The 'pur' brothers - Udai and Jodh

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Today is the one week anniversary of Matt’s arrival and that, along with the date being Easter Sunday, has been cause for celebration. We have packed in 5 destinations in the week that we have been together and we are currently in the blue city of Jodphur. Celebrations have included a lie in, an audio tour of the fort and a power cut in the city. We hope to top of the special day with an England victory over Australia!

Udaipur is known as the most romantic city in Rajasthan. We certainly had no reason to disagree as we gently sipped our gin and tonics on a rooftop overlooking the lake laughing happily and enjoying each others company! The shining white Lake Palace hotel that sits in the middle of the lake is wonderful for photos and is the most famous icon in the city.

We luckily had another good quality hotel thanks to our rickshaw driver who, as has become customary, didn’t take us where we asked him to but took us where he would get commission if we stayed. This has worked out well for us so far as they have in each case chosen well for us. This hotel, complete with swimming pool, was right in the old town mix - great news if you want to browse the shops, catastrophic if you allow yourself to think buying handicrafts in bulk and shipping them home might be plausible!

Having already bought several hand made diaries, photo albums and the like as so many tourists do, it was a bold call that I made when I plucked a painting off the shelf in an art gallery of an Indian man strumming a violin. For the sum of 9 English pounds I became its owner and Ollie (who had described the painting as ‘ugly’) and Matt couldn’t conceal their shock. Perhaps the heat had clouded my judgment!

A brief stop In Mount Abu was unexceptional and warrants no more space here than to mention that we saw a snake eating a fish in the lake and Ollie had a good cappuccino!

We arrived in Jodphur last night after a hot 6 hour train trip and told the taxi driver where to take us and again ended up somewhere different. Fortunately we knocked down the room price, got the television thrown in and promised not to use the air-conditioning (fortunately for the owner, we are all honourable men… unless it gets really hot)!

The Mehrangarh Fort really was impressive as sits on a hill dominating the whole city and utterly impenetrable as history shows. The views from the top of the blue painted buildings - cool, cool and keeps the insects away interestingly) were superb. It has rained this afternoon for the first time since I have been in India which has served to keep the heat down.


Next stop Jaisalmer!

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