We met Mr Narender and his trusty Tata Indigo outside the Ratan Niwas at 08:30, for the long drive to Jodhpur. The 7 hour drive was fairly unexciting. It seems they are redoing the main Jaipur - Jodhpur highway, which made it slow going, with many detours. On the way, we passed the marble quarrying area, where we saw trucks carrying enormous chunks of white marble. The whole area seemed to be covered in white dust.
I remembered a quotable quote from our driver which I thought was cute, he said: "For drive in India needs three things:
1. Good brakes
2. Good horn
3. Good luck
He was so right. And I would add a fourth - nerves of steel... We had seen a lot of accidents on the drives we had done thus far, trucks that had gone off the road, etc. But the worst was just before Jodhpur - a train had crashed into a truck! We drove past as hundreds of people were filing off the train, no doubt wondering how they would now get to their destination. The front of the train was very badly damaged, and we heard that the truck driver had died, and the train operator was very badly injured...
We stopped for a brief lunch, neither of us with much appetite, and eventually reached Jodhpur around 15:30, where we met our guide for the day, Nirender. He was very well dressed, as the guides invariably are, and seemed a very serious guy, with a mustache and glasses. His blingy earrings, however, told me there may be another side to him. He first took us to the Jaswant Thada (small entrance fee) and explained that this was the area where the Maharajas and their family were cremated. It was walking distance from the fort, and close to a stream that would have been used for ritual washing after the cremation. A beautiful, huge white marble cenotaph marked the site, and was built by the last Maharajah's wife, when the Maharajah died. So it's kind of the opposite of the Taj, as this time the wife built the beautiful memorial. Smaller marble cenotaphs surrounded the large one, these would have been for the wife and other family members.
Next we drove a few minutes to the Mehrangarh fort (Rs300 plus camera charge), and Nirender promised us it would be the most memorable of our entire tour (after the Taj of course...). Jodhpur is the second biggest city in Rajasthan, after Jaipur, but apparently the royal family here is richer. The fort was built by Maharajahs in the past, but the current family lives in a new palace, the Umaid Bhavan palace, and the majority of the fort is now a museum. Jodhpur is also known as sun city, as it gets the hottest in Rajasthan, up to 50 degrees in the summer. Also the blue city, due to the blue washed houses below the fort. Only the Brahmin caste (the highest, priestly caste) were allowed to use blue. Apparently the indigo they used helped to repel mosquitoes. And Marwar - the old name for this area.
The fort is constructed from red sandstone, parts of which have been whitewashed for a lighter colour. It is absolutely enormous, imposing and impressive, and looms on a high hill over the city. What impressed me most was the height of it, above the walls it seems to reach the sky. We caught an elevator to one of the higher sections, so that we could walk down from there and see all there was to see.
Inside, we saw the usual fort attractions - huge gates, a private bed chamber, ladies apartments, meeting areas, mirrored areas, places where the ladies could hide behind latticed windows and watch what was happening below, etc... The museum part was also particularly good, and housed royal attire, elephant seats, palanquins - requiring up to 6 people to carry them, weapons, art and textiles. There were even royal baby rockers, elaborately decorated, which once would have been rocked by hand. The last one was electrical...
I think two things stood out most for me - one was that the balconies and other areas were carved so ornately, that they actually looked like they were made of wood, when in fact it was the red sandstone. Second was just the incredible view for miles around, we could see clusters of blue washed houses, the modern palace, the clock tower and the bazaar area. And since it was heading towards sunset, the light was just lovely.
Unfortunately the impending sunset also meant we didn't have a lot of time, and so it was quite a whirlwind tour. Nirender still wanted to show us the clock tower and market area, so we drove through the busy streets. I found myself comparing Jodhpur to Jaipur, and possibly liking it even more... Where Jaipur was slightly cleaner and more modern, Jodhpur had a lot of character.
We got out of the car and dodged carts, motorbikes, rickshaws and cows to walk through the entrance to the old Sardar market area. Inside, we had a good view of the fort from below, and saw the old clock tower, which was a gift brought from London, from a Maharajah to his people. The chaotic bazaar area had fresh produce, spices, cooking pots, textiles, clothes, food and finally, religious artifacts near the temple. It reminded me a bit of Morocco for some reason, but I'm sure Morocco didn't have this many people!
We actually thought we were about to make it to the end of the tour without any forced shopping, but of course that was too optimistic... We were ushered into a textile shop, where we had to climb 3 flights of stairs before being shown countless throws and bedspreads, some of which had been made for European and America designers, and were very modern and beautiful... But the walk and the climb was too much for us, and Werner was feeling really rotten, so we made a hasty retreat to the car, to go and check into the hotel.
We are staying in the Indira Inn, and I must say its pretty unremarkeable. It's clean, the bed is comfy and there are a few nice pieces of wooden furniture, with a flat screen tv. Fine for one night. Poor Werner couldn't face any food, so I ordered a quick room service veg pulao, and we'll get some much needed rest. Having Delhi belly and flu at the same time is a new, and extremely unpleasant experience! Especially when you are supposed to be on holiday :(
Tomorrow we head for Udaipur, which I am hoping will be a little more relaxed.
- Nix
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Jodhpur, India
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