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Jodhpur, India
26° 17' N 73° 1' E
Mar 15, 2007 10:30
Distance 195km

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Jodhpur

Text written in: English

After leaving Bikaner we drove to the rat temple on the way to Jodhpur. Its a hindu temple where all the storytellers were turned to rats (for some reason, i don't rememer why), so there's hundreds of rats running around this spectacular temple with people praying amongst them...a very strange place. You have to take your shoes off so you walk around bare footed, feeling the grain in your feet, hoping its not something else. Sarah didn't like it and went to stand by the entrance while I walked around, i thought it was quite a fascinating place, but pretty manky. There was a marrage ceremony or blessing going while I was there which was good to see...can't imagine getting married in a temple of rats!

Arrived in Jodhour around 5 or 6 hours later and went to a park on the edge of the city. Got stared at a lot for some reasonand were greeted by loads of monkeys just roaming around. First we thought it was just a few of them but a short walk in to the park revealed that there was hundreds of them, black faced with grey white hair. They were so cute, lots of baby ones around, adults sitting in human positions (cross legged etc) and mates checking each other for ticks. There was a temple in the middle of the park, looked quite like Angkor Wat in Cambodia, old and with similar design. Came to a bridge with about 50 monkies on getting fed a few bananas, which we had to tentatively cross. Made it over ok and started taking pictures...I made the mistake of kneeling down, I dont know if they were playing or felt threatened some how but a few of them started running and jumping at me!! Didn't hurt me though so were exited sharply! Sat down in the shade (the heat was so intense) and attracted a crowd ourselves when a street boy came over with his violin-type instrument and tried to earn some money from us. For some reason all the Indian people around were fascinated and crowded around watching as we had a go on the instrument (we're used to getting stares but this felt oddly different, still don't know the reason for it). We got up and walked out, again, another strange but great place.

Jodhpur itself seemed quite good, it was much cleaner than the other places we had been to and seemed modern. Later the same evening we went to the clocktower and the market that surrounds it. I don't know how India has such a large population when they have such a lack of regard for the road. We only had to cross one to get to the market but it took about 5mins while locals, kids, old men, anyone at all, just walked out without looking, presumably banking on the cars, horses, cows, and rickshaws swerving out of the way....that or they have a very solid belief in protection from the gods. This town sells lots of spices so every 10m or so there was someone wanting to sell them to us, none of them ever taking no for an answer (a common theme in India we are learning, ignoring is a much better tactic). We did end up buying some but from a fixed rate shop rather than from the market. Garlic Masala...smells so good & can't wait to get back to try it.