Bundi

We boarded the bus to Bundi, after readying ourselves for bed at the roadside, and went to find our ‘bed’ for the next 7 hours. We were pleasantly surprised to find that we had a mattress in a small cupboard, reached by a ladder, and it had sliding doors and curtains so we could shut ourselves away. After getting out our sleeping bags and inflatable pillows, it actually was pretty cosy and we couldn’t believe we hadn’t discovered this luxurious way of travelling before. The bus did move around quite a bit but it was a soothing rocking kind of motion, so it didn’t seem to matter. Ten minutes hadn’t even passed after boarding the bus when my stomach began to gurgle and all of a sudden the rocking motion of the bus didn’t seem so soothing after all, it was making me feel like I was going to be sick, possibly attributed to the cheap restaurant we had eaten in an hour before. However, there was no toilet and no escaping the bus, so I sat myself up and prepared myself for a long, not so comfortable night, with a small plastic bag in hand. We did have one toilet stop along the way, which I eagerly ran to. This turned out to be one of the finest indian squat toilets that many people had been in and missed the hole, and been left to fester for a while. This only enhanced my nausea, and after a quick spell of ‘chundering everywhaaaar’ I returned to the bus and continued to count down the sleepless hours. The only good thing about not sleeping on the journey was that the weather decided it would put on some entertainment for me, in the form of a crazy lightning storm with bouts of hail and downpours. We eventually reached Bundi at about 6am, collected our bags from the luggage compartment which was not waterproof so our bags unfortunately got soaked, and picked up a rickshaw to take to the hotel. The rickshaw was also not the smoothest ride, and after being thoroughly shaken around while still trying not to vom, we arrived at the hotel and were greeted by a half asleep man who showed us straight to a room with a bed which was thankfully static.

Getting comfy in our nest...before the sickness!

The rest of the day was mostly spent hiding in our sleeping bags and watching films in the room, as I was still not feeling well and the rain and thunder was unrelenting. The hotel had also not been designed with rain in mind, and had a roof with an open area in the centre, so it was raining inside the hotel. It was also not soundproof at all, and we overheard a British woman complaining about her tea that she had been given as it was not the way she likes it and she didn’t think it had been made with fresh milk, which made us cringe with embarrassment at the stupidity of this first world problem, and we hoped that the hotel staff did not think that all British people were like this.

We eventually emerged from our sleeping bags at 5.30 pm, feeling a bit better, noticing the rain had stopped and wanting to explore Bundi as we only had a few days here. We wandered the streets for a while, which seemed to have more pigs, dogs, cows and monkeys on the streets than people. It was a fairly laid back, small place which was obviously used to tourists as it had guest houses, restaurants and cafes, but had not been too ruined by tourism. We found a restaurant for dinner, called Tom and Jerry’s restaurant, a lovely name to entice the kids in. Oh, and they also serve ‘special lassi’ aka marijuana milkshake.

Dog trying to take shelter from the rain

After dinner, we continued walking down the streets, and bumped into one of the guys we had met in Sadhana Forest who had been here for a few days. After having a catch up with him, he said that he had found a great little chai shop, and we should go there with him. As we never turn down an invitation for chai, we followed him and found ourselves at ‘Krishna’s Chai’, with a very smiley, eccentric chai man – Krishna- who brewed up all sorts of ingredients and spices and was in fact, the best chai we have had so far in India. He also made ‘special chai’ which apparently gives you ‘full power 24 hour’ (see special lassi) although we did not try this one! Krishna also provided us with entertainment to go with our chai, he brought out a harmonium and serenaded us with songs. It was then that I realised that my mum had been to Bundi 2 years ago and had sent me a message saying that there was a man who made the best chai there called Krishna, and we had now found the same man. After explaining this to him, he brought out a big pile of visitors books with messages and drawings, and sure enough there was an entry from them in January 2013. Krishna was also very pleased with this, and wanted me to have lots of pictures with him to show them. And of course we returned there a few more times for the amazing chai and the good company!

Learning how to be a chai wallah

Krishna power 24 hour!

The next morning we had planned to spend the whole day seeing what Bundi had to offer as we had limited time there before moving on to the next place, but unfortunately Jonno was suffering from migraines so did not feel up to much at all. While he was resting, I went to get some lunch on the rooftop restaurant which was also undergoing some electrical repair work, so after dodging sparks, ducking wires and weaving around tools I sat myself at a table. The waiter brought me some food and also gave me a complimentary bamboo stick “for monkeys” that were prowling around the rooftops. Luckily none of them came close enough for me to require the stick.

The electrical work going on in the hotel...not much health and safety here!

We had heard that Bundi had a fort which was worth going to look at, and even though Jonno was still feeling really rough, he didn’t want me to be stuck in the room so I went in search of the fort. It was quite a steep climb uphill, and I was given another monkey stick along the way because apparently it was overrun with monkeys- although I hardly saw any. The fort was in ruins but it made it quite exciting to explore, especially because apart from one local goat herder, I barely saw anyone else there.

Entrance to the fort

Bundi Palace and its gardens

The next day we had booked a train from the nearby town Kota to Varanasi. So after one last visit to Krishna’s chai, we headed off in search of the local bus that would take us from Bundi to Kota. We thought that we had left a lot of time and would probably be hanging around the station for a while, but things weren’t that easy. The local bus took a long time to arrive, and after fighting through the crowd to get onto the bus, the journey was longer than expected. It also didn’t help that we had no idea how close to the train station the bus went, and nobody on the bus seemed to speak any English. The bus was also nearing its end, as it struggled to start up after every time we stopped, but did manage to reach its destination. However, it was not as close to the station as we had hoped and we had to then find a rickshaw to take us the last part of the journey. After the usual chaotic search for the right platform at the train station, we got to the train with 7 minutes to spare. It’s a good thing we didn’t leave it any later to leave Bundi, a bit of panic always adds to the experience anyway.

The train journey to Varanasi- only 17 hours- was at least more comfortable than the bus journey. Even though Jonno was still not feeling great, we at least managed to get some sleep. We also had one Indian guy that came to sit next to us and ask if it was okay to have a conversation with us. We said we didn’t mind at all, and he then became shy so we had to do most of the talking. A girl that was sitting nearby also joined in, who was more confident which made the conversation easier. After discussing music and films (apparently Robert Pattinson is too white) we then asked to learn some useful Hindi phrases which ranged from food (Khana) and water (Pani) to ‘Dum hai pota hai mai kohn hu’- Do you know who I am? Apparently an essential phrase in a conflict. So armed with this new knowledge we were ready for our next destination, Varanasi, the oldest and most holy place in India.