Hotel Royal Palace Jodhpur

... day, so all the stalls are selling bobble hats. Hmm we may have a problem. Eventually we find a stall with a hat and he shows various camel ones patterned ones but we settle on a plain green one. Battled down from 200 rupees to 80 we are all happy :) Shopped out we now find ourselves back at the lhassi shop to have another two thrown at us, this time we are prepared and enjoy the entertainment.
We move on and find ourselves wandering the back streets ...

We reached Jodhpur early morning and checked in our hotel. After a quick breakfast we left for sightseeing the place. We hired an autorickshaw for Rs350 for the entire day. Our first place of visit was Umaid Bhawan Palace, a massive modern palacial complex which is now a heritage hotel. Only a part of this palace is open to the visitors. The things that you must see here includes the collection of ...

... Jodhpur was great Rajastani cuisine. The first night we ate by candlelight on a rooftop restaurant overlooking the mighty fort, and the second night we were treated to a home-cooked meal on the rooftop of our haveli. There we sat with a cold Kingfisher beer whilst the children all flew their kites up high into the sky over the city. Every rooftop seemed to have a group of kids all flying a kite, it was magical against the backdrop of the ...

... She is immediately likeable for the twinkle in her eye and the smile. She shows us into her house, passing a large Popsicle maker and freezer. She is also the local ice cream dealer and probably has the only freezer in town. She is joined by her cute young daughter of about 17 years, who inherited her mother's smile. Communication is difficult because they speak only Bishnoi and Hindi although a few of the younger kids had ...

... and we set off to the nearby lake Amar Sagar. This is considered a holy lake and as such the huge catfish living in it are likewise so. Apart from the fish this is quite a tranquil and pretty setting. We visited a couple of small adjacent temples and walked down to the gated lake entrance and heard the tale of its erection by a philanthropic prostitute who was subsequently advised to put a dome on the top of the structure to ...

... I tried to get closer. This was where tourism had not arrived and the cast system and male-female difference is very much kept alive. It took another 45min to go back. The camel drivers did not ask anything from us - guess we were too wary of all in the tourism trade. Mr Singh paid one of them and they hanged around chatting among themselves. We went back to tent to ...

... our 'sort of' shower. one thing that i did forget to mention in my last blog was that whist bending at the train station, i was lucky enough to feel a heavy wetness land on the top of my jumper hood, yes a bird did **** on me, supposedly its good luck.. i was happy with that explanation, just as i had convinced kels to wipe it off for me, i got a second helping...and began to doubt the good luck part. we have been learning from these situations ...

... it all. On the way out, I saw a buffalo and its calf go right into a house! They shooed it out, but that happens a lot in India. Indirajit organized a lunch for us at the place and also a GREAT chocolate cake for Tallulah!!! That was really nice - Lu also got a beautiful Indian dress from Mukat, our driver. He is a great driver, because on the lndian roads lots of people are going the wrong way, and there are cows, pigs, and other animals ...

... green and blue sarees, vendors selling an eclectic mix of silverware, spices, sarees, shawls, pashminas, sweets, samosas, incense, jewelery, trumpets, cricket bats, fruit, vegetables, garlands of brightly coloured flowers and huge patterned wall hangings. Apart from the blazing heat the only tiring thing is that every kid wants to know your name. Bored with being honest we start to confuse them ''my name's vikram'', ''mahendra'', ''anil''...before settling on Bob and Hilda.

... old friends have slowly been replaced by new favorites - the oblong naked freckled bodies of pineapples in one jar, another holding the mellow pink seed-studded slices of watermelon (the juice of which, i was shocked the first time to discover, is typically served with salt and pepper). a typical day is hardly complete without a trip to the juicewallah, who always greets me with a friendly smile as he picks up his blender in anticipation of my order. lately i'm ...