Udaipur to Jodhpur – by bus….never again….by Zoe.

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Well we can safely cross off catching a bus in India from our list and look forward to not doing it for some time. Our 6 hour bus ride from Udaipur to Jodhpur, turned into just under 8 hours and was the most bumpy bus ride I think I’ve ever had. Brett had an egg on his head from where he bumped it on the roof and I had a sore neck from all of the jolting around. For a main road it was pretty shitty….I was even wishing that I was back on a Greyhound bus skidding along a snowy road somewhere in the US….well maybe not.

So Jodhpur, our accommodation was lovely, with views of the city and the fort, we still weren’t feeling the best, so we had an early dinner and early to bed so hopefully we’ll all be fit for exploring the fort!

So after a good nights sleep we felt a little better in the morning. After a yummy breakfast we headed up to the fort, although we had to walk up hill and had to have many breaks along the way. Audio guide in hand we wandered up and around the fort. Apparently the walls have never been penetrated by an enemy force, not even by a tusker ie elephant (Brett wanted to add)….So we walked around the fort for a couple of hours, (our camera battery runs out, good work Zoe….) learnt about the history of the Maharajas and what the current Maharaja and his family are doing to keep the fort going. They have obviously opened up the fort to tourism, which has museums and temples in it but they also have an astrologer (ie palm reader). I thought that it was a really nice place to visit, with great views of the city! Just as we were left the fort we ran into a girl, Nicola that we met on the bus trip from Udaipur to Jodhpur and went for a walk and lunch with her. She then took us for a walk around the clock tower, which is where the local market is. She showed us where the omelette man was and where to get the best lassi - then we wandered around the markets a bit more, I got partially groped by some foul Indian man (fortunately I had my hand on my leg and was able to push him away) and wished that I had yelled at this said stupid man, we continued walking around until we decided that we’re all walked out. After saying goodbye to Nicola at her hostel, we headed back to our hotel for some dinner and then bed.

Morning time again, Brett and I had a super hard bed and are getting used to sleeping on something that is harder than the ground. So we don’t wake up feeling too refreshed, but we are ready to keep on exploring. We decided to head out to Mandore on the advice of the guy at our accommodation. We were going to head out to Umaid Bhawan Palace which is now a hotel, museum and also where the Jodhpur Royal family live, but the Dalai Lama was giving a talk there today and other than being a bit of a boring place to visit (said the guy at the accommodation) he’s also not sure if we’ll be able to access the place. So out to Mandore we go….so we get there and are followed by a small boy playing this violin thing, which sounds terrible, he finally leaves us alone and we had a sit down in the shade. Then we go for a walk through these temples that are all over the park, not really appreciating them because we all don’t feel too well and would all probably prefer to be back in bed. We then come across a temple and we see a wedding blessing taking place (this is a guess, but it’s what it looked like to us) a man in a bright orange turban, carrying a sword climbs out of the car with his family and his wife behind him. His wife who has her face covered is holding a piece of the turban that has been partially unfurled and is walking behind him and they walk into the temple amid drums. They enter the temple, stay a little while and then leave. (Brett has now decided that when he gets married, he wants to carry a sword, wear a turban and get his lucky lady to walk behind him holding onto the partially unfurled piece of turban….any takers? Bags not!) Then we came across all of the monkeys, which at first seemed pretty tame then we weren’t too sure. They appeared to have spotted something that they didn’t like in the distance and seemed interested in scaring that away. We decided that we’d had enough relaxing at the gardens and we headed back into the clock tower to have another look around, this time with a working camera. We walked around, found the spice market, saw spices that we didn’t know the names too, found the wheat market, saw more things that we didn’t really know what they were and then Nic and I decided that we wanted to buy a scarf each, knowing that we both have enough scarves at home, but oh well. Brett got himself a saffron lassi, which tasted pretty good. This entertained him while we decided to brave one of the scarf shops. Half an hour later and we bartered ourselves from 3000 rupees to 1700 rupees we leave the shop happy with a scarf each, but knowing that we were still ripped off! We then decided to head home (I keep calling our hotel home. I suppose that at the moment it is home for Brettie and I). Brett and Nic had some beers as we watched the sun set over the old city of Jodhpur, dinner and then bed.

Safari day! We headed out with Cecilia and Millie, two English girls at our hotel with our driver Raj into the countryside. Our first stop was the potter who made water jugs. It was pretty hard work, he had to spin the wheel which was about 100 kgs, himself with a big stick and then make the pots on the wheel. After that demonstration we headed to a carpet co-operative where people make carpets! The co-operative also supports people in the desert who don’t have the ability to produce the work and sell it in order to support themselves. Needless to say that we bought a carpet….So after the carpets Raj took us to a farmer’s house to see how farmers lived - Nic got dressed up in a sari and we watched the farmer tie his turban which was pretty impressive. The farmer also treated us to an opium ceremony. He started off with a rock of opium which had a bit of sugar added to it. Then he grinded the opium down, added water to it and tipped it through a filter a few times and then offered some to the gods, before he drank it. We didn’t participate in the actual drinking of the opium, I think I was more worried about getting sick from the water the farmer had used rather than effects of the opium. We then jumped back into the jeep, saw a few antelopes from a distance, visited a traditional hut and of course the obligatory scarf factory. We went back to Raj’s house for dinner which his wife had prepared and then we headed back into town. We relaxed the evening away, spoke to Nezzi for some advice on the trains (which can be a wee bit confusing), dinner and then bed.

Today was our relaxing day, which is kinda like all of our other days, but we didn’t do anything, subsequently I got bored, I felt like a little kid again waiting for someone to entertain me. We headed out for dinner at Hotel Haveli, where the food was pretty average, but there was a great view of the fort. Then the lights that were shining on the fort went out and we decided to go back to the hotel for bed.

Our last day in Jodhpur and we slept in, had some breakfast and then checked out of our lovely hotel. We had decided that we would go zip lining in the fort (British owned and run company) so we walked up to the fort and signed up for the next group. It was great fun, I only screamed a little on the first zip line, but after that it was pretty cool. Even though I’m afraid of heights I wasn’t scared of the heights on the zip line, which Brett and Nic couldn’t quite understand and I didn’t know how to explain it to myself let alone them. After our zip lining adventure we headed over to Jaswant Thada a white marble temple near the fort (we got a free auto ride part of the way) and then we had a sit down on the grass at the temple, had a look around and then headed to the clock tower for lunch at Indique. Brett managed to get us an auto ride for 20 rupees, which feels like a great achievement! We then wandered back to our hotel, played some cards, had some dinner and then it was time to go to catch out 11pm train. We are yet to fully understand the trains in India, although so far we haven’t missed one, so we must be doing something right. Onto Jaisalmer we go!

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Photos

Brettie zip lining
Just call him superman!