Bundi and Jaipu

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Bundi and Jaipur by Laura

Rather than tell you a great deal about these places, I am instead going to focus on the festival Diwali - festival of light - for those of you interested in Hinduism it celebrates Rama and Sita's homecoming in the Ramayana (straight from the Rough Guide!) In essence it is all about who can set off the biggest firecracker/firework - Nov 5th India style.

I love fireworks and am used to the annual Hodson near death experience of fireworks going off haphazardly and the fire brigade on speed dial but this was something else. For weeks in advance people purchase fireworks (in fact every other shop sells them in Jaipur) and practice on street corners. There is no respect for safety in India and you can easily walk round a corner and walk straight into a firecracker about to explode.

We decided to get involved in the action and after spending an hour or so watching the fireworks from a 20 storey building we descended amongst the crowds. Clueless about where we were going we just followed and ended up walking around the Old town in Jaipur for hours - at least in pedestrian areas there was some semblance of order and fireworks littered the air but not the ground!

All in all another great Indian experience - when they want to party they certainly make it happen!

As for Bundi and Jaipur both were special in their own right. Bundi had an amazing fort and was a welcome break from the tourism of Pushkar. I was a bit under the weather s Ziad went exploring the Fort on his own - he came back very excited, not due to the Fort but due to the hundreds of monkeys he saw up there - he even stayed until dark to watch them play about only returning because a tour guide warned him that the cobras come out and are active after dark and he was wearing shorts!

Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan - a maze of shops/ temples and for some of you whom have visited India, one of the corners of the infamous Golden Triangle, noted for the Amber fort and city palace.

The fondest memory I have of both places is the guest houses we stayed in. Before starting this trip I would never have placed such importance on where I rested my head for the night (and not just because Ziad said we had to budget!!!) but I have now totally reversed this. A well run, restful and calm place is necessary (not a luxury) in India especially when they have a TV and you get to watch movies and American TV The joys of Man versus Beast (think of the worst American programme you have ever watched and double it...basically humans have to compete against animals at certain tasks) Yes I know we should be all cultured and not waisting our time whilst travelling but sometimes you just need to unwind in front of the box!

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Photos

Palace.memorial No1536
A palace/memorial to commemorate someone who thought he was special.

Diwali
As happens a few times each day, parents thrust kids into Laura's hands to take photos of their child with a white girl - weird!