Bundi

Date arrived: 1st December 2023

Date Departed: 5th December 2023

Favourite sight: Bundi Palace

Average Cost: £29.50 PPPD

Bundi was another of those small and slightly less touristed places that we've been recommended as destinations since we arrived in-country. We managed to catch some pretty awful weather here on one day, but it didn't stop us enjoying this lovely little place.

1st December 2023

The trip to Bundi from Ranthambore was slightly complicated as the city's train station has very few services, and none that were useful for us travelling from Sawai Madhopur. It's only about 40KMs from the much larger city of Kota however, so we arranged a pre-booked taxi from Kota to Bundi for about £14, which had the slight advantage of going door-to-door!

Finding the taxi at the station was a bit more challenging, but we managed in the end. We also got to watch the process of refuelling the Compressed Natural Gas powered car, which was interesting. As I'm sure many people know, and I have alluded to a few times in this record, India has some major smog problems from the vast quantity of vehicles on the roads of its cities, and a large number of newer vehicles are powered by CNG, including all newer(non-electric)  tuk-tuks. The first clue to this is usually when you try to put luggage in the boot, and find it's full of an extra fuel tank! Also the re-fuelling process is such that everybody has to get out of the car - presumably for safety reasons - erk!

Arriving in Bundi after dark, we got or first view of the magnificent Bundi Palace which, when illuminated, seems to just hover over the landscape like a massive, alien edifice. We were then dropped at our acommodation - the Bundi Inn Haveli - which was a fantastic choice from Julie. Haveli is a name you see quite a lot, and refers to a traditional Indian house, built around a courtyard. This particular Haveli was very beautiful, and our room not only immacuately clean, but also incredibly comfortable. The vew of the palace from the rooftop restaurant was pretty special as well, and we had arrived in time to avail ourselves oof an excellent dinner there, before settling in for the evening.

2nd December

Given the spectacular view we saw from the roof last night, echoed today at breakfast, it seemed only sensible to get out and explore the palace sat at our doorstep! With the advantage of being no more then 5 minutes walk up the street, we got to the palace quickly and paid the entry fee. As seems to be a regular issue here, there was no change available, so we had a note on the back of our ticket to pick up 300 rupees from the ticket office on our return!

The lower stories of the palace are pretty much abandoned, and based on the pervading aroma we would deduce are occupied by bats. As you start to climb the main entry ramp and come to the magnificent Hathia (elephant) gate, you can get a feel for the lost splendours of this substantial palace. We had the place almost to ourselves, so could explore at our leisure, and spend ages lining up arty photos that - largely - didn't work. It's clear that this place was once very magnificent, and whilst it doesn't rival Amber, or Jodhpur's Mehrangarh in terms of scale, the paintings and decorations that were once here must have been very beautiful. Those that remain are impressive still, but fading.

Having explored the palace thoroughly, we headed up to the ancient fort that tops the hill behind it. There are impressive walls around most of old Bundi, and if we'd had more time and better weather we may have explored these further, but unfortunately we didn't manage. The fort was quite a climb. As we made our way through various layers of walls and gates, we could see several old stepwells within the complex, as well as various other unidentified buildings, mainly in fairly ramshackle condition,

The main fort building itself was quite impressive, as much for the full access given to visitors as for its tumbledown faded-grandeur. Once again, the former glories were very obvious, but the place has very much started to fall apart and is in need of love.

It's clear that Bundi has some magnificent historical monuments, but they all share the same challenge: they need some love. I guess the number of tourists coming here is relatively low, likely not helped by the poor train connections, which explains why the money isn't there to tidy up or restore these places. With an entry fee as high as Mehrangarh or the Amber Palace, though, visitors might expect a little more than is there. It's clear that efforts have started to conserve this cities magnificent past, but more needs doing!

3rd December

Rain. It rained today, and heavily. After another lovely breakfast we sat in the room for a while waiting for the torrent to die down somewhat, which it did. At this point we determined to set out and find some of the city's stepwells, and perhaps an ATM, so headed out into the drizzle armed with brollies.

We were barely two minutes out the door when the drizzle turned once more into something of a downpour, leaving us sheltering awhile under the awning of a dysfunctional ATM. After ten minutes or so we braved the road again, only to come across a torrent* that rendered the road impassable. (*Okay - it might have been 10-15cm deep - but it seemed like a torrent at the time, wearing flip flops!)

Cue much Google maps based navigation effort to try and get around said torrent, only to eventally be forced to retrace our steps, and end up back at the same place. Fortunately the torrent had subsided by this stage - Yay!

Long story short we did manage to find an ATM that worked (5th attempt) but we did end up wading through ankle deep water on a couple of occasions, which we appreciated was probably about 20% shit. But hey - this is India! We found the main step wells too, but decided to return another day with (hopefully) better weather. We did find the fabulously named Ringo Star cafe, with a brilliant menu including..... Drumroll... Bruschetta! The promised Cheese and Tomato delicacy was actually two slices of white bread, toasted under a grill, but the tomatoes were fresh, and the application of herbs excellent. This was a positive result!

At this stage we retired back to the haven of the Bundi Inn, and spent the afternoon in our very comfortable window seat, before venturing back to the roof for dinner.

4th December

We had better weather today, so we set out once more to explore the stepwells, and also the summer palace out on the lake.  One of the stepwells, the intricately carved Raniji Ki Baori, has been fairly well cleaned up and was very impressive. I think it says a lot, though, that the pigeon infestation that seems to be everywhere in India was so bad they have had to put a roof over this beautiful monument just to try and stop it being perpetually covered in bird droppings! A few of the pesky flying rats still seemed to have made it inside however :-)

We saw a further 5 stepwells on our travels today, and they were all in pretty woeful states. In some cases they had clearly been cleaned up, but the quantity of rubbish either in the water or on the steps themselves was awful. 

We walked out through town until we reached the Sukh Mahal - a lovely little lakeside palace on the Jait Sagar Lake. Known to many as Kipling Palace, it's understood that Rudyard Kipling stayed here for a time as a guest of the Mahorajah.

After a light lunch at another rooftop restaurant, we walked around the Nawal Sagar lake, which fronts on to the palace. On a clear day I think it would have been a fabulous vew, but unfortunately it was difficult to take much in the way of nice photos due to the smog, which was still pervasive even in Bundi, a small city with a population of just 100,000.

We managed to sort out a few bits of admin this afternoon, including topping up the Indian mobile with enough credit to see us through to the end of february, at a princely £8. I also managed to effect yet another repair on my hard-done-to messenger bag, this time sewing a patch over a hole that had appeared where a sharp bit of my camera rubs. Once again, a man with a  sewing machine who charged us a mighty 50p!

As this was our last day in Bundi, we'd decided to splash out for a dinner at the 'best place in town' according to the guidebooks, so I had made us a reservation at Bundi Vilas, whose rooftop restaurant sits right next to the palace. This was excellent, with just ourselves and one other company up on the roof for a very nice candlelit meal - and a couple of beers. Julie even managed to have a glass of wine! The Masterchef,  Mohammed, talked to us at length about each course, and impressed upon us how freshly everything had been cooked for us.

5th December

With an early-ish alarm, we said goodbye to Bundi as we had arrived - in the back of a taxi. The hour or so to Kota saw us with plenty of time to catch our train to the next step on the journey - Vadodara!