As the public bus turned off the highway onto the road leading to Bundi, I was certainly expectant. My friend Amy in London had given this town a great recommendation before I left, but all I could see from the bus was many trucks and clouds of billowing dust. As the bus bumped along the dirt track, I could just make out the green hills to my left and right. This road appeared totally washed away by the rains and in a very poor state.


Suddenly the clouds of dust parted and revealed a beautiful lake in front of a steep hill with a large palace half way up and the ruins of a fort perched on the hill top . Greenery was almost everywhere, blue sky and I at last relaxed, as this was the type of India I had wanted to see.


The dusty temporary road skirted the old town with its blue buildings and the lake. We approached from the west, into the nondescript new town and the scruffy bus station. My tuk tuk drove into the old town and expertly navigated the winding characterful roads at pace and deposited me at the Nawal Sagar Palace.


Whilst this palace was a poor cousin of what was half way up the hill, the Nawal Sagar was still a welcome surprise. The Singh family had bought the property in 2006 when it was just the preserve of local Macaque monkeys, and had renovated it, restored the rooms with their original floors and added a picture perfect garden with lush green grass. The palace looked out onto the lake and then the main road over the other side of the water which was permanently dusty, but for some reason the dust remained over the other side of the lake . However the best view was the almost uninterrupted view of the main Bundi Palace on the hills above the town.


Mickey the manager and his mother were marvelous hosts and my room overlooked the garden. Sitting there on the lawn with a cup of tea was the first time I had relaxed in a fortnight. Mickey was right, “Bundi is a quiet, hassle free town where we understand that treating the tourists well is of paramount importance.”  My mood was further enhanced with a visit to Ringo Starr’s (no relation) Cafe and my first good espresso for weeks.


That night I had dinner in the Singh’s restored 16th century restaurant. Egg Plant curry and rice over looking the lake. The lake had only filled up in August for the first time in two years. The next morning the Macaques arrived followed a little later by the Langur Monkeys. I was warned not to get too close as especially the Macaques could become quite aggressive .


At breakfast I met the only other guest, a French girl called Carolina who was travelling with a her driver, named Lar. Later we visited some of the giant carved step wells in the centre of Bundi and spent the afternoon taking photos in and around the market and in the narrow blue streets. The locals here were most friendly and welcoming. That evening we both climbed the hill opposite the Bundi Palace to take photos of the sunset. My cold held up to the rigours of the climb, but I did cough myself stupid.


The last day I climbed up to the Bundi Palace early in the morning to avoid the scorching heat. Unfortunately it was so overgrown that I was unable to go further up to the Bundi Fort, but the palace was interesting, run down and somewhat majestic. In the evening the whole of Bundi cam alive with a giant street procession to commemorate the birthday of Vishnu. Giant floats were pulled through the narrow streets by tractors with each float followed by a generator on a trolly pulled by one man and a multitude of wires. This did not seem to be particularly safe, and regularly someone would accidentally break the connection, plunging the float into darkness and cutting the extremely loud music. The floats themselves depicted scenes from Vishnu’s life (I understand) and were loving crafted, with locals dressed up to further act out the scenes . These floats were all followed by hoards of young men dancing and fencing with sticks in a religious fervour. It was fascinating. Afterwards at Micky's recommendation I ordered her Naval Sagar Surprise for dinner. This turned out to be fried cottage cheese covered in a thick tomato sauce with dried fruit and nuts, plus a little curry. All this was served with rice and sprinkled with a very fine edible silver paper. It was quite disgusting.


It was a shame to leave Bundi, but onwards I must go and I journeyed to the railway station some 5 kms away to catch a train to Chittorgarh. The whole station stopped and stared at me when I walked onto the platform, and this continued for some two hours over the course of a rather long delay for this local train. Its not possible to reserve seats on a local train, third class the only option and the fight to get seats, when the train arrived had to be seen to be believed. Luckily the train was long and I found a spare seat next to three sisters in their sixties who were taking their mother (90 years old) out on a trip. They were very interested in who I was, what I was doing and where I was going. Within minutes I was being fed again.


Some five hours later we completed the 90 km journey to Chittorgarh. Getting off the train was a struggle . Even before the train stopped masses of people were piling in through the doors and the windows, trying to get a seat. All the elderly, disabled and young, plus myself were just brushed aside in the charge. Eventually I was out and made my way to the Pratap Palace Hotel. Here they gave me a huge smiling welcome. The Pratap Palace was really just a three story modern hotel in Chittorgarh with little charm. Chittorgarh was quite similar to many other towns I have so far visited. Again it was blanketed with a fine persistent brown dust, which not only made me cough like mad, but coated the vehicles and the plants like snow. The hotel whilst being comfortable was pretty ordinary. The restaurant was quite hilarious.   The waiters were numerous, but very disinterested. I only met two non-Indians during my stay - two Chinese businessmen, who were perplexed by the menu, the drinks and the food. In the end they gave up, came over to my table with the waiter and ordered what I was having (as people do in China when they don't understand anything). This was vegetarian curry with rice and soda water with lime juice and no sugar. You should have seen their faces when they tried their orders, it was hard not too laugh.


I was in Chittorgarh to visit the famous fort, the largest in Rajasthan. This walled fort is 5 km long and over 150m above the town and the dust on a hill top. In fact it is so large that a small town has started to spring up inside the last of the six gates. I took a tuk tuk there for the duration of my trip around the fort that started with the immense marble tower - Victory Tower. Nine stories high this tower is climbed via an intricate tiny staircase also made of marble. Even at eight am this was hot and humid inside. Luckily I met no one coming the other way and eventually reached the top, having the final lookout all to myself - for a while. Soon I was joined by six young Indians who immediately got out their camera and photographed me at the expensive of the dramatic view. They were soon joined by more and we all had a good laugh. Eventually I got to seeing the view myself which was fabulous, revealing most terrain inside the fort walls, the settlements, lakes, palaces, temples and one more tower.


The rest of the fort area was heaving with Indian tourists when I got down and Padmini’s Palace was my favourite, with its stunning lake and a small temple dedicated to some Krishna Holy Man was the oddest as the posters of him inside the temple were full frontal nudes. The other temples were interesting - the grumpy, obese monkeys, less so. Nevertheless all the local tourists and the locals were friendly and good fun. It took several hours to get around the buildings inside the fort, and by the end I was hot and again feeling not 100 percent.


Back at the hotel, the manager put the One Day Cricket of England vs Australia on the big screen for me in the restaurant. The Chinese arrived again and seemed unimpressed with both the cricket and their food. The next morning it was off to Udaipur, again by bus.