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Published: July 28th 2008
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We experienced our funniest bus ride recently. After catching a train from Jaipur to Kota, we were left with no real option but to take a public bus for the remaining 40 or so kilometres to Bundi. 40 kilometres wouldn't take too long in NZ or the UK, but this is India!
Somehow we managed to find the dodgiest looking bus ever and managed to hurl ourselves and our packs onto the back seat. Tourists don't appear to be much of a common sight on the public buses over here so as soon as we entered the absolutely packed bus, every eye was upon us. It was about 40 degrees and we were drenched in sweat so Chris decided to zip the bottoms off his trousers so they became shorts. Every passenger watched this with great amusment and admiration - you could hear a little gasp from the crowd as the magical trousers transformed themselves into magical shorts, smiles and head wobbles all round... another little India moment.
A really strange looking Indian guy arranged seats so he was sitting in the seat directly in front of us. He had orange teeth and yellow eyes. I guess he
was about 30 but he could have been 20 for all I know. He was dead keen to have a chat with us, but as we don't speak Hindi and he didn't speak English, the conversation consisted of the words 'cricket' (from Chris) and '2 wives' (obviously NOT from Chris). For the whole of the hour long journey, he sat sideways in his seat, head turned, yellow eyes gazing into our own. After awhile he took some seeds and white powder out of his pocket and started rubbing it together in his hands. He put it in his mouth and continued his gazing, back and forth between us.
By after awhile we noticed that his hand was resting dangerously close to Chris's knees. Still the yellow eyed gazing continued. I sat tight-lipped, huddled up against our backpacks, praying for the journey to end while Chris tried to make polite small talk.
As we neared the station, the guy managed to get hold of a pen and paper and with intense concentration, began to write something. I sniggered to Chris "laugh if he's writing a love note - that would be awkard...hahaha" but we weren't laughing a few minutes
later as he handed a note scribbled 'I love you very much'... not to me, but to Chris! As he handed it over, he gave Chris the dirtiest smile, a wink and and a very dodgy head wobble. All Chris could do was stammer "oh, um thank you.. errr that's very nice... um, we have to get off here..." And with that, we were off the bus and onto the nearest autorickshaw, leaving the yellowed eyed, oranged teeth guy standing at the bus station.
Bundi is a small town that is a little bit more off the beaten track. It is a photographers paradise with beautiful old coloured Havelis and really bright saris. The locals are much friendlier than other places we have visited and were always saying 'hello' in the streets.
During our stay, we stayed in a beautiful hotel (Bundi Haveli Hotel) with an amazing bedroom. The only strange thing is that we were the only people staying there, which was just plain weird having six staff stand to attention as soon as we came down the stairs!
We enjoyed our days checking out the local sites and even hired a motor scooter for a
day trip out to a waterfall. The scenery on the way out was beautiful... birds, butterflies and green fields of rice and corn. We even saw fields being ploughed by water bufflos - it was fantastic. Unfortunately, we did get a bit lost after taking a wrong turn and our 18km drive to the waterfall ended up being a 30 or so km trip. (I guess in hindsight, it would have been a good idea to learn the Hindi word for waterfall before we left - I think it was our "you know, waterfall, swish, swish!?" accompanied by jerky hand movements, that probably got us lost)
After hours riding around in the boiling midday sun, we finaly found our waterfall. I tried very hard not to cry as I didn't want to offend.. but the water flowing over the rocks was basically a trickle. We got more water out of our dodgy shower in Agra. The location was amazing, inside a gorge with temples and shrines but it was waterfall we wanted, and waterfall we did not get!
On the way back down to the bike, we found a huge monkey sitting on the edge of the path.
After our great trip to the monkey palace in Jaipur, I decided I quite like monkeys but this one did look a tad meancing. Chris said "ah, don't worry about it, it'll be fine" but armed himself with a rock anyway. The evil little monster looked right at us, opened his mouth and revealed teeth the size of a tiger's and snarled. We stopped in our tracks and turned back up the path, but the little #@#%$% gave chase as we retreated. Of course, I was freaking out and we had to be lead down the path by a little old lady who held my hand and chanted what I think was "be calm and the monkey won't hurt you" or it could have been "you stupid Western tourists, if you don't look at the %#@#^# monkey, then it won't attack you"
All in all it was a bit of a mixed day!
During our time in Bundi, we also climbed to the top of the hill with thousands of visiting Indians who were celebrating a Hindi festival (completely overwealming, our worst two hours of the trip so far) and visited the Fort overlooking the city. The views
over the town are beautiful - the blue buildings looked amazing after the early morning rain - I could have sat there all day just drinking in the view. The fort was stunning and we had the best guide possible. He knew absolutely everything about the amazing murals and explained everything in great detail. We would highly recommend him as it is really hard to know what everything is without an explanation. He also kept the monkeys away which was great! I will include his contact details at the end of this blog.
My other little experience in Bundi, was getting my henna painting done. I got invited into a house by a nice lady. She indicated that her daughter did henna painting as a job. I choose a nice simple design out of her book and asked the price. 50 rupees seemed reasonable and she was really sweet. Before long, her mum had removed my shoes and was starting to henna my feet! Not what I asked for but, it was a bit late to stop her. Within moments, the book was tossed away as both mother and daughter became more and more enthusaiastic with their drawings...! Yikes!
I am now completley covered in random scribbles that are going to stay with me for the next couple of weeks. No amount of washing will remove it! And it cost me 300 rupees - not 50 !! Another victim of backyard henna art!
Overall, Bundi was a great place to spend a few days, less hassle and good sights. We also made some friends over a few beers and have made arrangements to travel on with them to Udaipur. Safety in numbers for those public bus journeys!
Details of the Bundi tour guide -
Narendra Singh Hada
91 946 0862622 or 0747 2444 455 narendra_hada@yahoo.co.in
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nikhil
non-member comment
"I love you"
Ha ha ha Chris must have had a nightmare tat night thinking whether tat guy is waiting for him outside.