Rolling into Ranthambhore

Monday, June 25, 2012. Ranthambhore, Rajasthan, India.
Distance driven: 2,324 KM / 1453 miles.

Following the advice of the hotel operator from last night, we made two stops before leaving Bundi.

First was to visit the Sukh Mahal, which was a summer pleasure palace overlooking a lake, about 2KM out of town. Rudyard Kipling stayed a day or two here and is supposed to have been inspired to write The Jungle Book during his stay in Bundi. Baloo (pronounced Baaah Looo) is the Hindi word for a bear. Bagheera (pronounced bag er ah) is the Hindi for panther. Akela means alone.

Back in town, we stopped at the Raniji-ki-bauri. Bauri is the local name for the stepwells for which Bundi is renowned, and while many have fallen into disrepair or become trash receptacles, this is the finest example, dating from the 1600s.

The decoration is beautiful, and the well goes a long way down. Along the sides were a goodly number of resting bats. We’ve actually seen quite a lot of bats – as we drove from Ranakpur and the sun began to set, we saw lots of them flying. Unlike our small Mexican free tailed bats in Austin, which are about the size of a mouse, these where much bigger – probably with bodies about the size of a squirrel.

The road to Ranthambhore was in mixed conditions – at times great, at other times very rough. We crossed several sets of train tracks. At each entrance and exit to the train tracks there are a series of speed bumps, so they didn’t make the ride any smoother.

Our original hotel had rooms that were very musty, so we ended up upgrading to another hotel just outside town, which is much nicer.

After lunch, we rested for an hour then drove to Ranthambhore fort which is inside the Ranthambhore National Park. The park is the principal reason for our visit and tomorrow we will go on a couple of game drives in search of tigers.

The fort is quite large, and is yet another ruin. There is believed to have been a settlement here since at least the eighth century. Inside the fort there are Hindu and Jain temple ruins and a mosque. Entrance to the fort is free, but going on game drives in search of tigers, which we will do tomorrow, is not.

Our hotel rate is inclusive of all meals, which is good, as we are kind of remote.  To get to the hotel you have to drive 2kM down a dirt track and we are about 10KM from town.  However, we are just outside the part entrance, so we should be able to get a good start in the morning.

Bouncing our way to Bundi

Sunday, June 24, 2012.  Bundi, Rahasthan, India.
Distance driven: 2,192 KM / 1370 miles.

Our first stop today was a group of Shiva temples from the Gupta period. Although mostly ruins, there are some fine carvings including some pretty erotic ones.

The main temple is over a thousand years old and the side temples are as much as 1,300 years old.  These are located at a waterfall, which makes a picturesque setting.  We also saw a number of birds here, including some very colorful blue kingfishers.

Then it was onward to our destination, the town of Bundi.  The road was very rough, and even driving slowly we got bounced all over the place.

Once we got in, we had lunch at our hotel then took a nap before heading out in the late afternoon to explore.  Bundi is less visited than many of the other towns in Rajasthan and has some nice features.

We walked through the old town and up to the fort and palace, which was a pretty good hike in the heat. The fort and palace ended up having one of the more expensive entry fees – they require separate tickets for the fort and palace, each at RP100 per person and RP50 per camera, which is really a bit cheeky, as I think this really should be only one ticket.

Unfortunately both locales are pretty rundown, despite the fact that the fort was vacated only about 50 years ago. At the palace you can see some vestiges of its former glory, but you have to walk over the monkey poo and bat guano to see what is left.

One area of the general palace is in somewhat better preservation and this was the main courtyard where on one side the Brahman priests would hang out. In the courtyard was a small pool that was only for royal usage.

The ladies quarter, or Zennana is in better shape as this is separately maintained by the Indian government and the gatekeeper unlocked and showed us around pointing out special things and explaining the pictures.

We particularly enjoyed the image with a bull and an elephant tussling, but if you look closely, you’ll see that in fact there is only one head and one eye for the animals – the artist has skillfully made the same form work for both animals’ heads.

The docent pointed out a trapdoor between the men’s courtyard and the zennana, which was only for the Maharaja’s use. Ben termed this “the hanky panky gate”!

Kelly sat for a photo on the the queen’s seat in the garden, even though she wasn’t feeling 100%.

We then hiked on up to the fort, which was an even steeper climb. Mostly there were just ruins to be seen there, and things were in worse shape than he palace. One interesting element was the stepwells, which were designed to hold the fort’s water supply and feature inset steps so that  citizens could descend further and further into the stepwell as the water level dropped. The stepwells are a particular feature of the town of Bundi.

Just as the sunset and we started to leave, a troop of monkeys came through the fort.

On our return to the hotel we stopped for dinner at what Trip Advisor listed as the #1 restaurant in Bundi.  The meal was okay, in a very basic place.  If this was the best that Bundi had to offer, it really wasn’t saying much.

Back at our hotel I has some tea and got chatting with a group and their guide who are staying at the same place as us tonight. After all the travellers went to bed, it was just the guide, the hotel operator and me and we had a nice chat.

They told me that the last Maharaja didn’t really have any relatives or even much connection with the town anymore. He mostly lived in Delhi and just came back to sell the odd property or two. Most of the castle and palace is owned by him, but he puts no resources into it, hence the state of dilapidation. It would be better if he gave the property to the government, but pride or sense of ownership prevented him from doing so.

Our hotel, the Ishwari Niwas, is about 100 years old and is owned by the operator’s uncle. Their grandfather was a prime minister and this was his house. It later became a guest house for foreigners under the British. Lord Mountbatten was a friend of the then Maharaja and used to frequent Bundi, staying with him.

He mentioned a few places that we should check out before we leave Bundi, so we’ll stop there in the morning our our way out.

Above left photo is the restaurant where we had dinner.  As we headed out, a cow started up the steps.   I don’t know exactly why, but I found this kind of funny.

The Old Fortress of Chittaurgarh

Saturday, June 23rd, 2012. Udaipur, Rajasthan, India.
Distance driven: 2,046 KM / 1279 miles.

Since we don’t have too far to go today we left Udaipur around 10am and drove to Chittaurgarh, the old capital of the Mewar territory, which followed Eklingli and preceded Udaipur. 

Chittaurgarh was founded as early as 728 CE and was active as the capital from the 12th to 16th centuries until it was abandoned.

The main reason we wanted to come here was that Aaron had learned about the placed on Reddit and asked if we could visit since the fort looked really neat.  Unlike the other Rajasthani forts we’ve visited, this one is mostly in ruins, although they are in much better shape than the Golconda Fort we had visited near Hyderabad.

The fortress is impressive – it is located at the top of a hill with a  commanding view of the valley below where great battles took place with Alaudin  Khalji in 1303 and the murghals under Akbar in 1567 when the fort was abandoned.

To get inside the fort we had to pass through about 5 different gates until we reached the inner part of the fort which runs for 13KM/8 miles around the hilltop.  Inside are the ruins of forts, palaces, and temples and we had fun exploring them and enjoying the views.

In amongst the buildings birds, chipmunks, and monkeys roam.

One of our final stops was the Padmini Palace where Alaudin Kiliji is said to have seen the beautiful Padmini’s reflection off the water, reflected by a mirror.  Swearing to have her as his own, this started a terrible war.  She refused him and he laid siege to the fort.  Thousands of women committed ritual suicide by immolation, or jauhar, and then 50,000 men were killed in the battle. 

Jauhar occurred at least two other times, with tens of thousands of women throwing themselves on the a pyre to protect their honor.  Note that this is different from sati, a ritual where dedicated wives and concubines would throw themselves on their husband’s funeral pyres. 

Lunch was at a small local place where we finally got some food that we would consider spicy (but very nice).  When I ordered, I asked for “spicy – Indian spicy, not American spicy”.  I found out later than they had asked our driver Sury and he told them to make it “Rajashtani spicy”, which they did.

Tonight we are staying about 40KM/25 miles further at a place called Castle Bijaipur, which is indeed a castle – it dates from the 16th century.  We were welcomed by the banging of drums and rattling of some percussive instrument and adorned with flower garlands.

 

On our way to our rooms we were met with some cold Indian cola (which is a little on the cough medicine side for my taste!).  Thankfully it has been updated since the 16th century and has a lived in charm about it. Our rooms are nice and very atmospheric.  We even have our own balcony.

They have a lovely pool and we had a swim around sunset which was wonderfully refreshing.  Lots of birds could be seen flitting amongst the trees and shrubs.

Dinner at the hotel was disappointing.  It had almost no flavor.  Upon request they spiced it up a bit for us, but this will not be a memorable meal.