Day 1 – Anyone got the number for the AA?
Waking up and going for breakfast in the gardens we were met
by Babu who informed us that the car had a problem and he needed to go into
town to get a water hose replaced – this was going to take 20 minutes.
About an hour later Babu returned and we were on our way, still
no sign of him acknowledging Shelley but ensuring he opens the door for me!
Anyway we were looking forward to seeing Jodphur as
apparently it has a very large impressive fort on the cliffs overlooking the city. The city is also named the Blue city as a
large number of the houses are painted blue, the thinking that this was a high
caste colour and was to keep the houses protected from insects and was cool in
the summer (plagiarised from our rough guide book!).
Unfortunately about 2 hours in to the drive there was a strong
smell of burning!; Babu pulled over – the car was dead!! We helped him push it along the road to a
nearby roadside café, at which point he looked very confused as what to
do. Apparently he reckoned that
something was wrong with the timing belt and this was all he told us, not how
he was going to sort this out.
Eventually after Shelley and I standing around looking fed up (and
Shelley suggesting we needed an alternative car) he decided to get us a cab for
the rest of the way and he would catch up later (I’m thinking if your timing
belt has gone mate so has your engine, so did not expect to see him
again). The cab journey was in fact a
lot better as the taxi drivers driving was far calmer than Babu’s driving and
the driver actually deemed to speak to Shelley!!
Arriving in Jodphur later than planned and after the taxi
driver asked about 10 people where our hotel was we eventually arrived. The hotel couldn’t have been in a better
place as it was practically in the shadow of the fort and the fort was
certainly very impressive. Our room was a
very colonial Indian room (Another
Best Marigold but less crumbling and
cold!) , but we quite liked the authenticity of it. Better still our hotel had a rooftop restaurant
looking up to the Fort that served beer, so after the journey we had we thought
we would have a couple of beers in the Sun (about 80 Degrees) and appreciate
the backdrop of the fort we had.
We then ventured into the town which was quite famous for its
Bazaars with various trades being carried out, it was very bustling and colourful
(Mainly Spice Traders) – this was the India I wanted to see!! Much happier!
In the evening we went to a place to eat that was
recommended by the Rough Guide Book and Babu, it was slightly out of town,
which meant a Tuk-Tuk ride and a slightly upmarket restaurant ‘On The Rock’s’
but it was worth it. A very nice
restaurant that was canopied by trees with fire pits all round the tables, food
was good although not as chili hot as we
wanted (we went for a 2 chili dishes, inc meat as we knew we did not have to
travel the next day)
Returning back to our hotel afterwards we came across a
traditional Indian wedding that was in full swing, drums and the ladies
dancing, watching from a distance we were invited to come closer and join in the dancing by the grooms brother in law,
we had a closer look but declined the dancing as I still had my Delhi defences
up and thought this would also entail making a gift to the happy couple (that
and anyone that has seen me dancing, I worried that I may take a couple of the
marriage party out with my flailing limbs!!).
We then found a nice bar that served illegal beers as we don’t think the
restaurant was licenced, which arrived wrapped in newspaper and we were told to
place under our tables!
P.S. Happy birthday
Tommy, hope it was a good one!
Day 2
After breakfast it was off to do some sightseeing and first port
of call was the fort that dominated the skyline. A short 10 minute walk up a steep path (we’re
experts now after the Nepal trekking) and we were at the entrance. However our ‘driver/guide’ Babu did not
mention that we required photo ID to be able to get the audio commentary headphones! Never mind we thought it’s not like we are
going to remember who prince ujamaflip III vanquished from his lands and also we
didn’t fancy going back down to get our passports.
So we took ourselves around the fort which was very
interesting and impressive, having some nice museums inside and various bed
chambers, ramparts etc. There was also a
yoga meditation music demonstration going on which we sat down and were instructed
to close our eyes and listen to ‘The Morning Song’ whilst slowly breathing in
and out (Well that’s Shelley’s indian
yoga session taken care of!!). Walking
round the top of the fort you could see why Jodphur had got its Monika from as
looking down you could see all the blue washed building below, it was a
spectacular view but most probably not done justice from our photos.
On the way down we were approached by a local man who came
out of a house and showed us his foreign money collection, he opened a book and
showed us various bank notes from around the world, believe it or no he even
had Jersey & Guernsey pound notes.
He also informed us that his wife would cook us a Tali in his house for
35p each, we thanked him and told him we may come back to take up this offer
later.
We then decided to have a look round the town in daylight
before returning to our hotel for another blogging session (these blogs do take
chunks out your days if you don’t keep up with them regularly). The town was again buzzing with life and
traders and was full of wonderful sights and smells, as we are travelling we
are only window shopping. We had previously noted that there was a lake nearby
so we went in search of this, unfortunately when we did find it, it was no more
than a stagnant small reservoir so we decided to find something for lunch.
Returned to paper-bag beer restaurant ordered a couple of
beers and this time (as it was daylight) we were served in coffee mugs and the bottles
taken away from the table! We also
shared a tomato masala and rice dish which was very nice.
In the afternoon we caught up on our blog sat in our rooftop
terrace the sunshine with a couple of beers, this taking its time as usual it
started getting dark and just as we started thinking about going out to get
food we started chatting to two guys from Switzerland. One beer led to another
and we ended up spending the rest of the evening chatting to them and their driver/guide
who joined us, we had serious guide envy
as their guide had very good English, loads of tips on what to do see, was
funny and spoke directly to Shelley!(Luck of the draw I guess). Shelley and I did try to convince him to join
us instead of sticking with the Swiss guys as we would tip him better, but unfortunately
to no avail (although the swiss guys did look a bit nervous – thinking for a
moment we were serious).
Anyway the nice evening was completed when there was a
firework display from the fort above us, then it was off to bed as we were
heading for Udaphur tomorrow.
I didn’t mention Babu did arrived late on day one, it was
the alternator not the timing belt – Damn!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment