Jodhpur
There was no private bus to jodhpur from mount abu so we had to get the public bus which basically means you pay less but that the bus yer on is not quite of the same pristine quality that I have come to expect!! This trip involved a little stop in a town called abu road – we got ourselves into a little bit of bother here. As soon as the bus stopped the rest of the people on the bus got off, now this raised my suspicion that the bus was going no further. I asked shari to double check with someone outside whether we needed to change buses to get to jodhpur. Twasn’t long before we were pulling our backpacks out from under the rusty worn seats, onto our backs and off the bus running after a bus that was pulling off. We got on eventually and took our seats at the back, the ticket inspector was not happy though – we had the wrong tickets. Normally I would’ve just accepted our fate and stumped out the extra rupees to get us to jodhpur but that wasn’t right – twas a matter of principle. It was this principle that landed us on the side of the road on the edge of the thar desert, sitting with some indian women who were admiring sharis endless collection of bangles, waiting for the right bus to come along to collect us. Luckily that didn’t take too long and wouldn’t you know it was the exact same bus that we got off in the station about 40 minutes beforehand. Ach I suppose you kinda have to laugh.
The trip to jodhpur took about 6-7 hours – can be hard to remember how long trips take, at this stage I measure time on buses by the amount of times my bum goes numb, so this trip took 4 bumnums. The lonely planet is a scaremonger at the best of times, its description of jodhpur and the reception you can expect here I found was way off the mark. I was expecting a pirhana fish like attack from rickshaw drivers, touts etc etc but it was pretty hassle free. We got a driver who happily dropped us to the place we chose to stay without going for commission. The homestay was quite an effort, the people who lived there freely mingled with the people that stayed there to such an extent that we were shown a room that had a little girl in there doing her homework. Quite bizaare. The rooftop at this place was beautiful – on one side you had a perfect view of the dominant fort they call Mehrangarh and in the distance you can see the Maharjahs current residence and exclusive hotel – Jodhpur Palace. These are the two main attractions with regards to actual buildings in this town so I reckoned taking 3 days here to see the two of them before heading west again.
The fort was pretty cool – I didn’t take to it quite the same way as the one in kumblegarh – it was pretty crowded but the views of the blue city (which is actually blue – its meant to repell insects) were spectacular. There were lots of guns, cannons, pictures and stories of great battles which satiated the inner child in me. The second day in jodhpur I explored with shari – we went our own ways the first day which was fine, tis nice to get a bit of space on yer own every now and again. The second day was much more fun. First of all we took to the local market which was great fun – twas like we were on an unofficial mission to eat and drink as much for free. So many stalls offer you samples for free or some chai if you go into their shop – all in all it was a very friendly atmosphere. I even had to translate a message as gaelige written in an omlette shop comments book, what ya think of that paddy joe? The market itself was rampacked full of stalls with huge baskets selling fresh fruit, vegtables, herbs, pots, pans, sweets, spices, teas you name it – one guy asked me if I wanted some tea, I politely declined with smile and an acknowledging nod, he then shouts after me over about 100 people ‘Maybe you would like some viagra sir??’ Cue all those 100 people breaking into hysterics..twas funny I have to admit. The v stuff gets advertised alot in these parts – pretty difficult to draw a veritable conclusion as to why!!
We ventured on past the market till we got to the end of the old city – from here we took a walk thru a park before grabbing a rickshaw up to the palace. There was a private function in the main hotel and despite all our protestations about how important and famous we were they wouldn’t let us in – I think the fact that we showed up in a beat up rickshaw didn’t help our case too much. There is a museum exhibit there also which we had a look at – it was fairly crap but we did manage to get some homemade naan from the kitchen that was looking after the wedding (apparently elizabeth hurley got married in this place last year). The tandoor (oven) they used was basically a steel barrel which heated from the bottom got dough stuck to the inside walls until it cooked up. Very nice indeed…
Jodhpur was a funny kind of town, I didn’t like it at all the first night I arrived. It was noisy and the pollution seemed so much worse than even mumbai, but walking through the markets and down the sidestreets made such a difference to my impression of the place. A lot of people go flocking to the main sites before buggering off somewhere else which is fine when you are stuck for time but you definitely miss out on a massive aspect of india this way – the streets and the side streets is where the most fun is to be had.
After 3 nights we took the bus to Jaisalmer with the vague ambition of some camel related activities…
Later,
Phil
Tags: India, India, jodhpur, Rajasthan
Phil Gill
Obviously a goats cheese tartlette could not be got there