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Published: February 4th 2007
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So it was time to get out of the dirty, bustling, colourful and noisy Dehli and onto a night to train to arrive in the impossibly beautiful Rajasthan city of Jodhpur. A good antidote to the growing feeling of claustrophobia and damaged ear drums induced by the capital, the historic centre of Jodhpur is a sea of blue flat roofed houses and courtyards. The giant Fort of Meherangarh, like Edinburgh Castle sits proudly on top of a mountain and looms over and protects the town. The village-like quiet is disturbed only by the screams of young children playing in the street and the odd rickshaw that has managed to squeeze its way through the tightly knit streets. We stayed at the foot of the Fort in Yogi’s Guest House amongst all this, and so with a smug smile we went out to explore.
Tom was pleased to find that the street cows were in better shape here, often lounging around in herds, fed by the locals and up for a pat or a scratch behind the ear. In this relatively laid back atmosphere of shops, stalls and the chat of locals we were particularly impressed by the range and colour
of bangles on sale. Undoubtedly this town has tourists, but in the backstreets we were few and far between so there was an unusual level of interest from the locals. Both of us found the meeting and greeting of pretty much every kid in sight charming and fun (though after a while a little draining). At times it felt like being a politician in a walkabout during a general election or a minor media celebrity. “HELLO!!”, “Hello, your country?” or “you married?” followed by giggles and excitement.
Anyway the buildings of the old town were originally painted blue to show where the Brahmins (India’s highest caste of people) lived. The colour scheme soon became ‘casteless’ and spread throughout the old town due to its effectiveness in both deflecting the heat of the scorching summer sun and also in discouraging those pesky mosquitoes. Added to this, many of these blue stone buildings were so beautifully carved that you could not help but just stop and stare. To catch our breath we stopped for some chai at this lovely guy’s house/restaurant. His chai was full of ginger along with the usual half a ton of sugar, really good. We were so
Liz & baby
A roof top restaurant we went to a couple of times. The family was very proud of their loverly baby. well looked after that we returned there next day for more chai and a wonderfully tasty thali accompanied by an endless supply of chapattis and poppadums.
The following day we spent a few hours walking around Meherangarh Fort. Hopefully this does not sound too critical, but we found that most historical buildings in India are not particularly well looked after. Walls are often crumbling, minarets have long ago been lost to gravity, carvings stolen, and in many of the beautiful ceilings and roof spaces the pigeons are happily roosting and defecating. In India’s defence government corruption is often a problem and there are probably far more pressing issues such as alleviating poverty and keeping the roads and railways ticking over - but in general the country’s heritage has been left to fend for itself. Meherangarh Fort is thankfully an exception to the norm - uninhabited and for a time left to rot, it has been extensively and carefully restored over the past 30 years and is now well managed and looked after. On the way in we were each given headsets and so listened to the audio-tour as we went, a really worthwhile experience listening to commentary both from
some posh Indian rarj type as well as the current Maharaja of Jodha. The place is just so stunning with imposing entrance gates that hinder elephant charges, extremely thick walls to resist cannon fire, and battlements bristling with cannons and wide enough to fit elephants along them. The palace itself is large and beautifully carved, set out in a series of courtyards and heavily decorated rooms. The windows and balconies of the palace are hidden by exquisite jali (lattice) work in order that the ladies of the house are protected from the gaze of men passing below. In the museum inside there are solid silver howdahs (elephant seats), decorated daggers and plenty of old photos of past maharajas from throughout north India. On the way out we got tempted by the museum shop. After some serious haggling we were able to buy a pair of gorgeously painted works of art - a fitting memento for our time at the Fort.
All that was left to do in Jodhpur was to sit in the many roof terrace restaurants or the one on top of our guesthouse and take in the amazing sunsets and views. You could be really nosey watching
stuff go on in nearby houses and streets below and in return the locals could spy on you. More like how I expect the Middle East to be rather than India, it felt like a film set which at any moment James Bond would be running past me, jumping from roof to roof in hot pursuit of an evil assassin.
Enough of my waffle. Time to hit the road again and get some camel action in the desert…
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