Steintore
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Steintore
Mon, 27.01.2014: Udaipur −> Chittaurgarh, sunny, 25°C
We spent 1.5 hours at the City Palace which had opened again after the Royal wedding. It is Rajasthan'a largest palace that towers over the lake with numerous balconies, towers and cupolas. The first parts were built in the 15th Century and it was added to over the centuries. The rooms are extravagantly decorated with mirrors, tiles and paintings. There is a large collection of artefacts including Sir Ben Kingsley's glasses that he wore for the film Ghandi in 1982.
It cost 115 Rs per person plus 225 Rs per camera and there were lots of people and a number of groups, but we enjoyed our visit and can recommend it.
We phoned Yadav who came to collect us at the hotel and load our bags into the car. On the way out of the city we stopped to see some large cenotaphs at the Royal cemetery and further along the route, stopped at Shreemaya, another Krishna Temple.
Yadav has never stayed in Chittaurgarh because he normally drives from Udaipur directly to Bundi so he had to ask for directions from the locals. Our hotel was large and the grounds were being set up for wedding celebrations that evening. There were two stages erected in the gardens with lighting and loud speakers, chairs laid out and a number of tables for food. There was also a covered walkway with fresh flowers where the guests would walk on their way to the gardens.
I worked on the computer and then we went down to the restaurant and hunted for a table with a clean tablecloth on it. Not possible! This is another thing about India that we are not too keen on - a stained and dirty tablecloth doesn't enhance one's appetite!!
We hunted out the least dirty tablecloth and had Chinese fried rice and naan bread. A white car bedecked with fresh flowers arrived with the bride and groom - we watched from our table and later took photos of the car. We also took a look at the proceedings - a huge amount of guests. Yadav said we could just walk around and even eat some food, no one would mind, but we didn't want to impose. (It would be a bit obvious that we are not family!!)
Tue, 28.01.2014: Chittaurgarh −> Bundi, sunny, 25°C
We managed to sleep quite well. The live music didn't disturb us in our room and the noisy guests returning at around midnight soon got into their rooms and settled down. It could have been far worse - but then there wasn't any alcohol so maybe that was the reason!
We left at 9-40am as it had taken quite a while to get served breakfast in the hotel. We drove up to Chittaurgarh Fort and paid 100 Rs each to get into the ruins. There was literally not a great deal to see but the entrance ticket includes entry into a lot of temples in the surrounding area. We were glad that Yadav drove us around to each temple which saved us a great deal of time.
We spent 90 minutes at the various Hindu and Jain temples along with crowds of mainly Indian tourists before heading back onto the toll road. Later we turned off onto an extremely bad road and got bumped and shaken along at a snails pace and didn't arrive in Bundi until 3-15pm. We should have stayed on the toll road which would have saved us 90 minutes.
After checking into our hotel which seemed clean enough (we didn't need to ask for clean sheets, towels or toilet paper for a change!!) we walked up a steep hill to get to the Bundi Palace entrance. It cost 100 Rs each plus 50 Rs for the camera. Then we climbed up another very steep hill and entered through the Elephant Gate built in 1607.
The palace had been abandoned and taken over by bats. Recently, the Maharajah ordered a clean up and was now open to the public. The smell of bat dung was still extremely strong in places and the view meant we could see how high we'd climbed to get here.
After the palace we were about to walk up another steep cobblestone hill when we were stopped and asked for our tickets. We dutifully showed them and were told that we had to pay extra for the fort. We tried arguing that these were the tickets for the fort and palace to no avail. They wanted another 250 Rs. So we slipped and slid back down the quite dangerous path (it's a lot easier going up!) and checked at the entrance kiosk.
In our Lonely Planet it says that the fort is free if you buy a ticket for the palace but, in very small writing at the bottom of the sign with entrance prices, it states that entrance to the fort is extra! Oh well, we're not going back up. Not very many tourists come here because there are far better examples of forts and palaces elsewhere. It hadn't been on our list but we needed somewhere to stay for the night between Chittaurgarh and Ranthambore.
Back in the town we walked through the town, stopping and asking for directions a few times and found Queen's Bath - a 46m deep step well built in 1699. The entrance ticket included other sights in the town so we thought we might visit one on the way out tomorrow morning.
Back through the lively market and into the town, we saw something very strange! Shops seemed to have mattresses on their floors and people were lying on them in groups. We couldn't work out what the shops were and at first it seemed like they were all men but then we also saw some women.
At first we thought we must have ended up in the wrong part of town!! But it all seemed as if this was normal and everyone else was just walking past without taking any notice. Apparently, it's more comfortable to do business this way as when large groups turn up, in particular whole families looking to buy jewellery for a wedding, they don't have enough space for all the chairs. (Indian families are huge!) So, nothing to do with the sex trade after all!
Wed, 29.01.2014: Bundi −> Ranthambore National Park, sunny, 24°C
For breakfast, Kirsten had a cheese and tomato toasted sandwich which had too much pepper on it. She opened it up to scrape some of it off and found a dead mosquito inside! Yummy! It put me off my omelette!
On the way out we stopped at the 84 Pillar Cenotaph built in 1683 for a few photos as it had been included in our entrance ticket yesterday. Then we set off on very bad roads towards Ranthambore National Park. Fortunately, we got onto a toll road after a couple of hours and arrived at our hotel at 1-45pm.
Kirsten had diarrhoea again this morning so that wasn't a good sign, but she made it to the hotel without any incidents. I still have my cough and a second bottle of cough mixture to try and get rid of it. Oh well, we're counting the days until we leave but are also really looking forward to something completely different ... Tiger safaris!
We checked in and found out that our two Jeep safaris would be tomorrow morning and afternoon and asked where we needed to be and at what time. We needed extra sheets for the bed and some blankets because it gets really cold at night, especially with marble flooring.
Kirsten went to bed and slept for a few hours and I worked on the website and put together what we would need for the following day.
