Jodhpur

We took our first bus ride in India between Udaipur and Jodhpur and it soon became clear why so many people use trains! Other than the fact it would appear that the bus drivers learnt to drive by playing on a playstation, Indians don’t travel well. For the whole journey lots of head were hanging out of windows, like labradors in cars, decorating the side of the bus in vomit!! Perhaps they are all more used to sitting on the roof than inside the bus! Jodhpur is famed for it’s fort, it’s palace and also for being the Blue City, but if you come expecting a blue haze in the air caused by some wierd phenomenen, it’s not – through the polluated air you can make out pale blue painted houses, 1000’s of them crammed into the small streets, all painted about 40 years ago though so it’s a slightly faded and crumbly blue!. This place does feel a bit more like true India, it is the busiest place we have visited with people everywhere just going about their daily business and not really paying too much attention to you. Wedding precessions drum and set off fireworks as they wander the streets, markets and shops are all selling the same goods and fighting for custom, mini fires of rubbish burn in the streets in some vain attempt to keep the streets clean….which isn’t working that well! It is only when you escape to one of the temples, palaces or the fort that the sheer weight of people eases. We only had one day to explore what Jodhpur had to offer so we cheated and hired an autorickshaw and driver for the day – at about £4 for 6 hours of being chauffeured around it was quite a bargain. We started in the city gardens, then headed over to the Maharaja’s palace, before seeing a small monument/cenotaph and finally the fort where we parted company with our rickshaw limo. Walking back from the fort we then got hiddeously lost, we could have never been anymore than 200 meters away from the hostel but for ages we walked up, down and around it without actually ever seeing it! We finally asked a rickshaw driver the way and he walked us 10 metres to a side street and pointed down there and said walk 1 minute and you’ll find it!!
Jodhpur fort was pretty cool and had a fantastic audioguide where the narrator was someone left behind by from the British Raj times, the voice and the volcabulary was so English gentry and aristocratic it was hilarious and worth the entry money alone – problem is this is how India still thinks we speak, no wonder they are making call centre workers watch tat like Coranation Street to try and bring them a little more up to date! Well that and Only Fools and Horses as they all seem to say ‘Lovely Jubbly’ when you say that you are from England!! As well as getting lost on the way back from the fort Shona also got conned into getting a henna tattoo, well my fault really and one I am still paying for! It wasn’t the best tattoo, in fact kinda looked like a 4 year old had drawn on her hand with an orange felt-tip pen! The hostel we stayed in was lovely and you were instantly part of the family, sitting with the kids talking as the mum (owner) force fed you curry and chapati’s (that were actually meant for her children), trying to fix the computer, plus we also got invited to a wedding but unfortunately it was on the day we were due to leave so we couldn’t go!