Hotel Durjan Niwas Jodhpur

... which he agreed. Even with a 5 hour delay i still had another 5 hr trip, i think i got in to Jodhpur around 10.30 - 11pm so needless to say it was a long day and i felt a bit cheated by wasting a day but that's the thing about India, the distances are vast, trips to major cities usually take 12hr by train, so over night trains seem the way to go.
I was only in Jodhpur for a total of half a day as i had a flight booked to Mumbai at 2pm, so i rose early, packed my stuff, got ...

... main bazaar area is dominated by a very English style clock tower from which stalls selling everything and anything radiate for a few hundred metres. As you might imagine, the female members of the family found the retail opportunity too exciting and fascinating to pass through only once! Actually we found the stall holders of Jodhpur much more reasonable and, dare I say, honest, compared to other cities. Perhaps they were more astute with the tourists here because the initial ...

... is home to 52 temples and the "Palace of Cloud". The driver opted to stay in the car while I made my way around, and between climbing to the very top of the Palace of Cloud and visiting just a handful of the temples scattered around, I realised I had spent over 2 hours exploring the fort and hastily made my way back to the car. Being almost 2000m above sea level, the views from Kumbhalgarh fort were absolutely amazing - being on top ...

... how pretty it was and then looked across the alleyway (I wouldn't call it a street, just an alley) and there was this filthy shop of some sort. So filthy all you could see was black, the ground was full of garbage and dirt and everything else...but you turn back to the sweet stand and it looks like a piece of heaven.....
I also cannot get used to the way people just throw their garbage on the street. I know if it's food, the cows eat it, which is why ...

... presumably as a gift to the institution. It was labelled, "carpet, central jail, Johdpur." The fourth room was one of armaments, displayed at random. In the large case marked "old guns" were several modern-looking bomb shells, and there was a case of KLM model jets marked, in triplicate, "model aeroplanes." But by far my favorite discovery in this room was a small collection of ingenious canes whose handles removed to reveal terrifyingly ...

... the tents of the camp. It looked lovely, like a dream - camps in desert like out of nowhere. Mr Singh is a fashionale man, sunglasses with cowboy hat - pretty cool and of course a moustache. We were served chai. Mr Singh explained to us the workings of the camp, no electricity and they employed people from the nearby villages, workers, camels, building the camp, etc ...

... qui nous soulent des le matin et le bordel habituel.... Arrivés dans un hôtel un peu plus sympa pour 10 francs au lieu de 4 hier, je me suis pris une douche froide puis j ai lavé mes affaires. Ensuite un rapide déjeuner et travail de mis à jour du blog. Mont abu à l air sympa, c est la montagne il fait chaud et le coin est reculé donc tranquille et propre par rapport aux villes. Demain nous partons en randonnée....Nous avons chacun vaquer à nos occupations, puis ...

... to ride in battles. He loved the horse and it was named, Chetuk. Finally, in one battle, the horse was shot many times, but saved the maharaja's life. The maharaja took Chetuk into the forest and let him die because he could not be saved. Then the maharaja gave up fighting forever and wandered the world with nothing. We all collapsed after a late dinner - we will drive to Udaipur tomorrow to see the Lake Palace.

... we shared with a father and daughter from Jodhpur. It was slightly awkward to start with, but we got chatting and they turned out to be lovely people. The old man and I even sat discussing Indian politics for a while! I didn't sleep much as seems to be my pattern on these trains, it may be as in the four berth, its a bit like a small room, and sleeping with strangers is an odd experience to get used to, but I'm sure I will. Tomorrow we get to Jaipur.

... were here to see it, if only to verify it's existence...The skyline is so surreal and beautiful, as if freshly plucked from a child's dream of 1,001 arabian nights. The kite flyers take to the rooftops at dusk, and the skies are filled with colorful specks, playing in the orange glow of a dying sun. The haunting cry of the minarets drift towards me on a cool desert breeze. The smell of incense playfully courts with figs and spices, creating an intoxicant ...