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Published: June 22nd 2017
Geo: 24.5823, 73.6882
We followed a walking tour around Jaipur (The Pink City) and took in sights such as Hawa Mahal which is a building that a Moghul king built so that his wives could watch the goings on on the streets without anyone looking back at them. As far as we can tell, this is one of the first recorded and most elaborate 'nosey neighbours' in history.
We also went to a place called Jantar Mantar. To Phil's dismay, this was NOT the name of the next dinosaur hybrid in "jurassic world 2", but a place filled with 19 massive astronomical instruments built in the 18th century and apparently home to the worlds largest sundial. We left Jaipur on the evening of 11th October, taking a 12 hour overnight train to Jaisalmer.
The train journeys have actually been a pleasure. It's the platforms that are the problems in India! Half the time you don't know what platform you're on but you know the one you need or vice versa! Otherwise you're on the train hoping that your stop is the end destination for the train because hardly any of the stations tell you where you are! On this particular instance, the matrix
told us we needed platform 2A for the train to Jaisalmer. Phil thought he heard the announcer say platform 8. We had a matter of minutes before our train left. Queue the tourists running around like headless chickens trying to find either platform 8 or platform 2A (at one point Sooz considered running directly towards the wall between 2 and 3 to see if she'd get to 2A). It was at 14.14 (train leaves at 14:15) that Sooz thought she noticed in the far distance of platform 2 something that resembled a train...queue the sprint. We weren't even sure if it was a train we kept telling each other breathlessly as we continued to charge towards what felt like the end of the world. We jumped on the train, hot, sweaty, Sooz hyperventilating, everyone staring and sat down. Thank goodness we made it just in time!... The train sat there for another 15 minutes...
Arriving in Jaisalmer at 5.15am, we were looking forward to getting to our hostel to grab some breakfast and a shower and chill out for a bit. Unfortunately, the 24hr reception was not so as the whole place was closed up for the night! After trying our
best to get in (we knocked quite loudly and jiggled the door handle a bit), we realised we had to sit around until they open up at goodness knows what hour. Doesn't help when you're desperate for a wee and decided to not go at the train station because "it'll be fine, I can hold it until we get to the hostel". Just as Sooz was squatting in a corner across the road an hour and a half later, the owner turns up and lets us in...
At this stage Phil had managed to catch a cold and had a bit of an upset tumtum (lets just say those antibiotics were put into use thank you very much Dr Harewood!) so a couple of days were spent resting and recuperating. Thankfully our hostel was lovely and we were just outside the fort itself so we had great views. At this point in our travels we have become accustomed to the rancid smells and visual spoils of human and animal excrement, rubbish and rubble everywhere in India, however it was at Jaisalmer that we were really affected by these downfalls of Indian life. As we stood observing the fort in it's historical
magnificence, we witnessed a few occasions where residents of the fort were throwing bin loads of rubbish out of the fort walls onto the land below. We could see from the piles of rubbish that this is common practice as we also witnessed it from our own hostel! We visited the fort after a couple of days and unfortunately the sheer wonder of the architecture and splendour of the fort itself was hugely marred by the presence of rubbish, rubble and faeces in the narrow streets. Jaisalmer fort is in trouble. Due to an increase in the residential population, tourists and development within the fort coupled with inadequate drainage and an obvious education issue with the residents and tourists alike, parts of the fort are collapsing. The lonely planet guide book that we have has specifically not recommended any accommodation or restaurant within the fort for this reason. This is a UNESCO world heritage site but you wouldn't believe it from the state it was in. We decided to continue our journey and begin heading south.
A 6 and 1/2 hour train ride brought us to Jodhpur. We decided to stay here overnight and continue on as we are a bit
Amazing dinner in Peacock Rooftop Restaurant
Biryani topped with dough before baking (how it's meant to be cooked!) chicken tikka butter masala, rice, garlic naan and butter naan. Amazing!'forted out' at this stage. We carried on by bus to Udaipur where we are now currently residing. We shall leave our Udaipur adventures for the next blog which I can tell you now includes a rather strange encounter with a cow...
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Barry Cahill
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Susie and Phillip thanks for the blog. Your hostel looked nicer than some of the sites. Hope your tummies get used to the Indian diet. How do find the Indian people, are they helpful and friendly? Take care looking forward to your next epis
ode