We arrived in Jodhpur after another night on the great Indian night train. It was very early (about 5am), and still dark so we decided to have breakfast at the station and wait for daylight before we threw ourselves into the chaos of getting a rickshaw to a hotel. By far the worst time in any Indian town is upon arrival when you still have your backpack on. Its as if walking around with a backpack indicates that you are sucker for anything, and incapable of making your own choice of where to stay. Rickshaw drivers often try and take you to another guest house (where they get commission) or tell you stories about your chosen place being closed, full, or just ‘not possible sir’. Anyway after refueling on food, and deciding from our guide book where we wanted to stay, we braved the onslaught with rugged determination. We asked the rickshaw driver to drop us in a market place close to where we wanted to stay and decided to walk the rest of the way, this way avoiding any commission on our room bill.

It turned out that the guest house we had chosen was excellent with very helpful staff and a great roof top eatery, with views across the rather surreal looking blue city and the huge stone fort that towers above.

Jodhpur is know as the blue city because many of the building within the old city walls are painted blue(a religious thing but i wont go into details zzzzz..). The city has a relaxed atmosphere and I instantly took a liking to it. There was however a high ratio of stray animals to people there, you had to be really careful tot to tread on cows or goats as you negotiated the narrow city streets. The streets within the old city are narrow and wind up the foot of the hill towards the fort. The old city is split into different areas each with its own specialist bazzar, for example there is a whole area dedicated as a spice market, another as a silk market, and another as a silver market, and so on. It was really fascinating to walk around looking at all the different produce on sale and surprisingly hassle free (by Indian standards).

The following day we walked up the rocky hill towards the fort, the road that leads up gives amazing panoramic views, and is a great photo opportunity to get a snap of the sprawling blue city below. We went on a tour of the fort which was really informative, and was set up through the maharaja of Jodhpurs trust. Again no need for detail, just be satisfied that I am doing some educational things!

Jodhpur, was whistle stop visit and after just two nights we were up early for the 5.15am train to Jaipur.. (too many early mornings!)