We headed out of Sawdi Madaphour at the timely hour of 1:30pm with no real idea of how long it would actually take to reach Bundi or how bad the road would be. The folks we asked in Sawdi said anything from 3 to 6 hours to Bundi, and the road was described as being "ok" to "bad". We were praying to all 330 million Hindu gods that the road would be better than the previous 250km of road we had bumped over two days before. One of those gods listened! I think it might have been Jebus. The road turned out to be in very good shape with little traffic and beautiful scenery. We slowly watched the landscape change from green, fertile farmland to burnt orange desert soil and barren, maroon mountain ranges. We rode west, parallel to the Arvalai range, and arrived in Bundi four enjoyable hours later. Once in Bundi, we made our way through the tangled streets, continually asking the townsfolk which way it was to the havalis (old mansions), many of which are now homestays available to tourists as alternatives to hotels. We ended up at the Haveli Meghwananji and were shown a couple of rooms. The last room we were brought to was called the "Maharaja Deluxe Room", and we thought it would be way out of our spending budget. However, because no one else was staying at this place, they gave us a discounted price: about $2 USD a night each. The room was excellent, windows with stained glass arches that opened up overlooking the small lake, our own private entrance, and our own rooftop terrace with views of the city, palace, and fort. It was definitely not a five star joint, but it was oozing character from every crack in the wall. Actually, I'm writing this right now in front of the open window, overlooking the lake, temple, mosque, and Arvalai range to the south, a warm breeze and big smile pasted upon my face. Life is good.

Chapter Feb 28-March 10 "Holi Rock Stars, Batman!"
Well, I think we both needed this rest. Yes, we ended up staying in Bundi for almost two weeks. The city was really beautiful, filled with friendly people, and lots of interesting sights to see. Things just kind of happened for us here. Our room at the Havali Meghwananji (Lakeview Hotel) was built by the former Prime Minister of Bundi over 200 years ago. Check the place out on the web if you like at, www.lakeviewbundi.com for more info. On our third day in town we met some musicians from a local band called Azad Band, which is owned and operated by Mustaq ____, a well-known performer in Rajasthan. He invited us to his music shop for a private performance, showing us his mastery of clarinet, slide guitar, and violin. We amazed them with Western technology as we recorded his performance on mini-disc. We also scored our first job five days into our stay. Yes, finally the good people of India are giving back to us! We agreed to do a web site for a local artist and his shop, Bundi Art Collection. The site took us about 5 "working days" which, as you can imagine, are pretty relaxed. In exchange for our work, Raju (the artist) gave us the equivalent of about $30 USD, a couple of paintings, and free internet access, as he also owned an internet shop. The money paid for about a week of our living expenses and we used the Internet to update this site, so in the end, things worked out fine. It turned out to be a lot of work, especially uploading the site, due to the bad connection or lack there of one at times (not to mention the constant power outages.) More importantly, is that we have another web site under our belt and we are both learning everyday. You can't put a price on learning and education, right Mr. President? We think it turned out pretty damn good. Simple but good. All pictures in the web site were taken with the digital camera (Kodak DC5000) from the original paintings.

March 10 was the festival of Holi: the color festival. Colored powder is thrown and sprayed on everything and everyone to mark the end of winter. The night before, in which bonfires are lit to symbolize the destruction of the evil demon Holika, we had quite the otherwordly Holi experience. The owner of Lakeview Hotel, Sawda Medtha, asked us to play some music at a kind of talent show for the "business community" of Bundi. We really aren’t very good (yet), and we really didn't want the stress of playing in public, so we politely said " NO". That evening Sawda asked us to just go to the Program, "you don't have to play" he said. "Sure, why not", we replied. As soon as we entered the show on the rooftop terrace, the lights, camera, and peoples eyes were all upon us within seconds. There was a stage at the front with a bunch of men sitting down, and a crowd of about 500 Bundi folk. Within about thirty seconds, the master of ceremony was calling our names and everyone was pointing for us to come up on stage. As we arrived at the stage, a man put some gold paint on our foreheads and blessed us. We were given these party hats and asked to join the men sitting down. A man came up and said, "Where are your instruments?" " We didn't bring them", we sternly replied. "Well, we can arrange for them to be brought here", he suggested. Jared was all for playing because he CAN play, but I wasn't too enthused about singing. I've never sung or played in front of anyone before and I was nervous as hell. I have only been playing guitar for about 2 months, so just think how bad you were at 2 months! I think what made it easier was that the crowd didn't speak English, wasn't expecting much, and didn't know who we were. It was so bizarre. You can't even imagine how strange it was. I think we bombed. I can firmly say this because after the first song a man came up to me and asked if we knew any Hindi songs! We got good thanks and applause from the crowd afterwards, and just the experience itself was worth it all. Crazy days!!!

Bundi has really been an amazing place to hold up for a couple of weeks. It really makes you wonder what would happen if maybe you gave every city this much time: time enough to relax, to look around, to meet people, and just to connect. I wish we had this much time everywhere. Something inside just tells me, though, that this place has something special. Do you know that feeling, when you just get into a city or someplace, and you just get a good vibe or feeling about it? Like, yes, this place is the place for me. It's a good feeling and we got it right away in Bundi. We've met a lot of people here, a lot of really good people. As our friend, the owner of Lakeview, summed up quite cheesily, "Come as a tourist, leave as a friend." Cheesy or not, it's true. I think both Jared and I will be back to visit friends sometime soon, so it's not good-bye Bundi, it's until we meet again. Talk about cheese.....

Next stop, Chittorgarh.........