December 12 Bundi to Mumbai

I am doing this in retrospect as there was no time to blog as the tour was too hectic. We got into tuk tuts, and went to an ancient step well. Huge area, and people walked down steps to get their water. The water table is now way lower due to agriculture, so the well is now no longer used. Quite an impressive feature. We saw two other Rajasthani step wells, much smaller in Bundi. Our guide was extremely good. He came from the archeological survey of India. Great English, great presence, very informed.The tuk tuts took us to a view point from the road from where we took pics of the Bundi Palace and city walls. Bundi is in a valley, so the Palace was half way up the mountain, and city walls way up. Not far to get to the Palace. It is not well maintained but some is maintained by the Archeological Survey of India. Impressive huge gates. Once inside the Palace gates we saw the area for the elephant fights. The elephants were given alcohol, opium various drugs, to make them aggressive, as normally they're not. Then we walked up into the Palace. The pics will show that it is quite impressive, and when you realize the opulence that the king enjoyed always with a harem, you appreciate the ornate architecture, paintings etc. Again, lovely view down to the valley below, and amazing paintings. There was a smaller garden maintained by the Indian survey. Very enjoyable tour. On descent, we had to be very careful as the ancient rock steps were very slippery, so we traversed. We walked from there into the Old city of Bundi, and it was a fascinating Eastern market. The ladies stopped to buy silk from a guy with his hand loom, proving all his goods were hand made. The trip down the road was busy and the people and shops were fascinating. We actually walked back to the hotel from there. I think we had lunch next and relaxed. Then, an hour before we left we went back to the market. A spice vendor decided to decorate my forehead with a long red tikka. We returned to the hotel, which was a monument in itself. It is a very ornate guest house used by the British. I was sharing a room, but we had an entrance to the room....like a lounge. The inner courtyard was very pleasant, and everything was decorated to reflect the history of this building....pink chandeliers, paintings of various English patrons, and Indian prominent people. The food was particularly good at this hotel. It was now dusk, and we got into jeeps, and left from Bundi on an hour long ride to Kota Rail Junction, where we boarded the train to Mumbai overnight. We were on a freeway for some of the time, and we were amazed that one of our lanes traffic travelled in the opposite direction!!!!! Didn't seem to bother anyone as , after all, the cars had headlights.....scary stuff!! Mumbai was next!