Bundi (5 nights) - Blog 1

I had been looking forward to Bundi for a while. I had read good things, and heard even better things from fellow travellers. They were not wrong.

However, first I had to get there. I had ended up in Jaisalmer in the North West of Rajasthan, and Bundi was in the South East. Therefore, I embarked upon a bit of a mammoth journey in order to find my desert oasis. It began with a train journey from Jaisalmer to Jaipur leaving at 16.30 in the afternoon and arriving in Jaipur at the unfriendly hour of 04.50. The train started on time! It also arrived on time!! However, I had not slept so well. I was a little bit nervous about getting to the big city of Jaipur so early in the morning and had not been able to relax properly. I thought it might be a good idea to try and find a bed for a few hours, so I set of walking through the dark and empty streets in the direction of the place that I had stayed in the first time I was there. Nearly everywhere was closed, but I spotted a hotel with the reception light on, an open door, and somebody there. Jubilantly I bounded up the steps, but as I turned to face the receptionist, he just said 'no,sir'. Not quite ready to accept defeat I continued to the guest house I knew and knocked on the door. No answer. Defeat.

With little other option I kept walking all the way to the bus station, praying that it would be open. It was. Ten minutes later (about 5.30am) I was on a bus to Bundi :-) In the absence of a designated place to store my baggage (I mean who travels with luggage anyway?!) I took the front seat, jammed my now oversized pack between the seat and the partition between bus and driver, sat next to it, and slept.

When I woke, the sun was peering over the horizon and the bus had started to fill up. It was not long before I found myself wedged at an angle, sat on the seat above my bag, my legs having nowhere to go but over toward the seat I had just departed. Thankfully, it was not soooo uncomfortable, and the bloke who took my seat didnt really seem to care. This Is India after all.

Some bumpy hours later, I made it to Bundi. The view as the bus rounded the corner into the valley was magical, as suddenly the town appeared below and the enormous palace greeted us, looming over the blue rinsed houses and us from the far side. Ok, so I spent the last 20 hours in transit, and I had barely slept, but I had enough energy to smile widely. It was a smile at having made it, and a wide one because I knew already that it was worth it.