Jodhpur
Trip Start
May 12, 2005
1
31
79
Trip End
May 14, 2006
Jodhpur, India
Friday, October 14, 2005
Jodphur...possibly our favorite place in Rajastan...a charming city with an imposing fort and blue-washed buildings... okay, maybe we were a bit busy to update and upload photos whilst in JOdphur....will do it from here (maybe, we are in Diu)....
.....didn't get it done in diu...maybe here in Bombay!!!!
So yeah, Jodphur, a cracking little city. Not so much hassle as other places..walked from the train station and were mostly left alone by the touts and rickshaw wallahs; a pleasent change
blue-wash
. Found a nice guesthouse almost in the shadows of the fort's ramparts and had a little get to know you walk around...our place was pretty close to the clocktower and central market....fascinating, heaps going on. Had a great dinner on our rooftop watching the sun fade out.....Second day was our fort day; been to plenty of forts in Rajastan, but this was possibly our favorite....There is an audio tour of the fort; very well done, really makes the exploration of the structures even more enjoyable. Absolutely massive fort, the ramparts tower over town...great vistas over all the blue-washed houses. In the past only Brahmins (a priestly cast) painted their houses blue, but now everyone does it....meant to be a natural mosquito repelent as well as looking stylish. Mark went off for a stroll west of the market...usual story; no tourists, heaps happening, bustling bazzars, lots of friendly people, wierd and wonderful food to sample, etc.etc...
Tacked on an extra day in Jodphur we were enjoying it so much...just a general exploring day...hooked up our train tickets...on the way to the booking office, Mark dismissed Sachin Tendaulkars protege (a wirey kid of about 12) with a magnificant inswinging yorker...clare wasn't as impressed as mark? Swapped books, bought some fruit (for the train) had our last Omlete man omletes (really good little stall, very funny guy, likes to remind everyone coming past that he is recommended in the lonely planet)
clare being cute
. Clare and Mark had a little travel meeting and decided to spend a little more time in Rajastan at the end of their time in India; we'd had enough commission scams and touts and dust and heat...time for some beach. Singled out the destination of Diu, a long way away from Jodphur...pulled out the trusty "Trains at a Glance" publication put out by Indian Railways (incidently, the Indian railway system is pretty mind-boggling, with over 1 million employees, it is the biggest employer in the world and its scope and span covers just about the entire sub-continent). We found the two trains which we needed to get first to Ahmedabad and then to Veraval....each train was a 10-11 hour journey...a handy 5 hour wait between them and then a 4 hour bus trip tacked on to finish with. It was a pretty good journey all up...train travel in India is indeed unique, often fascinating but seldom relaxing. Then a very early start the following day..one fairly epic travelling stint...
In China, distinct memories of a particular train trip remain; Rice fields and buffalo wizzing past, a mighty brown river churning beyond them, our gear stowed away in our comfortable sleeper berths, a food cart with delicious wares had rumbled past a quarter of an hour ago and now we sat with a 50cent longneck in our grasp by the window watching china flash by....fast-forward to India; in the state of Gujarat you need to pay almost $15 for a license to buy alcohol (which you can't do on a train)...food, although excellent, needs to be bargined for and bought before the train leaves a station... and it is very unlikely that you'll be left alone for more than 5 minutes whilst on a train... a constant procession of beggars, musicians, salespeople, sleezes, Australian cricket fans and then some more beggars eek out an existence upon the railroads. As we said, although they are often fascinating Indian train trips are no walk in the park.... So we were pretty stuffed when we arrived in Diu and trudged off from the bus station under the blazing sun to find suitable lodgings.
