints (shiny fabrics, covers woven from silk cords, tinsel - the list is endless). All very gaudy to us but very important to them.
The Teej festival was interesting - it involves a procession through the main street of the town each night for 9 nights, the procession getting shorter with each subsequent night until the final night when it is long again. It's a religious festival and they carry a large idol (clay doll dressed in brocades and draped with fresh flowers) on a palanquin through the streets. All the local people come out to be 'blessed' by her as she goes passed. Over the nine days everybody in Bundi and the surrounding areas will be passed by her. It's a very important occasion here. In the procession are camels, elephants, lots of heavily decorated horses, tractors pulling carts with children dressed as characters from legends, men letting off fireworks, lots of men selling balloons and ice creams and marching bands. Each float is followed by a generator to light it up and there are also long lines of boys at each side holding fluorescent tubes all joined together with power leads and followed by generators as well. The marching bands are funny - each one has a small cart covered with loud speakers with a key board and microphone on top, all covered with flashing lights (plus generator behind) and followed by band members playing large horns and drums. All the men are dressed in white uniforms, 2 sizes too big for them and very dirty! Over the top they wear lots of gold braid and shiny bits It's all very noisy and the parade lasted about an hour each of the 3 times we saw it.
We have seen 2 other festivals in Bundi - one involved people from all over India who are walking to a very large religious festival in the desert. Most will walk to it and the whole time we were in Bundi groups of people were walking through town to the festival. It appears that each family likes to have one family representative at the festival each year, either male or female. They walk in groups, with one person in each group carrying a flag on a bamboo pole. From Bundi they still have 500 kilometers to go and millions of people will be at the ten day festival. The other festival involved only women, once again they walked from surrounding villages to a temple in Bundi. Each woman carried an offering of food for the Gods and in exchange asked for blessings for the long life of their husband. It's not a happy circumstance to be a widow in India so all the poorer women will go the temple that day. We visited the temple - it was very crowded and colourful as there was a big market of household goods on in the temple grounds as well. The women had to climb to the temple at the top of the hill once they arrived in the grounds - we didn't go up as I don't like intruding at special times like that. All fascinating to watch and I'll never hope to understand the religious practices here.
We visited the deserted palace which dominates the town and we loved it! At night thousands of bats fly out of the palace - we have a top view from our hotel rooftop right under the palace. The paintings within the palace were impressive and in surprisingly good condition. I thought many were in much better condition than the other palaces which have had some renovation work done. The gilding was very prominent in the paintings in Bundi and though the reds and yellows had faded the blues and turquoise colours were vibrant still. Many of the paintings still were covered in gold gilding. There was one area where all the walls were totally covered in beautiful paintings of early life in Bundi - they were the best we have seen so far. The palace smelt of bat poo and had a impressive marble throne.
The biggest problem Bundi has is monkeys - they are everywhere and drive the locals crazy as they can be quite aggressive. You can't kill monkeys here as they are considered sacred, like the cows and the dogs! Though they hate them they are reluctant to get rid of them in case bad karma comes there way. There are also lots of nasty looking hairy pigs roaming the streets here, snuffling around the open drains and rubbish piles. The other problem which affects the town is electricity rationing. It is a problem all over India but we've been more aware of it here. Everyday the power is turned off for 4 hours - last week 10 to 2, this week 9 to 1. Every Monday a meeting decides on the times for that week. It's never at night, only during the day and the locals prefer mornings as the afternoons are much hotter and they like to be able to use their fans. Can you imagine running a business in Australia with no electricity for 4 hours a day? By the time we left it had increased to 5 hours a day without power These things really make you appreciate Australia and how easy how life is there. Imagine having to go to a well everyday to get water - we watch the women filling up their pottery water pots and balancing a couple on their heads to take home. The roads are dotted with hand operated water pumps which the government have put in everywhere - it makes life much easier for the poorer people.
We visited a village about 10 klms from Bundi with a very friendly auto rickshaw driver who spent an hour or more introducing us to people in the village where the main occupation was to deliver milk - buffalo milk in brass pots strung onto their bikes. It was wonderful - the people could not have been more welcoming. They all wanted their photographs taken and I went in and had them all developed for the auto rickshaw driver to take back to them. They lead such simple lives, in mud huts, and seem so happy.
We also caught stopped off at the Summer Palace where Rudyard Kipling wrote part of his novel 'Kim'. In front of the palace is a lake covered in waterlilies and once thick forest grew down to the edge of the water. Today it is used as bathing and washing areas, one each for men and women. Another day after market exploring yet again we visited the largest step well in Bundi. It was at these places that people used to bathe - they are very deep wide wells with steps at various levels all the way to the bottom. They are at different levels so as the water in the well rose or fell they always had access to it. This particular step well was built in 1699 and was the biggest, grandest ( lots of pillars and erotic carvings) and used by the Queen. Jerry walked up the hill to the fort above the palace - he said that the view was great, the monkeys friendly and it was hot! I didn't feel the urge to leave the air conditioner.
During another wander around the streets we saw a young woman from a nearby village either getting a silver neckband repaired or having a cheaper lightweight copy made. We couldn't understand what the jewelery man was saying but he told us that the piece was old and worth 200,000 rupees ($AUD 5,500 - a lot of money over here).
I decided to have some henna applied to my hand - it took ages to do and was a really pleasant experience. To top it all off I had some miniature pictures painted on my fingernails. Our last evening in Bundi we had planned to visit the festival fair on the outskirts of the town in the local stadium. The first night had been school children performing - the next night was local musicians so we chose that evening. However that day it decided to rain late in the day and by dark the streets were awash and the stadium would have been a mud bath so we decided not to go. We loved Bundi - it was colourful, friendly and just had really good vibes. We stayed six nights and felt quite sad when we packed our bags to leave. This time we had decided to catch a bus to Pushkar but at the last minute ended up sharing a taxi with a Spanish couple staying at the same hotel.

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Photos

Jerry and I at the Sukh Mahal
The summer palace where Kipling wrote some of his novel 'Kim'

Old man outside shop in main street
Another sausage turban!

View of Bundi from the palace
Our hotel is the yellow building on the right

Comments

[Pepe]

Watch all 51 photos - What a lovely collection. All reminded me of the wonderful 3 years I spent in India studying. iIdidn't go to Bundi though but I will surely go one of these days. Thanks.