The Bright Blues Of Bundi
Trip Start
Jan 18, 2012
1
6
48
Trip End
Jan 18, 2013
Bundi, Rajasthan, India
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Day 14: Wednesday February 1st
The journey here was the bus ride from hell. Maybe not literally but it was pretty close. I have never ever taken a more bumpy journey, the potholes marking the road were continuous for the whole journey and you would hit a particularly large one that would take your head off the pillow at least once every 30 seconds. Its fair to say that (despite the Valium) in the 6 hour journey I didn't get a wink of sleep. Arriving at about 4am we checked into the first place we found, which whilst not having our coverted hot water or Wifi did have warm blankets and would only cost us 100 rupees each a night (about £1.20). Exhausted from lack of sleep we slept until almost midday before we decided to venture out from our room. still abit weiry and aware we had missed half the day already we settled to have a quiet day and wander around the town and suss the place out. Here as everywhere else in India everyone is very friendly and are not shy in coming up to talk with you (particularly the children). Bundi really is a very picturesce town and i am glad we took the time to fully explore it rather than just seeing the sights and moving on as we had thought about. The central ghat (washing area) in particular is well worth a look. Our evening to was pretty sedate, after seeing that american monk guy in Udaipur eating some soup both Iain and I ordered some at the restaurant we went to that night. Unfortunately mine at least wasn't just revolting, it took unpleasant to a whole new level and even I couldn't manage to eat it! Fortunately th rest of the meal was pretty good and the very friendly owner/chef came and had a chat with us afterwards. After being given some what we can only assume to be largely empty promises of a party in the palace the following evening we went back to the hotel for a few beers and cards this time with the hotel owner. Despite having all the card luck in the world this guy clearly can't handle his booze and by the end of the evening he was up doing some proper Indian style dancing to everything from Take That to the Foo Fighters. Truely hysterical.
Day 15: Thursday February 2nd
The day started later than expected following the late night however we were determined to make it up to the palace and fort today so we set off for breakfast in the same place we had gone for it the day before. Id had some porridge & honey for only 40 rupees and it tasted pretty good so i was keen to go back. Unfortunately i had a bit of an adverse reaction to my anti-malarials this morning and ended up adding to the rest of the scenery along the highstreet on my way there. Funily enough i didn't attract a second glance. Fortunately a soon as the pill was back out of my system i was fine again (if not 100% malaria safe). After breakfast we headed up to the Palace and Hillfort complex. Just outside we were talked into hiring some monkey sticks by a local. They only cost 10 rupees and looked fun so we thought why not. AS it turned out they proved pretty useful as a walking stick to get up the steep hills. The palace itself was, despite its very impressive outward appearance, a complete ruins. Rubble and dirt lined the floors and many of the floors walls and ceiling showed cracks and chips. It was pretty reminiscent of watching an episode of grand designs to be honest. Despite the quite large number of tourists in the town itself we were suprised to find hardly any tourists here at all, particularly in the the hill fort at the top where we probably saw only 1 other group of people for the hour or so we were there. The views that you get at the top alone should be reason enough to draw people up there as you get a great view over the whole city. It is only here that you really get a sence of exactly how blue Bundi is. You do notice that quite a few of the buildings are blue when you are down in the city itself but once out of it you almost struggle to find one that isn't. Even more impressivley they all seem to be exaclty the same shade. Homebase must've really seen these guys coming! Overall i wouldn't have said that the fort was as impressive as say the one we had seen at Daultabad but then it was a different kind of experience. Where as that had ben well preserved and offered a structured route, this was far more of an ancient ruins deal that you could explore more freely. This also gave you the opportunity to see the city from above, something I would definately advice. The evening saw us indulging our homesick fantasies as we went to a pretty good Italian Restaurant and all ordered some pretty hefty (and meat filled) pizzas. I may have eaten a touch too much as hobbling home and watching T.V. was all i could really bring myself to do for the rest of the evening.
Day 16: Friday February 3rd
This marked our last day in Bundi and the begining of a bit of an ordeal of a trip on the road to Pushkar. After ordering our breakfast and our usual Bundi haunt (had to hear that weird chicken trance song one more time) we caught a local bus to Ajmer (there were no direct buses to Pushkar). The bus out was as bumpy as the one we caught in, only this time we could see why, the roads were an absolute state. I think not seeing was actually preferable. The comfort level inside definitely had been better before. As this time its was just a standard bus and we had all our stuff onboard with us. The connecting bus in Ajmer was more of the same too. After a gruelling 7 hours we finally found ourselves in Pushkar. Yay!!
Comments
/hope you are feeling better now and are 100% malaria safe once again. The journey's sound horrific, lets hope you manage all your journeys safely. The palace sounded interesting as well as the card playing dancer !!!
We love the wisecracks. You should have been a comedian. You've missed your true vocation James.