Bundi.

outside the RN Haveli, and that's momma

"Rajastani Pizza" and dried up "lake" outside the "garden" restaurant. false advertisement at its best.


Livia, this ones for you. They're everywhere.


after dinner at the haveli


outside our haveli, all the houses are bright colors, the whole city looked lavender from far away. This kids begged me to take their picture, and then they took pictures of us with their camera. hehe.

So I successfully made it back from my first unMSID journey. It made me want to drop the program and just go traveling indefinitely. We left Friday afternoon, after a field trip to where they made blue pottery, block printed fabrics, and then to this “hand made” paper shop, who in their display room afterwards had products packaged for sam’s club. They wouldn’t let you take pictures, and the tour lasted for all of 7 minutes, and there was so much loud machinery I didn’t get to ask any questions. I think it was a “fair trade” factory, but not how I pictured it would be. It was a bizarre trip. Anyway, so we bargain the rickshaw walla down to 40 rupees from 100 (still a rip off, but we’re white so we can pretty much guarantee we are getting ripped off with pretty much every purchase). Our driver was hilarious and kept yelling “woo!” every time we would go over a bump or make a sharp turn (so continuously). We get to the train station with time to spare, but couldn’t find our car, which, to our credit, was labeled SE2, which didn’t exist. So, utilizing our superior Hindi skills, we went up to anyone we can find shrugged our shoulders and pointed at our ticket. As effective as this may sound, we got pointed in both directions several times, but after near defeat we got on car S6, SE2’s alter ego.

And the train, an experience everyone needs to have I think. There is no concept of personal space here, and “better out than in” is a lifestyle. Hilarious, and I can’t wait for my first train overnight. So 4 hours later we get off in Kota, our rickshaw gets followed by another full of super creepy guys yelling at us. And by full I mean at least 8 guys in this tiny thing, and by following I mean his auto was touching ours. It was dark and super scary. Then we get off at this random street fire, cow hangout known as the “bus station,” and guys just start yelling “Bundi! Bundi!” at us, and that was our destination, so we let them push us onto the sketchiest bus I’ve ever seen, and off we are to bundi. I’m making this sound scary, but really it was just more funny than anything. Bundi is a pretty small place, and we don’t get in until 11, on a dirt road with no one around, so this guy we were talking to on the bus hooks us up with a rickshaw and takes us to our final destination, RN Haveli.

We pull up and this mid sixties Indian woman greets us at the door, and we spend the next 10 minutes trying to get these street puppies that ran in back outside. Well, really we just let them play inside while we sat and had chai with the other guests. First of all, its no wonder to me so many people are depressed in the US. Its hard to get two weeks off of work. All the travelers here have been in India for months. It was so great listening to talk about all these places, and taking quick mental notes of all the places I now have to go in May. And it has cemented my belief that Australians are the happiest people on earth. I’ve also decided when I travel I’m going to try to stay in as many guest houses as I can. It cost me less than 2 bucks a night, and the woman running it made us call her mama. She hates money so she makes you keep your own tab, and when I tried to show her, she just shut her eyes and said, “mama’s good in the kitchen, don’t deal with money.” So we left her what we owed, isn’t that crazy? She just trusts you to pay for what you take. And she was right, so good in the kitchen. Sweet dosas for breakfast, stuffed with kalwa, my favorite dessert, kind of like sugared carrots.

While we were there we went to this great fort with no one around, so we basically played explorer all morning. There are no guards, we didn’t pay anything, and if mama wasn’t so awesome we would have just pitched a tent and stayed the night up there. We went to the bizarre, got some great street food, and checked out some local artists paintings. And had lunch in this garden, and being the only people there, our waiter brought over a portable radio and started blasting bollywood music. We got some rajastani pizza, which was topped with everything from pomegranate seeds and grapes to nuts and peppers (and a live worm, but that didn’t stop us). It was interesting for sure. Got back to the Haveli, read a book and listened to some Scottish burnouts play the didgeridoo. Dinner was great, pretty much family style with all the guests.

Came back today, almost finished my book, and would have if the kids across from me on the train would have quit screaming and throwing toys at my head (not soft toys either, we’re talking plastic motorcycles. Twice). Plus their dad was playing really annoying music super loud on his phone (I always wondered who bought those stupid cell phones that you could use to play music, and now I know), and passing a lot of gas. Not such a good trip back. But we made it with no serious hitch, which was a pretty big accomplishment, and I’m more excited than ever to be here.

Oh yea, and mom, I wore my money belt. It was hilarious, I’d have to pull up my shirt to get any money out, so it was not as discrete as promised. And for some reason it made me constantly insecure that my pants were unbuttoned. I think I’d rather be robbed than wear that thing again.

This week, 2 days of class and then 3 day field trip to the Shekhawati region to a sustainable village. My life rules. Wish you were here. This was really long, I wonder if anyone made it this far.

i'll try and post pictures soon.