Bundi (and the baby camel)
Trip Start
Jan 28, 2007
1
9
29
Trip End
Mar 31, 2007
Bundi, India
Monday, February 12, 2007
At one point we were driving alone in the middle of no where and there coming towards us walking along the side of the rode was a man with a camel. No big deal here in India..... BUT... across the man's shoulders he was carrying a baby camel!!. Our cars stopped and we all jumped out for potos. It was gorgeous. The man put it down for us and it tottied a little and tried to take milk from it's mother (who nipped at it ha ha). It could just walk! The man said it had been born the day before. It still had it's cord hanging from it.
In our 2 short weeks so far in India we have seen so many fascinating things which has often included so many different animals involved in and mixed up in the daily lives around us. On returning to the car we needed to say outload to ourselves - "we just saw a man walking along the road with a baby camel on his back". That really has to be classed as a "magic moment"!! But while while were here in India where there is to many incredible things for the brain to take in it somehow seemed quite natural at the time - sureal but almost normal...ha ha.
We arrived in Bundi which was a beautiful country town nestled in a valley and is known as the City of Wells and dominated by yes another Fort and Palace (sex house again? ha ha)
We had lunch then walked throught the town to the Garth Palace. The twon was wonderful. A full local market town (small town) where dozens (100's) of women were out shoppin the th brightest saris we.ve come across so far. In with this colour throw in again the animals all over the roads, chaotic auto rickshaws with honking horns and for an exta bonus we came across a streetside dentist - 2 men sitting on a mat on the side of the road (the dentist's regualar place of business) There was various shaped false teeth laying in the dust on display next to the dental instruments - and ... the man had his mouth wide open getting a tooth pulled! aaaaarhhh... (glad I had that checkup before I left home!)
The palance built in 1600 was again impressive and gave wonderful views back down over Bundi. The houses of Bundi are mostly painted blue or white (first time we've seen this) similar I guess to the look of the outsides of house in Mykonos Greece which are also all square box shaped house in these colours. We were told the colours are supposed to help act as a mosquito repellent.
We also visited one of the stepwells for which the town is famous. There is a natural underground watertable and over the centurys more than 50 stepwells have been built. The one we visited was called Raniji Ki Baori Stepwell which was built in 1699 by a junior queen at the time and is 46 metres deep with fantastic carved pillars and arched gateways at the top of the 100's of steps leading down.
Everyone split up after the palace and Rob, me and Karen the girl from Chicargo just wandered slowly back through the town and eventually stopped to eat at one of the local restaurants. (cost us $3.55 for the 3 of us including a pepsi) Walking back to the hotel once dark is always a challenge as of course there are no street lights (or footpaths - god forbid there be a footpath hahaha - it would be covered in rubbish anyway...) and so you pray you avoid big potholes, mud pits but most imperative of all to avoid are the hug cow pats and flying autorickshaws cariering along the roads.
Early bed for us as it's a 6am get up time tomorrow to get to the train station for our trip to Bijaipur Village.
