We have now been hanging in Jodhpur a few days and have not seen a pair of them anywhere!!! Clearly not a hot purchase in this neck of the woods but given the horrific state of the horses I'm not surprised!
Well the stinking weather is following us and we're now up to the 48/49 degree temperatures.... We are literally melting out here and are on an average of about 7 litres of water a day !!!
Each town, city in Rajasthan has it's own colour to detract from the stark landscape. Jaipur is the pink city, Jaisalmer is the golden city and Jodhpur is the blue city. Originally Brahmin people painted there houses blue and now the colour has been adopted city wide.
The journey here has to be the most uneventful so far and went without a hitch. As suspected it was me, Amrita another guy and about 2000 soldiers on the train! None of them spoke to us so we had a totally chilled journey and not once in the entire journey did we hear "Which country is missing you madam?" or "What is your good name?" However, it wasn't the most sweet smelling train yet and I won't go into that any further only to say that a podiatrist (Maria!) or chiropodist would make themselves a fortune ....
We arrived at an ungodly 5.30 a.m. and checked into a hotel and got a room for Rs 100 (about GBP 1.30) Have had a real good look around the city along with a German guy we kinda picked up in Madore Gardens (full of monkeys and cheeky bleeding kids!). We are the main source of amusement at the moment as we are just about the only tourists here. Basically anyone with an iota of common sense left about a month ago!
Meherangarh the fort here sits on top of a 125m hill and is stunning. Near to the fort is Jaswant Thada the royal cremation site and lake which is also a cool place. The views over Jodhpur from this area are fab and hopefully some photos will do it justice.
We did the usual touristy things by hiring a rickshaw driver called Hamid for 6 hours. He even took us to his daughter's house to meet her family and drink chai which was awesome. The kids were great and the whole family we're really nice. The women as usual are extremely shy but they did come out eventually.
However, anyone who has been here you'll know
this but oh my god the Umaid Bhawan Palace and hotel......OH MY GOD !!!!! How
posh is that ???? It is the former palace of the maharajah now converted into
the plushest hotel I think I have ever seen. The maharajah's son and family
still live in part of the hotel and we kinda considered dropping in for a cup
of chai but we chickened on the idea. The guy at the tourist reception centre
said he was a real cool, top geezer but we decided to leave him alone! The
Palace is absolutely gorgeous and semi modeled on the Taj. It sits on top of a
hill and it is the cleanest place I've seen in a long time, pristine lawns and
grounds, fabulously dressed staff in typical Rajput finery.... Meagre scuzzy
backpackers like ourselves are only allowed into the museum and have a guide
to make sure you don't wander into the hotel although you get to have a peek
at it...it is out of this world.
For anyone who's interested in hangin a couple of nights a room will cost you upwards of about $180 dollars and the prices go up to about $1000 a night and the Maharajah Suite is apparently the suite to have. If you have to ask the price you can't afford it basically! But the photos of the rooms are something else if a little ostentatious! (Pete- if Keith Fisher is still with you guys he told me to check the place out so let him know I've been but didn't decide to stay...GBP 1.30 a night is more my budget!)
Have had a good ol stroll round the markets
which are always fascinating a
nd full of life and we went to a spice shop and
tried loads of magic teas from around India and bought some spices. That was a
great way to kill a couple of hours out of intense heat...
We also checked out another Bollywood on Saturday night which was a real Indian love story called "Aap muze aacha agane lagne" rough translation is "all people are beautiful". It is basically Romeo and Juliet with a happy ending but a real tear jerker...The singing and dancing and cheesiness of it all makes up for not understanding the dialogue. It is sooo funny! The cinema here is showing Harry Potter in Hindi and it looks really funny on the trailer with the dubbed voices! I think I'll wait until I can watch it in English....!!
Amrita and I are heading off to Mount Abu in a couple of hours as it is meant to be a whole lot cooler there and frankly it is way too much here in the heat. However, we are now in the midst of the wedding season in India and Mount Abu is meant to be the honeymoon destination of Rajasthan so if it's full of loved up couples it may well give us some peace from the constant stares!! From there we're heading to Udaipur. The Lake Palace and other sites there were used in the film Octopussy, so worth a visit for a few days.
Anyway will say cheerie oh for now......
Take care, keep smiling, happy bank holiday and happy liberation day to you's lot in Germsby for later on this week!!!
Loadsa lurve
Lisa/Lillie
xxxx