Day 22, January 30

The hotel where we stayed in Chittorgarh was one of the worst on our trip. Noisy, the rooms were very dirty and old. There were some strange people wandering around the hotel, and the guy at reception was unpleasant. At 9 a.m. he decided to call us and remind us that we were checking out today, even though the hotel’s check-out time was 12…. Exactly at 12 we left the hotel with relief.
We had already bought a train ticket to Bundi, and there were still 3.5 hours left.
While we were standing at the station and wondering whether we should try to leave earlier by bus, an intrusive tuk-tuk driver came up to us and agreed to take us to the bus stop for 30 rupees. The tuk-tuk driver behaved strangely, came with us to the ticket counter, where we were told that there were no buses to Bundi, and then, half-jokingly or seriously, offered to take us to Bundi by tuk-tuk for 2000 rupees.
We refused to go to Bundi, but asked him to take us back to the railway station.
At the railway station we saw a separate little building; tickets were sold there, and it was also cool, clean, and there was an outlet – so we decided to wait for the train there.
The train arrived on time; this time we had to travel for a very short time, 2 hours, and for the first time we rode in a “sleeper” class carriage. These carriages are for poor Indians; here, as in third-class carriages, there are six berths in a compartment, but there is no bedding, and the people traveling are noticeably poorer.
Across from us, the men first ate bananas and threw the peels right under their feet. Then they started on roasted peanuts in shells, which they also threw straight onto the floor. Soon the entire floor was covered with a layer of peanut shells and banana peels…
What can you say – Indians are not used to throwing away trash. Perhaps what surprised me most was the policeman – a respectable-looking man in uniform – who, after finishing his tea, threw the plastic cup onto the roadside…. I also remember when they brought us to a bus stop to grab a bite to eat. There was a trash bin in the center, but no one except us used it. Even a decent-looking student guy, with whom we had exchanged a few words earlier, after eating chips was too lazy to walk two meters to the bin – and threw the empty chip bag under his feet…
Meanwhile, the scenery outside the window changed one after another. Sometimes wild lands with palm trees drifted by, sometimes well-kept fields with something lush green. And then a real stone plateau began. Practically no vegetation and no soil at all – a solid stone slab in which only water was able to leave traces in the form of bizarre curves…
A narrow corridor for trains had been cut through this same stone mass.
The time flew by quite quickly; the sleeper turned out not to be as scary as I had thought, especially during the day. When we arrived in Bundi, it was already getting dark…
While we were getting off the carriage, I noticed a woman of European appearance. I decided to ask why she was traveling alone. And when I asked where she was from, it turned out she was from Ukraine.
The railway station in Bundi is located quite far from the city center, about 6 km away. We rode three people in the tuk-tuk. An amazing woman named Olga set off at the age of 51 to travel around India on her own. A very positive person, she spoke with such enthusiasm about where she had been. She had chosen roughly the same route as we had. Olga said that before, she and her husband had lived very well, and 10 years ago they had lived it up in India in the royal hotels of Agra and the palaces of Jaipur.. Now she was unemployed and decided to go on such a budget trip. Her husband did not support this idea and stayed in Kyiv, where he worries very much about her, while she sends him enthusiastic text messages from such a distant and wondrous country.
The tuk-tuk took us to the guesthouse where Olga intended to stay. It’s amazing that she doesn’t book hotels in advance like we do, but simply comes to the planned places and chooses, bargains – that way she manages to live very cheaply.