Beautiful Bundi

Today we write from the small, beautiful, off the beaten track town of Bundi. We are staying at a great little hotel, about 12 rooms, right in the shadow of an amazing 400 year old palace of the Maharaja of Bundi. In fact the Maharaja lived in the palace until 1951.

We arrived last night and walked through the bustling, packed village and witnessed a wedding procession through the town. It was unlike anything we've seen. There was a parade of about 50 people led by a wagon blaring a combination of chants and techno/electronica. Following him was a man in a suit doing a crazy dance (reminded me of my uncle Tommy for some reason). After them was the groom riding a burrow. Following the burrow was the bride surrounded by about 30 other women. Wrapped around the whole procession were about 20 young boys carrying poles with two 4' long fluorescent lights each powered by a generator at the rear of the procession. Very different.

Today we got up early and walked to the top of the hill and the entrance to the palace. We were up too early, even Erin, and the palace wasn't open, but we were greeted by about 1,000 monkeys climbing up and over all the walls. After breakfast, we were able to go on a tour of the palace. It was amazing. Apparently it was made of a type of very hard stone that wasn't very carveable. So instead, the entire palace was painted with intricate murals. Most of the murals had weathered away, but there were still several places, such as in the Maharani sleeping area, and the Maharaja sleeping area, where they were still intact. Beautiful, intricate, almost 400 year old murals painted in amazing colors, gold, stained glass and mirrors. The entire palace sits on top of about a 500 foot hill and the views are breathtaking. When standing up top we looked over the town of blue-walled, flat-roofed buildings and could see monkeys running and jumping from roof to roof. The whole place reminded me of an Indiana Jones movie. Amazing.

Tomorrow we are off to Udaipur for about three days. We are getting lots of walking in today before a 7 hour train ride tomorrow.

We hope all are well and enjoyed a great Thanksgiving.

Ted and Erin