We liked Kamal so much that we hired him again. Helen and I got up at the crack of dawn and went to see some 15,000 year old cave paintings. We'd also invited a lovely woman named Monica who was 69 years old and traveling alone. As if voyaging solo wasn't enough inspiration, she spent the afternoon joking about how old and out of shape she was as we jumped from rock to rock, crawled between impossibly tight crevices and scurried around the countryside. The woman was a mountain goat! Anyway, the rock paintings we saw depicted scenes from ancient farm life: plowing the land, fighting on camels, crop configuration, and the use of the wheel. From what we've seen things haven't changed too much in these parts. On the way back to Bundi we stopped at a farmhouse for chai. There was a water buffalo that either loved me desperately or hated me passionately - when I sat it would strain it's rope to get to me, but when I stood the beast would jump, spin, and run whipping it's neck at the ropes length in the other direction. I never knew one could have a love/hate relationship with such a dimwitted animal, but then Helen married me, didn't she. After our little break we politely asked the family if we could take a photograph of them. They, like all Indians, were all giggles until the camera came out. Then they, like all Indians, looked as if they were facing a shooting squad - it happens almost everywhere. Helen and I have deleted thousands of pictures of happy, laughy people who turned open-casket faced as soon as the finger neared the shutter snap.

One day, we decided to go to Kota to see a movie, buy DVDs, and take the famous water taxi ride. The movie was Dhoom 2, a star-studded, fast-paced, dance-filled Bollywood cops-and-robbers extravaganza. Whenever the stars came on screen the capacity crowd (made up almost exclusively of hormone flooded teenage boys) went bananas, but the truly monumental moment was the full-on lip lock; not just a little peck of the lips, but an gloriously unapologetic face plant! Screen kisses are something that is unprecedented in Indian film and we were there to witness the turning point. One family, however, stormed out of the theatre in disgust. The newspapers have gone bezerk because the up and coming son of the royal family of Bollywood, Abishek Bachchen, is engaged to Ashwaria Rai, a past Miss Universe and one-half of the guilty party. The other half of the controversy is Bollywood blood too. With his flowing highlighted hair, sprayed-on pants and ripped abs he really seems to enjoy his dance numbers primarily when the boy hoofers outnumber the girls. Afterwards, it got late and the temperature dropped enough that it was too cold to do the 3 hour water ride so we settled for a little spin on the river which, unbeknownst to us when we boarded, ran just downstream of where a massive chemical plant dumps it's waste. Then we took the bus back to Bundi. Unfortunately, the Kota we saw wasn't too picture worthy.

We'd heard about some picturesque waterfalls outside of town so we rented a scooter and shot out to see them. Back in Bundi on the same afternoon I was walking down one of the few charming uncongested streets when a sweet little old man invited me into his small guest house, The Shivam, for a chai. The entire family gave me a tour with his charming daughter, Pinkie, leading the offensive. I was enchanted with all of them so I raced back, grabbed Helen and dragged her down the street to meet the family too. The following day Pinkie hennaed Helen's fingertips to the elbows, then we all ate dinner and said our goodbyes for the next day we were off on another adventure.

The next entry will be part of Helen's birthday present: a week at Ranthambhore National Park...that means TIGERS!!!

PMB 28/11/06