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Alli & Pete's Adventures
Final report on our trip to Rajasthan now coming up ... we spent our last night in Udaipur having dinner with the manager of the hotel, interesting trying to hold a conversation, especially when he thought we were travel agents bringing business his way in the future ! The next day we headed off for Bundi, stopping at Chittogarh on the way, where we spent a couple of hours admiring more Jain temples (definitely my favourite architecture in India). After a long day on the road, we arrived in Bundi and had dinner in the hotel, followed by a reasonably early night. The next day we visited the Palace, which had beautiful miniature paintings. This was also the only palace in India where you can see the Fort located directly next to the Palace, something to do with being able to defend both in times of trouble. We also went to visit a beautiful step-well, which is used to store water in the monsoon time, to last throughout the rest of the year. However, it is not being used at the moment, as they have had a severe drought for the last few years. We spent the afternoon wandering around the tiny alleyways of shops, interesting to see the many stalls set out in areas such as jewellery, cooking, phones, medical and 'general crap' etc. Pete managed to download the most popular Indian ringtone called 'Just Chill' onto his phone, so him & Beeru can dance to it (Beeru sings it all the time!). We bought some miniature paintings from a shop, then the artist used a squirrel-hair brush and painted our thumb nails with such detailed pictures it was fantastic ... Indu got an Indian Lady in Sari, Pete had a Tiger and I had a Peacock painted. 15 minutes each, look great and cost us nothing ! That evening, we went for a few drinks with the local tour guide who had shown us around the palace earlier on, it was a really nice evening and the beers helped us sleep well ! Long drive back to Orchha the next morning, leaving at 6am and arriving about 4pm, great to have all our friends greet us in the main street when we got back. The next day was Christmas Eve, so we went shopping in Jhansi to buy gifts for our friends. We also had some very generous donations from my Mum & Aunty Susan, plus another guy named Jeff from Canada who we met in Orchha the night we got back, so we went to the Nepalese Market and bought 30 Sweaters & 17 Blankets for the people in the Colony. It was fantastic when we gave these out on Christmas day (Jeff helped too, which was great) ... not a day that is usually celebrated in India (they had Diwali instead), but hopefully one of the best days these people have had for a long time ... it was funny watching how the fathers all stood back and watched with grateful eyes, the children had huge smiles when we selected them for new clothes, but the mothers all grabbed for everything they could and had lots of 'slanging matches' about who got what (which we ignored). In the afternoon, we had our 'son' Santosh come to the Resort to collect his present ... we bought him a cooking range, pots & pans, glasses, utensils etc ... which we hope will help him to start his own cooking classes and food stall. That evening, we had dinner with friends at a local restaurant and watched a cultural show. After giving presents to everyone else, Pete & I finally opened our own presents at about 11pm ! We are now trying to decide where we will spend New Years Eve, hope you all have a nice time wherever you are too.
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