Date: it might have been October 25th
Location: Bundi to Udaipur
Hotel: Dream Heaven
This is a warning to my future self. On the 27th, in Jodhpur, you will grab your towel and flick your phone on to the floor cracking the screen. The only good news is that it will match the screen on your tablet that you cracked in India in 2015.
I also implore you, dear reader, to ignore the date and time stamps. They will be removed for the photo book.
Bundi had been so wonderful we were glad there had been a change of plans so we had Ajeet take us back for a second night there so we could continue to explore the town.
We had been coaching Ajeet about having a luxury tour as well as the backpacker tour. They would both have the same daytime content, but different levels of meals and accommodation, so we went looking for luxury hotels. We stumbled into the beautiful old Dev Niwas (god residences) which was not so much more expensive but certainly very exotic.
It even had a tunnel that connected to the fort so that the Maharaja and hopefully also the Maharani could make a quick and discreet escape. Always handy if the tour group members are revolting.
Let’s pick up our walking tour, but in a different direction and including some photos that really should have been included yesterday, but you won’t notice unless I mention it… Oh, wait.
Some of the cooking implements you can hire when you are catering your own wedding.
Sometimes a simple attempt to hire some gear from a place playing dance music goes very right…
The Bundi backdrops are awesome
Great characters are everywhere.
When the weight of being a tour guide gets overwhelming, a 10 minute 50R head massage is just the thing
And what would a walk in Rajasthan be without discovering a new stepwell. This one was behind a locked gate, fortunately the house where we asked who was the keeper of the key was the keeper of the key.
The water was quite grotty, but the entrance, with the gorgeous arch was one of the most beautiful I have seen.
We had heard about a peaceful lunch spot at a wildlife reserve outside town. It was owned by the family of a bloke who had a run down backpacker hostel that had huge potential and a closed intimidating gate.
Not particularly expensive, this was the luxury lunch venue for sure.
As well as a lake full of lotus plants (not in flower unfortunately) it is also a working rice farm and harvest was under way.
I had a go at cutting the rice and threshing it. You will have to take my word for it that this is bloody hard, hot, endless work for not a lot of money. I am glad I only get to do it for fun, but feel a bit guilty that for these people it is their lives.
Then on to Udaipur passing way too many overloaded tractors.
but some of them are lovingly pimped, including a loud sound system.
As you will read, people in Udaipur won’t be as friendly as Bundi. We all hope it doesn’t get spoilt by them hassling tourists and losing the welcoming spirit that is there now.