Jodhpur, India

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Feb. 25

Arrived in Jodhpur after a 2 hour flight from Mumbai. Jodhpur is known as the “Blue city” as many of the buildings are painted blue. Some say because it’s a nice color and others say it was because mosquitoes are not attracted by blue. Who knows for sure ??

Our visit here began with a visit to Jaswant Thada, a memorial built to honor a ruler from the late 1800’s. Very beautiful place and very close to the Mehrangarh Fort ( citadel of the sun )
The Fort is from a few hundred years ago and was the home to the rulers of the time. This place is huge and contains some very interesting insight into how the ruling class lived. This place had it all. Rooms for the harem of girls for the ruler, rooms for the several wives, dancing areas, running water to keep things cool and too much gold and jewels. ( Most of which has been stolen or moved to museums ). The walls were decorated with many paintings and inlaid gems, malachite and lapis lazuli. This palace has a beautiful view of the city and the newer palace. ( The newer palace is now a very high end hotel ).

Following a short city tour and the “almost mandatory” guided visit to some shopping areas we continued on to our hotel about a 1 hour drive to the city of Osian.

Our home for a couple of nights is a resort called “ The Camel Camp”. No kidding ! After Alice’s initial shock of realizing that our room really was a tent as the itinerary suggested. We settled in for some local music and dancing before a typical Northern Indian buffet dinner.

The tent was not really roughing it as it has a shower, flush toilet, etc. Still a tent though. Interesting sounds of the night in this kind of accommodation.

Early to bed to get an early start on the camel ride tomorrow.

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