Bundi Fort Taragarh
First trip to India, January 2015
In the morning, we had to say goodbye to our fragrant palace-hotel and set off in search of cheaper accommodation. It was a pity to check out of such beauty, but one cannot live like that for long either — beauty becomes familiar and stops delighting you.
So we went to one of the guesthouses we had seen yesterday, with a pleasant owner.
The only room he had available was a single one, on the top floor, a very small little room, but with windows overlooking the lake and a large windowsill for sitting. There was no bathroom in the room, but the price was appropriate — 350 rupees per room (about 110 UAH). That was almost 4 times cheaper than our room in the palace. We had to wait about half an hour while the room was cleaned. This guesthouse has a beautiful café on the lakeshore, and we sat there warming ourselves in the sun.
Then we got ready and went to the fort, just as we had planned yesterday. The weather was wonderful, sunny. Volchiy suggested that this was a desert climate — it was already hot during the day, and cold in the evenings.
We had read comments about scary wild monkeys that attack tourists at the fort. So, on the advice of experienced locals, we found two sturdy sticks in the garden area of our little hotel. Our procession along Bundi Street drew approving laughter from the Indians.
We bought tickets at the same ticket office where we had bought tickets to the palace yesterday. First we climbed up to the entrance to the little garden, where we had already been yesterday; дальше a steep stone path leads to the fort. An Indian checked the tickets and assessed the sticks
-From the monkeys?
-Yeah
-Good, good (laughs). Good clubs!
On the way to the fort, a monkey family is sitting on the ruins of a building. Good thing we have clubs.
We pass through the first open gates into the fort; behind them there is another one — closed, only a small door at the bottom is open — we squeeze through. We go to explore the fort. In the same reviews we had read that people didn’t like the fort. We never understood why.
The fort, all ruined and overgrown with trees — but very fascinating and interesting. We found so much there.
Three stepped wells are large stone wells with steps arranged inside them in a peculiar way.
It seems there are very few tourists in those buildings.
Several little houses with amazing paintings - the same ones we saw yesterday in the palace. But how amazing it is to see such wall paintings in abandoned houses, practically in the dense wilderness.
The largest and most popular building in the fort also impresses visitors. This is the small Rani Mahal palace, built especially for the ruler’s wives.
Here, as in the palace, there is a large hall with columns, decorative arches, and, in some places, beautifully preserved wall paintings. On the floor, in some areas, there are still beautiful tile ornaments.
The fort offers a stunning view of the city and the Garh Palace — from here you can see the beautiful green island of the garden and the lace-like balconies seemingly floating in the air, with their amazingly shaped little domes.
On the opposite side of the fort’s main building is the Shiva temple, topped with a beautiful pavilion. Monkeys of all sizes sit on the fort walls and in the trees along the path leading to the temple. They behave more or less calmly; at least they did not attack us. Inside the temple there is an altar and a statue of a seated sacred cow — we had already seen similar cows before. Wolf rode the cow, and then we took a joint photo on the cow, which, however, did not turn out very well — but it was fun.
By that time I was of course already tired, and I was also hungry. We spent three hours in the fort.
It is enough to spend a day in the town and you already know where to drink tea and where they fry delicious pastries. We went to the tea seller we already knew, who brewed delicious and cheap masala tea (5 rupees per cup). After drinking two cups each (though they are not very big here), we went to the shop next door, where we had eaten fried pastries the day before. Next to us on the bench sat an unremarkable Indian man. When we started disinfecting our hands with sanitizer before eating, he cheered up; he hardly spoke any English and wanted to know whether we liked the pastries. I said yes, they were excellent pastries. It turned out that he was the owner of this place, watching his business prosper — it is a popular spot among the locals, and all the time someone comes up and buys hot baked goods.
Next on our plan was the largest stepwell in Bundi, Raniji ki Baori.
On the way there, we saw two identical Nagar Sagar wells — an impressive sight, even though now there is trash in the wells instead of water… The entrance to Raniji ki Baori cost 70 rupees per person, so after thinking it over, we decided not to go in. Maybe that was a mistake; they say it is one of the most famous stepwells of this kind in Rajasthan, 46 meters deep. But we were already tired of impressions and decided that was enough for today.
On the way home, we bought bananas, tea leaves, toothpaste, and restocked our supply of cookies. In principle, buying anything standard in India is not difficult. There are practically no supermarkets here; we were in three during our entire trip, but there is not much need for them. There are lots of small shops selling everything from soap to chocolate. It is very convenient that the price of any item in such shops is fixed — it is printed on the product’s packaging.
Also on the way home, we saw some kind of festive procession. The Indians were having a great time, music was playing, and musicians were beating drums.
We got home around five in the evening, tired but happy. We drank tea and sat on our windowsill. The sun was slowly fading, and with it the cold was setting in.
