Destination known and looking for jobs!: Bundi

Jan 24-28^th

Having survived the train ordeal we now faced a new obstacle, it was now about 12:30 am and we needed to find a place to sleep. We hired an autorickshaw driver to take us down the deserted streets of Bundi and drop us off at what we thought was a guesthouse we wanted to stay at. It was like a ghost town. Luckily Teresa endured and was able to locate us a very nice setup on the cheaps. (Jeff’s plan was to set our tent up on a little grassy spot we found. There was NO WAY I was sleeping in the tent after the sardine train. I wanted a bed and a place to wash my hands and brush my teeth!) So, It was lights out for the night finally and we didn’t move until around noon the next day. When we finally got up for fears of pressure ulcers we decided to take a small walking tour around town and scope out the activities we wanted to do in the next few days. We did some light shopping and explored the step wells that Bundi was known for. The wells were massive with stairs built into the sides of the walls so people could walk down to the water level that varied due to the monsoons. Most have been converted to trash pits and long drop toilets but some were well preserved and remained very impressive especially the Raniji-ki-Baori which was about 150 ft deep laced with beautiful carvings. We headed back to the guesthouse for dinner and call it a night. The next day we rented a 125 cc scooter to make the 36 km ride out to some impressive waterfalls at Bhimlat. It took a bit to get used to the flow of traffic (or lack thereof) and it was discovered that the horn was just about as important as brakes or the throttle. Good horn, good brakes, and good luck is what you need to navigate the roads of India. We safely made it to the falls and hiked down to the bottom to spend the afternoon soaking it all in and taking a splash in the cool pool.

It was decided that Teresa would get some scooter lessons as we left and since we were in a pretty remote area with a straight flat road. She climbed on and fired her hog up, she immediately knew that she was dealing with 125ccs of sheer moped power. After receiving instruction on the brakes and throttle she was on her own. Disaster almost struck when she made the most common mistake to new riders, instead of letting go of the throttle and applying brake she over compensated with the throttle and almost went shooting into the ditch. The second attempt went much smoother and pretty soon she was tearing off down the road leaving me in the dust. After she finally took pity on me and turned around to retrieve me. After some convincing I climbed on back of the scooter and she drove the 5 km to the main road where she adamantly demanded that we switch places. The rest of the ride home was luckily uneventful.

For our final day in Bundi we climbed up to the old palace and fort overlooking the city. From the elevated viewpoint you could really take in why Bundi was considered to be a blue city. The majority of building were painted Brahman blue making it look like a smurf village. The palace was sort of ho-hum but did contain a few beautiful murals, decorated rooms, and a massive wasp hive in which its inhabitants took pleasure in stinging me. The fort was full of monkeys that were reported to be aggressive so we took a bamboo staff with us to ward off the angry primates, Teresa had a good time perfecting her ninja skills. The fort at the top of the hill had been abandoned many years ago and had not been restored in any way so it was interesting to be given free rein to explore the massive complex at will. At one end there was an old temple where we were able to catch the setting sun in peace and quiet (two things that are almost impossible to find in India). We made our way down to the city to grab dinner at a nice restaurant we had found the day before called Tom n’ Jerry (like the cat and mouse but I’m fairly confident the owner did not seek the rights to use the name), but the service was friendly, food was good, beer was cold, and free wi-fi to boot. We made our way to Bhopal via an hour bus ride to Kota where we caught the train (AC chair car this time so the events of the last train ride were repeated) to Ujjain. Spent the night in Ujjain then caught the morning train to Bhopal which is in the heart of India.