1st May - Pushkar to Bundi

It was quite sad leaving behind beautiful Pushkar. We said farewell to our luscious garden and waved goodbye to the family at the guest house. As we walked to the bus stop many of the locals we came to know stopped us to shake our hands and wish us well on the rest of our journey.

Shyam Krishna guest house

We got to the 'station' half an hour before our bus was due to leave. Of course that was not enough to actually get us on to the bu. There are obviously no english signs for the buses so we spent every three/four minutes asking someone if the bus was here. After an hour, someone casually told us the bus had been and gone..after being told by so many around us to stop asking if the bus was here, they would tell us when it was!!! Oh India!

bus station!

We got on a different bus to the neighbouring town of Ajmer and found a bus heading for Bundi.

To say bone shaking is a massive understatement. Six hours of literally shaking like jelly. As every part of my body wobbled I have never felt so undesirable!!!! The driving was still crazy but unlike Nepal, there was no risk of falling off a mountain edge, always see the positives eh?!

Luke trying to sleep!

36degrees on a bus packed to the brim, it was definitely an endurance test. There is no such thing as full capacity on Indian transport. Every few minutes the bus would stop to let even more people board. Passengers were jumping on and literally hanging from the door, some opting for the more spacious roof top..holding on for dear life! I had just about reached boiling point when a nice Indian man in front of us turned around and told us to look out the opposite window. To our joy, there is was, Bundi Palace! We were there!!!!!!!!

We fought our way off the bus as more passengers continued to squeeze their way on, rather than logically wait for people to get off first. We used our backpacks as armour and unmercilessly pushed a dishevelled path through the hordes of people. India has definitely toughened me up!

We hopped into an autocar and found a nice guest house. We haggled until we got our room down from 750rupees to 400. We're getting good at that!

We're literally sleeping at the base of the palace. Bundi is already feeling a bit special :)

view from the roof top