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Other entries in Jodhpur City

111 - Jodhpur, India

It was still dark when the train pulled into the station. We took refuge in the waiting area and planned a strategy. The Haveli guest house came well recommended. We had to ring and pray they had a double room with our beloved attached bathroom. All the 24hr operations such as telephone kiosks were locked with the staff fast asleep inside. You just knock on the door for service. This seemed a touch secure than the Chinese way of staff sleeping while the shop was wide open.

We had finally worked out why our autorickshaw drivers had followed us into the hotels in the past. Once we had gone to the room, they'd claim commission for bringing us to the hotel. This money of course gets added on to our room rate. This time we asked to be taken to a land mark (clock tower) near the hotel. The tower was inside a huge market square. Dogs were running around and fighting with each other. There was a Chinese girl whose boyfriend had gone looking for a hotel over an hour ago. I left Julie with her to find our hotel. Being the caring people we are, we left her there on her own. For all we know, he may have been abducted to pick cockles in Europe.

Our room was nice and it gave us a good view of the Fort. Our roof terrace was supposed to be the highest but it didn't show the city to be as blue as the books. A bit of an artistic license I guess. We went out in the afternoon to sort out the plane and train tickets. Afterwards we took a rickshaw to the fort that dominated the sky line of this city. It was from the top of this fort that you could truly see how blue the city was. Most houses were painted blue for religious / caste purposes.

The market had a place selling Sexual charisma lotion. Julie pointed this out to me as if to suggest something. Well, it has been too hot and tiresome for that sort of thing. I saw this as yet another marketing opportunity to peddle via email along side penis enlargements and impotency cures. Just a thought.

Parts of the fort were blocked in order to make an Indian film. It was good to overlook the extras all dressed up in their costumes. The fort itself was superb, kept extremely well with many rooms restored to their original glory with unbelievable attention to detail. The stone and wooden carvings were very intricate and must have taken the craftsmen years to do. It was a testimony for these people who lived a death before dishonour way of life before their demise. Rajastan must have more Forts than any other province in India.

The warriors of the day had moustaches to indicate how manly they were. To this day, almost every Indian man has one. The only ones without are eunuchs. These are men without testicles, who were mostly employed to look after the queens. While on the subject of men's fashions, it doesn't look as if the T-shirt has made it to the sub continent. Almost all men wear shirts. The older ones have their sleeves buttoned up and the wrist. The more trendy youngsters have hem rolled up or wear short sleeves.

Another exhibit of this fort was an Opium sampling opportunity. Since it is all part of the traditions of India to smoke Opium at official functions such as weddings, there was an Indian dressed up in traditional gear with all the opium smoking paraphernalia to give visitors a free sample.

After a couple of hours there soaking up the atmosphere and the cool breeze, we set off to the hotel to see the sun set over the fort from the roof terrace. Next morning, we had to change some dollars into Rupees via some French travellers to checkout of the hotel. The bus to Udaipur hopefully will be our last long bus trip in India. We stacked up with food including our first Cadbury's chocolate since England. It even tasted the same.

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