The Blue City, Jodhpur, and the City of Gold, Jaisalmer

Jodhpur

The Blue City

Jodhpur, the blue city. On the first morning we walked up to...yes, you’ve guessed it...the fort! (Mehrangarh). Again, great views of the city, amazing architecture and history.

Mehrangarh Fort

Another of the fort

I am being a bit flippant but the forts in India are amazingly well preserved in general, and the detail that goes into the art and architecture is really impressive. Even the less well preserved forts are magnificent – in fact I prefer them.

We took a stroll around the clock tower (Ghanta Ghar) market where I was assaulted by a couple of 5 year old boys chucking stones, and later on we went to Kaylana lake. There has been a lake in every town in Rajasthan I think, usually artificial, but all very scenic once the litter is overlooked.

We met some crazy screaming fans there; a whole family on holiday who took hundreds of pics of us and the dad, who had had a few too many beers, invited us over for dinner. We were completely taken aback at how ‘star-struck’ they were. Later on, Bobby told us about a cheap place for lunch and guess who we pull up right next to?! The family started screaming and waving, so we looked at each other and both yelled at Bobby to put his foot down and get out of there.

After lunch somewhere miles and miles from there, we headed over to Jaswant Thada, a marble mausoleum built by a Maharajah in memory of his father at the end of the 19^th century. We drove up to Umaid Bhawan Palace, a magnificent building which had been the main residence of the royal family of Jodhpur.

Umaid Bhawan Palace

Me at Jaswant Thada

A few weeks before, we had been invited to a wedding by Chandra, our Delhi driver, and by now we were panicking a bit about what to wear. We had been told that I had to wear a sari and Baby D had to go in a Punjabi suit or something traditional. After going to a few shops and being accosted by some top-notch rip-off merchants we ran out of patience and decided not to bother with the traditional dress. We would only wear the outfits once and then have to get rid of them because we are travelling, so it was a complete waste of money. Baby D had nothing to wear as we had just done a laundry run, so he ended up in a hoody, a pair of my black cotton trousers, socks and sandals and a scarf! Very dapper I must say. I had a dress which I wore as a top with jeans. 

Wedding party

 

We were on the groom’s side so we met at an apartment block a few kilometres outside of the city, where the groom and his entourage were staying, him being from Delhi. We stayed there for about an hour, drinking and dancing. We were without doubt the centre of attention and we felt bad for the groom as no one seemed to be paying him any mind. We danced our way up the lane towards the actual wedding venue, getting lost twice on the way. How, I do not know as it was a straight road, barely more than a kilometre long.

Bride

Close to the entrance to the wedding venue we noticed a man lying prone in a muddy ditch. Baby D and I rushed to help him up while everyone else ignored him. When we picked him up and as he came round, he asked us why we had woken him up. He was sleeping off the whiskey, getting ready for round 2! When we finally got to the venue, we were hustled over to the buffet and our plates were filled while we waited for the bride to arrive. She was brought in on a carriage, looking stunning, made up to the nines with gold jewellery dripping from her throat, nose, ears and wrists.

There were men there somewhere

The whole event was great fun and very opulent. Everyone was really welcoming. I had expected the bride to be in floods of tears as I had seen at other Asian weddings, because she was leaving her family to live with her new husband and his family, but this bride looked really happy. Perhaps the tears would come later, the celebrations were to go on for days.

Jaisalmer

The Golden City

Jaisalmer is known as the Golden City, resplendent in the middle of the desert and close to the Pakistan border.

We somehow got railroaded into staying at a desert camp for the night, which included typical Rajasthani food (lots of veggies and lentils), Rajasthani folk dancing and singing around a fire, and a sunset or sunrise camel ride. We had done something similar in Dubai on holiday in mid-2016 although we didn’t stay overnight, and we were not bothered about repeating the experience. Anyway, through a mis-communication or something we ended up at the camp in a village called Khuri.(Actually I think Bobby just pretended not to hear us and we were not really too bothered about going there or not, so we didn’t protest too much).

The singing and dancing show was pleasant enough but we have seen this sort of thing so many times before – sometimes I feel as though its only in the UK that we don’t put on this type of show (how many tourists go to see a morris dancing show? We should start capitalising on this!) The food was not the best as it was a luke-warm buffet. The evening was not improved by our driver who was absolutely battered and wouldn’t leave us alone, so we disappeared for an early night just to avoid him. 

We were up early the next day for the sunrise camel ride – we’d arrived too late for the sunset one after Bobby had stopped 50 times for a sickly sweet roadside chai and a ‘beedi’ (cheap ciggies that are apparently 10 times less bad than normal filtered fags! Keep telling yourself that Bobby) and we were the only ones to go on the sunrise one, which was nice. 

So far we’d not had a great experience in Khuri and we’d been told to be ready for 6.15am. Bearing in mind it was freezing cold, we got up and ready to go, but when no one had shown up by 7am Baby D stormed off in a ‘that’s it! We’re leaving!’ rage, in search of Bobby to get the car ready.

Finally, somebody woke up and took us to our waiting camels for our early morning ride. I was shown to Shiva, a beautiful blonde who refused to walk in a straight line, and Baby D’s ride was a bubbly brunette called Laal, and bubbly he was. I have never heard farts like it, and I was helpfully down-wind too. 

My camel, Shiva

Apart from ripping half my fingernail off on the saddle on my ascent, we had a great time. We walked in darkness for about 2km then stopped in the Thar Desert for half an hour to watch the sun come up as our guides built a fire. We were frozen stiff but enjoyed every minute of it.

Mural in Jaisalmer

After leaving Khuri, we headed into Jaisalmer city. We walked up to the fort and around the small town, but we didn’t go in as we were forted out and saving our pennies. I think that was a mistake though, as I’ve seen some fellow travellers’ pics and it looks amazing.

Fort

It has a Jain temple inside apparently, and from what we’ve seen of these types of temple, they’re pretty impressive and very ornate. 

Later on, Bobby wanted to take us to an old village in the desert called Kuldhara, that was eerily abandoned overnight and consequently the legend was that it was haunted. Nothing to do with the fact that the villagers probably left due to having no water or crops of course, but this is India remember, and nothing gets in the way of a good story. 

Bobby had arranged with some other drivers to leave the hotel at 2pm to go Kuldhara, as he was going to follow them, not knowing the way himself. He failed however, to tell us, and we weren’t ready to go on time. 

As was becoming his habit, Bobby asked me for directions using Google maps on my phone, and we left about half an hour after everyone else. All over Rajasthan Bobby had asked to use my Google maps and then disregarded its directions, changing his mind just as my battery was about to die. This time, he followed the directions to the letter and we ended up driving off road in the middle of the desert. Yep, we were going more and more off the beaten track, in a crappy Delhi taxi with bald tyres. 

Three hours later, after visions of us being eaten by vultures flashed through my mind, we found a road. Bobby gave a nervous laugh about my useless GPS, and I told him off, asking him what sort of driver didn’t know where anything was? I felt a bit bad about yelling at him, as he was probably worried about us all dying of heat exhaustion and thirst in the desert, but he got the message. He was never the same with me after that – much more wary and formal after a Tara Tantrum.

We gave up on the village and went back to Jaisalmer, ready to head to Pushkar. 

#jodhpur #rajasthan #jaisalmer #kuldhara #mehrangarh #jaswantthada #ghantaghar #kaylanalake #umaidbhawanpalace #thardesert