Phul Plaza Hotel Kota

... It was just a ruin. (So much for their claim to be updated yearly.)

We then got ourselves brought to the promisingly named Krishna Palace. Krishna Dump would have been a better name so we went on to check out the final option, one that we had seen from the bus on our arrival into the city, the Dwarika. This one was a bit of a dump as well, with rooms that clearly hadn't been cleaned in months. But by now we were ...

... stay in India, I think I'll stick with vegetarian.

17 November - Bundi

Gregory went off for a walk up the mountain to explore the Bundi fort with some new American friends whom we had met at breakfast at Shivam's, and I went off on my own walking around as well as updating my blog at the internet café. Later when I was walking around, total strangers were telling me, "Your friend is looking for you." I asked them how they knew it was I who ...

... chef, while his wife makes the excellent chappattis.

The next morning, Sunday, we went up to the palace. We hired a guide called Billu and spent a couple of hours looking around. It was very hot, but because the palace is quite high, it was possible to stay quite cool. The palace was overrun with monkeys loping all over the place, as they do in the town, and lots of smelly bats.

The best thing in the palace was the wall murals. Some of them showed ...

... stick (to ward off the monkeys) - yes, I found my monkeys. Bundi is also famous for it's Baoris (step wells). These are deep wells that have steps descending down to the water and some are architecturally magnificent. When the sun went down, we ventured out to see the street life and wasn't disappointed. We woke early the day of departure as we had a long drive back to Delhi. It was miserable -even Andy admitted he couldn't close ...

... making fun of me. I didn't mind. In the past 3 months, I had been drawing so much attention in so many different geographies that I had grown immune to it. Unable to figure the game they were playing, refused a second chai and resumed cycling. A few minutes later, a 12-year-old in a bright blue school shirt approached me with his bicycle. He told me that he was going to the afternoon session at his school. I followed him. The hundreds of students went ...

... French couple, the cook's son Nanu, 2 Australian girls (one being seriously hot) and good old me... The French couple were having something called "Dozo". It looked delicious. This had better be good, because I hadn't eaten much in the past 2 days. The Dozo had a pastry-like cover made of chickpeas. On the inside was spicy potato mixed in a bright yellow sauce. There were some ketchup, red onions, tomatoes and coriander on the top ...

... had a nice rooftop restaurant which had great city and sunset views.

The 14 century Taragarh Fort and the adjacent Bundi Palace dominates the city's hilltop. Once a great fortress and palace, it now sits in various stages of decay but was a really good place to climb around. Before I left for a hike, our hosts gave me "the monkey stick" and told me to be careful, “lots of aggressive ...

... Octopussy was filmed it certainly has that kind of 70's Euro jet-set feel to it. An enormous white hotel floats in the middle of the lake, the impressive city palace on the banks and the hassle-free shops and bazaars allow us to roam and relax.

Made the mistake of eating some chicken and was ill for the last night. The indians do not eat meat (most restaurants are veggie) and only seem to have meat on the menu to serve western demand. They are not used ...

... m udělat si obrázek o stavu zdejsích silnic...... Do Bundi přijízdíme okolo páté odpolední, tak tedy rychle najít ubytování, nez se setmí. Uz ze silnice vidíme na úpatí kopce rozlehlou stavbu a je nám jasné, ze je to BUNDI PALACE, kterým je město známé a kvůli kterému jsme sem přijeli i my. Ubytovny jsou kilometr od autobusáku, tak smlouváme o ceně s riksou. A riksa nás klasicky informuje, ze hlavní ulice je zavřená, takze to musí objet a ze ...

... cui si accedeva attraverso larghe scale decorate da archi e bassorilievi. Erano costruiti anche per meritare un buon karma, per una leggenda che ho letto troppo distrattamete. Ne ho visto uno, bellissimo per l'architettura, pur se ridotto ad una pozzanghera putrescente ed ad una voliera per piccioni e pipistrelli. Il giorno che abbiamo lasciato Bundi per Udaipur, siamo usciti dalla guest house alle 8h15, per raggiungere la stazione a circa 5 chilometri. Il treno, ci ...