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Published: January 12th 2008
Sorry for not writing for so long. The internet here is dog slow and I just don't have the patience to wait for page refreshes when I can spend the time drinking chai and talking with people.
Anyways, Jodhpur is awesome. I found the most peaceful spot in India today when I took off at sunrise for a walk around the fort.
Our homestay - Heaven Guest House in in the center of town so it's not a long hike out of here to the top of the fort. I wanted to head up there and check out the sunrise.
By now I'm pretty accustomed to wandering the curvy streets of this town. It's really neat here. Old streets with sandstone mesh window coverings. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to the streets so it takes a while to get used to walking here.
Claudia got sick last night. Guess it's her turn now. So she didn't get up for a sunrise photo op. with me. Had to go solo this time.
So I hiked up to the top of the plateau where the fort is. Then walked around the backside of it. Went cross country over the rocks and saw an old man in the valley under the fort walking on a path. I went down to follow him. The path ended at an ancient fortified wall and the old man disappeared. Humm, guess I'll keep going to see where he went. When I got close to the old wall I noticed there was a small doorway in the old wall and went through it. Wow, I was looking over a small lake with birds and fortified towers looming over it. The lake ended in a really pretty step well. Nice. I haven't seen a full one yet and here I was. There was nobody there. Quiet. No hawkers, rickshaws, horns, nothing.
I sauntered my way around, climbed all kinds of hidden stairways to the tops of ancient battlement towers, and took lots of pictures.
Sure would be nice if the place wasn't so covered in shit! But I guess after 3 weeks now I'm getting used to things.
The massive castle overhead was an amazing backdrop. I just kept walking around mumbling "awesome" to myself. Woohoo. Quietness must be appreciated in this country.
I climbed another wall and noticed the "old city" of Jodhpur butting right up against the fortress wall. It's quit beautiful. Totally painted in indigo blue. I think I was a little late to get perfect light on it, but I still took lots of pictures. I'll post them in the states. I just have no patience to do it here.
Walking through the old town is just as amazing as the fort area. The streets are pretty narrow and there are even smaller alleys going off in every direction with very old 4 story blue buildings rising up around me. I decided to randomly walk in an alley, took a picture of some guy who asked me to take his pic ( everyone want's me to take their picture) and then ran into a little boy in a courtyard surrounded by pretty blue houses. No wonder Aldous Huxley wrote about this place 😉
He asked me for my email. Humm. Why not. I walked up to his home. Same blue paint on the inside. Gave him my email, then met the neighbors. It turned into a neighborhood gathering soon with everyone outside and on the roofs looking at the white tourist from USA.
Funny side note, every Indian I've spoken to who knows about politics seems to think George W. Bush is a criminal. Hummm. Could they know something most people in our country don't. Oh well, I digress.
So I go upstairs to the roof of the neighbors house. They offer some warm milk, yummy stuff here in India. And we chat for an hour. Had a great time. Took more pix. Exchanged emails and promised I'll email websites with pix to them.
Off I go to find my way back to Heaven Guest House from the other side of the fort.
No problem for me know. I've become a pro at doing the Indian city hustle, and navigate myself through the cows, rickshaws, mopeds, horse and camel carts back to the hotel.
I tell my story to Nishia and Vinod. Show them pictures, and find out that Vinod was raised in the same little alley that I randomly walked into and he knows the 2 brothers I talked too. Small world.
Poor Claudia is still sick. She's caught a case of Jodhpoop. Sorry, had to go there 😉
But Nishia is nursing her with toast and lemon juice. She's feeling a tad better now.
Of course I had to top this experiance by going back to shopping with with mom and the boys. Blah blah. Bought 3 crazy shirts at US $ prices.
Then later in the day I went back to the step well area with mom and took more pics.
Got bumped a few times by a friendly cow. I think the cow liked me. Made mom laugh.
Tomorrow night we bug out of Jodhpur to Delhi on the overnight.
I'll miss this place. It's pretty mellow for Indian standards and a fun place to spend a little time. Plus I really felt at home hanging out here with Nisha, Vinod, and their family.
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Suneel
non-member comment
Heaven Guest House
Can I have their contact details, and your review of them.