India Part 8: Jodhpur

WE'RE BEING STALKED!!!

Road to Jodhpur!

Everywhere we go...they're there, following us. There's no let up......More on that later.

Welcome to our India Trip part 8: Jodhpur. Jodhpur is the 2nd largest City in Rajasthan. It became a popular trade centre centuries ago due to its location and Jodhpurs actually originate from Jodhpur!! Read on for more fascinating facts like this!!

We got to Jodhpur one hour before all the tourist attractions close. Our guest house was a homestay i.e. another person's private house with some rented rooms. Our bed was like Princess and the Pea. It was like getting on a horse at night!! The owner said to us, smiling "we have given you a very private room...as you are on honeymoon!" and we thought this was really thoughtful until we saw where it was! A room on the roof with a thousand workman building an extension to the main house! The builders were lovely though. They all stopped to watch us, just to make sure we got into our room safely, of course....... Hmmmmm..... very secluded, you say?!

this is what a donkey looks like!!?

We whizzed off to the Fort before it closed. It was massive!! And we opted for the elevator to get us to the top of it. The fort is literally built out of the side of a mountain 125 meters up. Apparently Rudyard Kipling described the fort as "the creation of angels, fairies and giants"! Hmmmm....Forts are forts...marble porches, turrets, secret stairs, mirrored rooms that catch the sunlight, mosaics in rich rainbow colours.....etc etc etc they are all beautiful but all the same nevertheless. The only differences are the views and the histories: either they did surrender to various people and prospered or they didn't surrender to various people and prospered - or - they did some of the ordering about and prospered. Either way, everyone prospered - but especially, I suppose, the stone masons....!

Jain temple on way to Jodhpur

The view from the fort was stunning. You could see for miles. All the little houses spread out before us and they were all painted pale blue. It was like a Monet watercolour, with the hazy sun sliding down the sky, absolutely stunning. I just stared at the view for ages in love. But what really caught our breath though were the children. On every rooftop beyond us were children flying kites. Kites of every colour fluttered in the wind, darting over roofs. It was a spectacular sight. Like a kite contest. We stood in the car park to the fort observing the beauty of it all and where we stood was a drop down to a grassy bank about 10 foot where a small boy stood reigning in his kite. However, he was standing on the edge of a drop of about 100 foot down to the villages!!! When his kite soared out of reach over towards the village roofs, he would just reign it in calmly oblivious of the fact that his toes were hanging over the edge towards certain death. My heart was in my mouth.  

More carvings

Remember I said we were being stalked earlier?? Well, while watching life below, a taxi driver sidled up to us and told us that over on the horizon was a sumptuous Palace and Hotel housing 347 rooms, eight dining halls, 2 theatres, a ballroom and an underground swimming pool!! Apparently Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones were there doing research for a future film with them both in. We were told they had just arrived that day (same as us) from Udaipur (where we had come from). Their next destination was Jaisalmer the next day (hang on.....us too!) we tried to shake them off but it just didn't work. They sent a driver to our guest house and invited us over to the Hotel for dinner. But we turned it down. We keep our fans at arms length. Otherwise it just gets messy....and complicated......(David: You're making this up aren't you? They didn't send a driver, they came in person and we told them where to stick it.)

Jain carving

After this, we were invited to dine with the owners of our guest house. They had a lovely place, full of heirlooms and old photos. The owners had servants who waited on us but the atmosphere however, was very awkward. The wife bossed the servants around and when the husband eventually joined us he was a very nice man but a very quiet man and conversation around the table was really stilted and awkward. Thank god their son was there. He was in his 20's and chatted endlessly about going to University in the UK and what films he loved. I think the owners were being really polite and waiting for us to leave the table but we were being polite and waiting for them to leave the table so we all sat there at times not saying anything just fiddling with our napkin or whatever!! We invited them for a game of scrabble or cards and they shook their heads, No, vigorously as if we had invited them to play strip poker!! Eventually, we managed to leave and went to enjoy our drinks in their living room and play cards and I managed to spill David's beer all over their sofa and on their rug! I guess the servants will get it in the ear for this.

David climbing onto our bed!

The next day, we had to leave early for our next destination. Arif was waiting for us for an hour though as we had a slight packing problem. i.e. we couldn't close our cases so had to re-pack it! We weren't too upset though as the owners seemed really friendly and we were sure they were making Arif comfortable and chatting to him. As we walked downstairs, Arif was nowhere to be seen though. We checked out, said our goodbyes and then in the car Arif told us he wasn't allowed into the house to wait for us but had to wait in his car outside! For one hour! When we scoffed and asked why? he said the husband told him "you wait outside, you are just a driver". Charming. We felt awful keeping Arif so long. This tainted our view of the owners now. Nice people but they had a view of servants which seemed very like "you do your job and don't talk to me". Perhaps this is the way you have to treat servants but I didn't like it. Courtesy doesn't cost a thing. (David: So much for Ghandi's idea of an equal Indian)

Peepo!

So, another long car journey onto Jaisalmer. This was the Pearl hidden right at the bottom of the ocean. What a gorgeously fabulous surprise we got.

Love Lois & David xxx

Fort

David daydreaming

Stained glass room in fort

blue houses of jodhpur

kite boy with no fear!

Where our stalkers were hiding out!

Stalkers home up front. This is a police photofit!