Hello lovely people . . . . . No. 8

JODHPUR

After our relaxing train journey (see blog no. 7!) we descend at Jodhpur. The taxi sent by the hotel awaited us at the exit. Loaded into the car, we set off for a few days of Indian luxe (well luxe for us) and to explore the blue city

First impressions on car journey on our approx 3k drive to hotel:  wider streets, cleaner, more trees, no cows, fewer pavement dwellers. Hotel big and luxurious. Quite modern and a bit corporate in feel (especially dining rooms) BUT gloriously friendly and professional welcome from lovely smiling staff, huge comfortable bedrooms and fabulous swimming pool. It is about 3K from the old city where we expect to see blue – the hotel is like a Neapolitan cake in shades of pink, yellow and coffee

We vegged out by pool for the afternoon and then took a tuktuk, easily hailed at the hotel gates, to the old city and our selected restaurant, another rooftop, with our first view of the spectacular fort, floodlit. 

After dinner we walked back through still lively streets and picked up a tuktuk by the clock tower. Some trauma as the driver driver didn’t know where our hotel is but fortunately we recognized some nearby roadside shrines, a coffee shop and the overpass/highway and were able to direct him!

Second impressions from the two tuktuk rides: Jodhpur, especially approaching and in the old city, is sooo noisy. It seems almost everyone has lost the use of the lower half of their body, replaced it with a scooter or a tuk tuk and they are all moving ceaselessly and tooting their horns  . . . And to my ears the toots are longer, louder and shriller than Jaisalmer or Bikaner. A cacophony, and quiet Mandawa a distant memory. Also we spotted many pavement dwellers including, at night at least, on the central reservation of the four lane highways leading in to the old city. The air is heavy with smoke and smog

The next morning, fortified by an early swim and a good breakfast at the hotel we took two tuk tuks to Mehrangargh, the fort, up a long and winding road. It is a stunning sight and site “built by angels and giants” – Kipling’s words. It appears to rise Towering seamlessly from the rock on which it stands (and we read the building materials were chiseled from that rock). It is also very clean, very calm and very photogenic

The fort is no longer inhabited and so visiting is a very different experience from Jaisalmer. Mehrangarh has now much more the air of an ancient, abandoned fortress kept beautifully and with an excellent museum housed within it’s palace (for which we used the very good audio tour). I loved the elephant howdahs so richly detailed, the palanquins, the Ganesh representations, a magnificent guard, royal cots, the stained glass and intricately carved screens in the women’s quarters, the rather bizarrely Christmas bauble decorated maharajas’ sleeping quarters. So much to see, so much detail to admire . . . 

We walked out of the fort down through Chokelao Bargh, the restored gardens which were green, calm, refreshing. There was a good cafe for our usual beers and  lime sodas and from which we spotted our first monkeys, langurs. We saw them on a wall and then could see the trees moving where they were jumping. We walked towards them and found them rampaging across a marquis being erected in the gardens for a festival. We spent a while following them, they are so very entertaining to watch

We finished our walk through the gardens and then explored the residential parts of the old city which was not as blue as we expected but still fascinating. Lots of life visible from the streets, more cows now (we think perhaps they had been rounded up from the new city for a festival), lots of children finishing school, all friendly. Sights, sounds and smells with which we are becoming familiar in old city life in India; I am not sure I will ever get – could ever get – used to the incessant hooting though

We have had two more days to explore Jodhpur and loved it. We have shopped – outfits for Alison M’s birthday celebration at our next stop (see next blog) and spices; we have wandered more monuments (loved Jaswant Thada “the mini Taj Mahal”; underwhelmed by those parts we could see of Umaid Bhagwan Palace, were dismayed at all the dead fish and rubbish in the otherwise beautifully restored stepwell) and the colorful markets. We have enjoyed more rooftop dinners admiring that spectacular fort view and eaten delicious vegetable curries and tandoori chicken; we have to our surprise used, easily, Uber for taxis when a tuk tuk wouldn’t do

Jodhpur has been a very different experience to Jaisalmer, it feels more modern. I am outvoted: it is everyone else’s favourite but for now my heart remains with Jaisalmer

Until next time, Namaste

Alison