Bundi: The jewel in the crown of Rajasthan
The small and sleepy town called Bundi is Rajasthan’s best kept secret. Until and unless you are too much in love with history and heritage you may never consider this place in your travel bucket. We did and Bundi did inspired us indeed.
DAY Zero and Day One:
Boarding a train (Dehradun – Mumbai) from Nizammuddin East, we reached Bundi next morning around 9. An auto Rickshaw cost us you Rs. 100 and we reachd your destination. We booked a heritage hotel called Bundi house which is almost at a stone through distance from the Bundi Palace, better known as Taragarh palace and Taragarh fort. The best part of travelling in Rajasthan is, staying here is still cheaper than any other travel destination in India. After having a sumptuous breakfast in the rooftop café of Bundi House we headed for Taragarh fort at around 11 a.m. We walked past few small lanes to reach at the base of the fort. The town was still sleeping.
Entering through the giant gateway one needs to keep climbing up the steep road till the road divides in two. For entry to the Palace you need to keep left and the road going towards the right finally takes you to the Chitrashala and the Fort. Taragarh palace houses beautiful painting on its inner walls. Few chambers are locked and you need to ask the security to open it. The view of the city from the palace is really breath taking.
One has to be little more enthusiastic to visit the fort as the road towards it is even steeper. If you are a lone woman traveller, my suggestion would be not be venture alone as the path is deserted and through jungle. But wait! By having said that, I never meant that one should not go. You will find some tourists, especially the foreigners are walking up towards the fort. You may hire a guide from the entry gate though they are little expensive, else you may request any palace security person for help. In our case, a security person extended his helping hand seeing two indecisive women.
Even after staring so late we could finish our visit to fort by 2 .p.m and as told by our guide we headed for Jay café, a family run restaurant, just at the base of the fort.A meal will cost you Rs 250 to 300 here. Though I wanted to go to Sawan café, I have read so much about before traveling. Second half of the day was little relaxed. We hired an auto rickshaw ( now people are calling it Tuk tuk , even in India) for Rs. 250 and visited Raniji ki Baori, 84 pillared cenotaph and Sukhmahal on the bank of Jait Sagar.
Raniji ki baori, as the name suggests is a step well built by Rani Nathvati ji in the year 1699 who was younger wife of Raja Anirudh Singh. Bundi , as per the locals, houses as many as 150 Baolis. Raniji ki Baoli has very intricately carved arches and brackets. Very unlike of the baolis made during the Muslim reigns, this Baoli features the idols of different Hindu deities and animal figures.
Next to Baoli we visited the 84 pillared cenotaph and ended our day by visiting Sukh Mahal, where writer Rudyard Kipling stayed for some time.
Day 2:
Bundi can be covered in a day. We thought of exploring beyond the city also and there are several options. We chose to go to a place called Bhimlat waterfall, which is almost an hour drive by auto from Bundi. After breakfast we started our journey to Bhimlat. The road initially was fine. As we left the state highway and started taking the village road, our journey became bumpy. It is always better to hire a bike from the hotel and be on your own. It took more than an hour by auto to reach Bhimlat. The auto driver offered to become our guide and told us it is 2 km walk if we want to see the cave painting. After a little indecisiveness of whether to trek or not we decided to move forward.
Set in the middle of rocky desert, this 150 feet waterfall relieves all the tiredness of the road in its first sight. After a brief photography session we started walking towards the cave plaiting. There is no road marks or no signs available for the cave. We followed our auto driver cum guide. It is true that without the help of local guide it is not possible to find the way. We did not find a single soul there. Suddenly a train appeared in front of us across the field, most likely it was on its way to Chittorgarh. We kept walking and finally after half an hour walk we reached the cave.
There is a Shiva temple at the waterfall. Coming back we started climbing down the staircase and reached at the base of the waterfall and shiva temple. The view of the waterfall from here is breath taking. You can actually feel the water droplets on your face.
We felt like spend the entire afternoon sitting there but clock was ticking and we had to catch train from Kota in the evening. We came back to our hotel and after having lunch started for Kota by bus. We a heart filled with joy and bliss we promised to come back to Bundi again.
