The blue city - Jodhpur

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Alas, it was time to leave lovely little Jaisalmer and catch the local bus to Jodhpur, but not before we had our pictures taken for the region's newspapers! Yes, my fame is spreading slowly yet surely. We were wondering around the streets and a journalist wanted to take a picture of all of us with our sunglasses. We then found our piccie in the paper the next day (I've got a copy and will scan a copy later) of a massive colour print of us and a caption stating that we were so over-awed by the beauty of the city that we all had to wear sunglasses! heh heh heh

The bus to Jodhpur was quite comfy and thankfully we had good seats, but the rest of the locals were standing room only, that is unless you wanted to ride on top of the bus which they invariably did. We had people sitting on our arm chairs and felt sufficiently privledged to be sitting in my seat and not crammed in the aisles. It was also a LONG 6 hours to be on a bus and no toilet breaks - 'nough said.

We got to Jodhpur late and caught some motor rickshaws up to our wee-hotel which is again located inside a fort on top of a hill. There are a heap of local markets at the bottom of the hill and a clock tower, and the view from our rooftop hotel in the morning was pretty awesome with the massive Merengtah Fort in the background.

Jodhpur is known as the blue city of India, as a heap of houses are obviously painted blue which someone said is possibly due to the fact that white and blue paint confuses mosquitoes and thus keeps them away. Not sure if that one is true, but amusing if so. We checked out the Merengtah Fort which is pretty cool and has been around for about 800 years I think. Lots of kings were coronated here and was also the scene of a few sieges but the city was never taken, prolly due to the impressive steep rock it is built on top of. They also had several doors which had massive spikes on them at strategic points to stop elephants bombarding the doors. Hmm, that conjures an image doesn't it?! Such a different world back then.

We spent a few hours checking out the fort and the cool pallaquins the royalty used to get around in - nice to have the elephant out back or a few dozen slaves to carry you about huh? We then went and checked out the Jaswant Thada temple and then wondered thru the markets in the arvo. We saw some pretty cool stuff, people in their shops making shoes with their hands and feet and then selling them, lots of spices and herbs and of course the vibrant colours of saris, bedspreads and handbags.

I ended up getting a bedspread (no need to guess which colour) from a local chick who took us to her house where she makes and designs all the items in her store she owns with her husband. Her house was so small, I'm sure she and her 3 kids (and hubby) all prolly slept in the same room with the bedspreads piled in the corner. She was very lovely and afterwards we had a massala tea back at her shop - not sure on that one, it's quite strong, I think I'll stick to the Chai from now on!

We had dinner that night outside the fort and it was actually quite polluted and the smell of diesel was quite strong from our open air local cafe. I tried this weird Raj Kichari thing which I found out was this kind of pastry bowl shaped thing with some sort of vegge mix in the middle and pooled in yogurt (or curd as it is called here) - Hmm, don't think I'll try being that adventurous again.

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Photos

Hanging at the fort
Gabrielle and I hanging at the Merengtah Fort

Jaswant Thada
The tight-ar$e girls hanging outside the temple while the others paid to get in and see up close - phfft, I could see just fine from here!

Breakfast
The view from our rooftop hotel having breakfast with the fort in the background.

Lassi
Trying out the famous Jodhpur Mahania Lassi, which is like a cheese cake thickshake - VERY sweet, could only eat a few mouthfuls.

The fort again
The fort from our hotel in all its glory with the blue houses below.