Jeremy's Cool Travel Blog: Bundi-licious

I left Udaipur on February 10 and I headed east to the scenic town of Bundi (pop. 102,000). A couple of people I'd met during my travels had recommended Bundi as a quieter place for anyone looking to get away from the tourist crowds in Rajasthan's more popular cities. It was a place where I hoped to do some hiking or biking and also meet up with my Aussie travel buddy, Catherine, whom I'd met in Kerala, and who like me was bouncing around Rajasthan.

To get to Bundi I took a local bus followed by my first Indian train. The bus took about two hours and was jam packed with people (many crotches, bellies and butts in my face). This ride took me to the town of Chitturgarh from which I caught a train for the remaining three hour journey. I had a couple of hours to kill in Chitturgarh and took advantage of the time to briefly tour its huge medieval fort. Unfortunately, like most of the forts and palaces here this one had very minimal information on its historical purpose and significance, making the visit rather underwhelming.

For the next three days, Catherine and I casually toured Bundi, enjoyed some good food and met many nice locals and travellers. Some highlights:

Bundi Palace and Taragarh Fort. The 17th century hill-side palace looms over Bundi and was less than a 10 minute walk from our guesthouse. Again, like most of the palaces I'd visited, this one provided very little information on its history or layout. The place is also a bit run down, which gives it a mysterious Gears of War feel (for you Xbox fans) and it was cool to tour the palace's barren rooms and many murals. The 14th century Taragarh Fort sits on the hill above the palace. It is even more run down and mostly overgrown with vegetation (both the fort and Bundi Palace are privately owned and apparently there's some dispute over the terms of ownership, which helps explain poor state of the two structures). On the walk up to the fort, a party of 50-75 macaques crossed our path and thankfully didn't pay us any attention.

The hosts of our charming guesthouse - the Kasera Heritage View - were extremely welcoming and took good care of us, including helping us book last-minute train tickets to Delhi. Their young daughter took pleasure in showing us the latest Bollywood dance moves.

Enjoying quite delicious thin-crust pizza and Greek salad at a nearby guesthouse (run by the same couple that owned ours). By and large, I'd avoided Western food while in India, but I'd heard good things about the pizza at this guesthouse and couldn't resist. After several weeks of curries, Indian breads and deep-fried street food (all delicious, mind you), it was nice to have something reminiscent of home and my recent travels in Greece.

Renting bicycles to visit a lake and villages just outside of Bundi and getting chased by friendly village kids.

Experiencing locally-made-and-openly-sold 'special' cookies. Having them kick in as I was on the phone with a representative from Expedia and having a sudden laughing fit was one of my finer moments. The Expedia call didn't last much longer after that.

Meeting many friendly locals. One in particular - Romeo, who dressed a bit like Capt. Jack Sparrow (i.e. Johnny Depp) from Pirates of the Caribbean - was nice with us. He and his father produced hand-made leather goods (handbags, notebooks, etc.) which they sold from their small shop/confectionary near our guesthouse. Every day we would stop to have chai and paan with Romeo or simply shoot the breeze. He was a charming dude and clearly used this to his advantage, as he seemed to know many of the tourists in the neighbourhood.

Enjoying a few beers with three funny and very friendly Aussies who we met by chance over dinner (at a restaurant owned by Romeo). These memorable, one-off encounters are among of the better parts of travelling.

Some photos: