Feb 22, 2013 - Jodhpur

Wednesday, February 20 Today was a driving day. After a lazy morning, we headed cross country to Jodhpur, the furthest west we will go. Leaving Pushkar, I noticed groups of women along the road. They had come to the water tap at the end of their street to fill containers to carry home for the tasks of the day. It is easy to forget just how hard life is for many of the people here. A family of four are sometimes riding one motorcycle if the children are small enough. Most people seem to have basic shelter, although we have seen tent/shanty...

Feb 5, 2013 - Jodhpur

Re-entering India was a breeze, though we suffered a few palpitations when the immigration officer in Yangon balked, claiming our visa wouldn't allow us to return to India within 60 days. We had a multi-entry visa and, following some persuasive discussion, he stamped our passports and let us board the plane. So we left Yangon for Kuala Lampur, Malaysia, and from there we made the five hour trip to Delhi. At the airport we were met by some people from a transit service who guided us through immigration without a hitch. We spent the night at...

Oct 29, 2012 - Jodhpur, India

October 26, 2012 Today we drove to Jodhpur. It took six hours of on and off the brakes. Lots of conferences. Jodhpur has probably one of the best forts I have ever seen. I don’t think it’s ever been sacked. It too sits on a huge monolith on a flat plain in the middle of no where. It’s built of gray and red rock. No one lives in the fort so it is well preserved. Mehrangarh Fort was originally started on May 12, 1459 by Rao Jodha, founder of Jodhpur, most of the fort which stands today dates from the period of Jaswant Singh (1638–78). The...

Oct 28, 2012 - India day 10 - Jodhpur

We got up had another wonderful breakfast at the King's Abode hotel and met our driver for a 3-4 hour drive into Jodhpur. The drive started out easy enough, going through some country villages and through the countryside. Lots of colorfully dressed women carrying huge bails of grass or sticks down the road, herds of cows, goats, camels, kids playing and waving at us. Then we hit the main highway and the driving got quite a bit more unnerving, as our driver and everyone else is constantly having to pass trucks on this 2 lane highway. The...

Mar 29, 2012 - Jodhpur

Jodhpur is the second largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is set in the stark landscape of the Thar desert and is dominated by the Mehrangarh Fort. It is also referred to as the "Blue City" due to the blue-painted houses. But for me I'll always remember Jodhpur as the place where I was nudged by a cow into the path of a horse drawn cart which ran over my right foot. Ouch! I asked a few people if they thought it was a sign of good luck, but alas no. While travelling around Rajasthan we have been staying in beautiful Havelis....

Feb 26, 2012 - Jodhpur - Day 2

We had papaya and coffee for breakfast in our room prepared by yours truly as Roger has decided that the tea is terrible. Most of the tea or 'chai' that we have had up to now has been nice if a little limited in the size of cup served, usually by a man carrying around a small urn of ready mixed tea with sugar and milk already in it. After our light breakfast we returned to the market area to seek out an ATM machine as we were running short of rupees again. I tried a couple of different ones but each refused to respond positively to my pleas...

Feb 25, 2012 - Jodhpur

Fortunately I did manage a couple of hours sleep on this trip before we reached Jodhpur at 5am and tumbled off the train onto the platform. Again we got latched onto by a tout who turned out to be a Tuktuk driver and being too tired to negotiate we accepted his offer to take us to our hotel for 100 rupees(£1.40), way too much but who has the energy to argue at 5.30 in the morning? The next concern was turning up at the hotel before 6am and whether they would be open and whether they would make us wait till later in the day to check in. We...

Jan 19, 2012 - E all'improvviso, la pace

L’inizio non è stato dei migliori: arrivate alle 22.40, dopo 5 ore e mezza di viaggio, ci siamo ritrovate in questa stazione gigante, il cui atrio era completamente occupato da un centinaio e forse più di indiani stesi a terra a dormire, con i topi che si facevano strada tra loro senza paura, ad aspettare il pick up dell’albergo che avevamo prenotato, mentre decine di uomini si accalcavano a noi per convincerci a seguirli sui loro tuk tuk. Il pick up è arrivato, ma in realtà non era “agibile”: era un ragazzo in moto che certamente non...

Jan 7, 2012 - Shrinathji Trip 2011

THIS SHRINATHJI TRIP WAS CRAZY. ON 18TH DECEMBER 2011 WE STARTED OFF FROM MUSCAT TO BOMBAY BY FLIGHT. WE ARRIVED AT BOMBAY AROUND 3:30 PM LOCAL TIME AND WERE AT OUR INDIA HOUSE AROUND 6:00PM. SHRINATHJI IS A PLACE IN RAJASTHAN BUT IS A VERY HOLY PLACE TO HINDU'S. IT CAN ALSO BE CALLED A PILGRIMAGE. THIS IS THE 5TH TIME I AM GOING THERE AFTER BIRTH. THE NEXT MORNING WE WOKE UP AROUND 4:00AM AS WE HAD TO CATCH A TRAIN FOR BARODA AT 6:00AM. WE ARRIVED AT THE STATION AROUND 5:30AM AND WERE JUST IN TIME. THE TRAIN JOURNEY WAS 5 HOURS LONG SO WE...

Jan 2, 2012 - Jan 1 - 2 Udaipur & Jodhpur

Day 5 Udaipur – Jodhpur We had to get out of the Gala Dinner by 10:30 or so because the noise was just getting too much for us. Maree went to bed but I stayed up to see the fireworks. Just before midnight I went onl=to the terrace and watched as some distant fireworks went off and then our hotel fireworks. They were being set off by a group of blokes in the paddock across the road and they didn't seem to be observing any special safety precautions. A few of the rockets didn't seem to get up to height and curved down rather rapidly before...

Nov 10, 2011 - Desert Countryside

Buy of the Day: bedspreads! Suraj met us at the gate of the camp at 10am. He's not feeling well and we all think he caught whatever Deviya (Agra guide) had. We're pretty sure he's been sleeping in the car at night so he's probably not getting a decent night's sleep either. But he had taken some meds and felt well enough to carry on. The drive to Jodhpur was about 4 hrs. I worked a bit on the journal, elise read and we talked with Suraj. The road is pretty rough so I gave up trying to write after a bit and took pics of the people and...

Oct 20, 2011 - Jodhpur **Blog**

Jodhpur - another city in Rajasthan subject to the seemingly obligatory state colour-coding system: this time the ‘blue city’. The effect of the blue painted homes (traditionally to distinguish Brahmin (high) caste households) was one of the prettiest sights in Rajasthan, particularly when appreciated at sunset from a rooftop bar. The fort (yes, another one) is the main attraction in Jodhpur and is a majestic sight overlooking the city with a very well curated museum which held our interest despite being the third of fourth such similar...