On route to Jodhpur

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December 17, 2010: Mt Abu – Jodhpur

Sam Wrote:

I wanted an early start and get down the mountain before the traffic became insane but the driver talked me into a 9am departure. The ride down the mountain was not too scary. It was kind of neat actually with the monkeys sitting on the guard rails almost like they were wishing us bon voyage. In reality, the monkeys were hoping we would throw them some food.

If the road down the mountain was not frightening, the balance of the way to Jodhpur (225 km) was truly terrifying. It is a single carriageway and a distance that we could typically cover in little over two hours took us 5 hours. The road was packed with overloaded trucks and all sorts of other users that are typical in India. I was tempted to tell our driver to slowdown and not take unnecessary chances by passing slower moving vehicles but thought it best to stay quiet. Ashfaq is a very competent driver and in reality, if he was not aggressive in his driving, other would be passing us and that would be scarier. I was glad when we got to Jodhpur at 2pm.

Both Shivani & Tejas slept most of the way but at least they were not ill on the way. Matter of fact, they were quite energetic to explore the City once we got to Jodhpur.

First impression about Jodhpur: Not so good. It is a busy city and the people do not seem as nice as in Udaipur. The air quality is very poor and it pretty much stinks of sewage. The hotel, Park Plaza, is your typical Best Western at home.

After checking in, the staff tried to discourage us from venturing out but we did. We grabbed an auto and headed out to the Clock Tower & Sardar Market. Please note, that the staff at the hotel had specifically asked us not to go to Sardar Market since the touts are a major nuisance. But knowing me, we had to go.

The kids and Yamini were very apprehensive about going there but in the end we all had fun meeting the locals. We met with a basket weaver, a kite maker, various spice merchants and numerous kids wanting to speak to us in English. Although the touts tried, we persevered.

We ended the evening by visiting the heritage hotel: Ajit Bhavan, where we were originally scheduled to stay. What a fabulous property it is. Too bad our luck prevented us from staying here.

An early night and we will see what tomorrow brings. We opted to skip dinner. All of us are a bit tired.


Yamini Wrote:

We left Mt. Abu around 9am and proceeded down the mountain (I made sure the kids and I took Gravol this time). I tried not to look ahead and only looked side to side as I had full faith in our driver.

We reached Jodhpur around 2pm and first had a nice lunch at On the Rocks.

We then went to our hotel, Park Plaza, which was a standard business hotel. We were supposed to stay in a heritage hotel, Ajit Bhavan, but due to a large wedding both this and adjacent hotel, Ranbanka were fully booked. We did have a chance to look at these hotels and they were absolutely beautiful especially Ajit Bhavan.

We meet the Sita Rep., Rajinder, and our tour guide, Mr. Ashish, who informed us that we would start our tour the following day at 9:00am.

As we had the remainder of the day to explore ourselves, we quickly checked in and caught a rickshaw to the Sadar Market and the Clock Tower. The clock tower is an old city landmark, surrounded by the chaotic and vibrant Sadar Market. Narrow alleys bustle with commerce and tiny hole-in-the-wall outlets. Heading westward, you go deep into the old city’s commercial heart, with crowded alleys and bazaars selling vegetables, spices, sweets, silver and handicrafts. This was definitely an interesting and challenging walk as we tried to maneuver our way through the crowd with cows, bikes, scooters, motorcycles, rickshaws, cars and tons of people. I could see that Shivani was really scared but trekked along with us. It was quite hilarious how the vendors tried to allure us into their shops. They seemed to love practicing their English with, us and the children loved having their photos taken.



Tejas Dictated :

Our drive to Jodhpur was scary ☹. It was scary because the road was so narrow and we were right by the edge. We saw these army guys and they had ropes hanging down the mountain side. Our driver said a car had fallen down the mountain but in the end it turned out that they were just training.

Finally …. We made it … ALIVE! ☺

We were starving when we got to Jodhpur so the driver suggested we go to an outdoor restaurant “On the Rocks”. I liked the food – tandoori chicken – so much that I refused to share some with my mum. After lunch, we headed to our hotel – Park Plaza. It was small.

After that we went to the Sardar Market- it was huge. There was a big clock tower in the middle. My sister was a little scared over there but I had fun. I saw a cow trying to enter someone’s store. There were also tiny little puppies – so cute that I wanted to take one home.

A guy selling camera stuff was trying to sell some things to my dad - and he would not take no for an answer.


Shivani Wrote:

Today we drove from Mt. Abu to Jodhpur! Since I spent the whole ride up to Abu sleeping, I didn’t see the beautiful drive up. Instead I saw it going down! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. It was terrifying. There was the Indian Army training.

The drive to Jodhpur was approximately: 6 hrs.
There was a nice outdoor restaurant called “On The Rocks” It was a barbeque theme. I ordered Chicken Tikka…yummmmm. After that we went to our Hotel- Park Plaza.

After we checked in to our hotel, my dad decided we go visit the Sardar Market even though we were warned not to go there. I was scared the whole time but it was interesting. It was a walking market but there was cows, motorcycles, bicycles and rickshaws all around us. I did not let go of my mum’s hand at all.

There were kids all over who wanted to talk to us in English but it was more like Hinglish which is a combination of English and Hindi. The whole experience turned out pretty neat. Thanks Dad!

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