Actually Bundi wasn't bad in terms of tourist etc., but I couldn't get the Redgum song out of my head as I checked around the various shops to find out about hiring a motorbike or a scooter to spend the day looking around the outskirts of Bundi. There is a verse in the song about hiring a scooter and having a crash.
"As a motor cycle hero, I guess I'm a failure"
"The Honda was a wreck, but I was alright.."
As it happened I ended up not quite understanding what I was getting when I agreed to hire a motorcycle to do some sightseeing around Bundi. In fact I ended up with a guide on a motorbike and me paying for his time and the petrol . It worked out fine in the end, I sat on the back most of the time which let me enjoy scenery and made sure we didn't get lost and a few times he let me ride out on the country roads which was nice.
I thought it funny that the bike was a "Honda Hero" - which tied in nicely with the song. But no crash and no mercurachrome... "I've been to Bundi too"
I carefully wrote down all the places we were to visit - but in the end they just blurred into each other. There was a step pool, a small temple, a grave yard and an "84 pillar cenotaph" - which only had 80 pillars (I felt robbed) and a few other things that weren't in the book - like the "red light district" that we happened to pass through.
I resisted the "how much" question that I was sure every tourist must ask.
The highlight, for the unusual reason that we didn't see anything was at a temple - we were walking along a pathway when we came across a tribe or monkeys (what is the "collective" term for monkeys". My guide was walking in front carrying a small pack of biscuits which of course the monkeys decided they wanted and suddenly attacked him. He threw the packet away quickly and we both ran back a few steps while the monkeys tore the packet apart. He told me it would be hard to get past them now because they will think there is more food in my backpack. We were both too scared to walk back past them so went back and had a cup of tea and laughed about it before continuing on.
In the end it was a very pleasant afternoon even if the sights were at best mediocre. The lonely planet guide has a lot to answer for I think. This was no the first time that a guide had basically read the lonely planet and designed a tour around the things that it suggests without really knowing much about them. He just took me there and left me to look at it telling me not much more than it's name. Throughout India I have visited, admittedly low end, travel agents who have the Lonely Planet in their bookshelf and are using it to give tourist information from.
When the day was over I decided that perhaps I had had enough of temples forts and graveyards so changed my plans - "sinking" the cost of the train trip I had booked to Johdpur, then on to Jaisalmer and decided I had had enough of Rajastan so jumped on the evening sleeper bus headed for Delhi to connect with the train to Punjab.
