Paying Guest Houses

One of the cooler things about Bundi is that there are no hotels, there are paying guest houses. This basically means you stay in a local family's house, but with a few extra rooms for guests. Its a nice way to meet some locals in a relaxed setting. Plus you get nice home cooked meals for cheap.

The guest house I stayed at was named the "Shivam Guest House" and had just opened in the last two years. This made it difficult for them because they had missed the most recent "lonely planet" pass through, and so were not listed in the guide book. As a result their son had to spend much of his time down at the train station trying to drum up business. While this isn't all that surprising, it is an aspect of the tour book industry I hadn't thought much about; one as popular as the lonely planet basically determines winners and losers in many areas, and so has a very powerful economic impact. The problem is exaserbated by the fact that the Lonely Planet seems to go with the same places from edition to edition--its like congressmen, hard to get a seat, but once you're in, its tough to get dislodged.

I actually learned about Shivams Guest House from the recommendation of a fellow traveler, and was very please by it. They're working hard to get themselves in the next edition, and I wish them all the best with it.

This is a picture of the main water tank of the city from their place.