Finally we arrived in Rajasthan. All the plans had come together and although a little weary getting off the train, we decided to walk to our guesthouse –Durag Niwas Guest House. We used a map from the lonely planet guide to find it but it was more difficult than we anticipated. We kept trying and the hardest part was that rickshaw drivers knew where it was but wouldn’t give you directions unless they were taking you there, in which case, the directions are kind of pointless. Eventually we asked a few people who were not trying to take our money and they gave us general directions and we found it. It was a lovely blue house, including a courtyard with seats; nicely decorated with a combination of family photos and Rajasthani furniture. Immediately they made us feel welcome. Instructed us not to check in but got us our room and told us to take rest. We had told them how far we had come and they tried everything to make us feel better. Brought water and coffee to our room and gave us 10% discount on our 3 night stay. Eventually after we had rested up we ordered some food and began talking to the guesthouse owner Govind. He gave us lots of information, including maps, hints travel tips and basically explained he would try to do everything to make us feel welcome.
That day we ventured out, up towards the clock tower. We walked down the main road, turned up at a stadium and continued walking until we thought we were in the right streets. Narrow, with shops on either side, selling everything from jewelry to Indian clothes, electronics to samosas. We walked one way, camels and horses walked the other. Eventually we found the clock tower, a longer walk than anticipated and we walked through to this market area. Crap. Bombarded was not the word for it. There were more foreign tourists in this area. Every one of them including ourselves was getting hassled, or sold some story that their father owns a spice shop “but no buying, you only have to look.” That is, until they get you in there, give you the hard sell and try everything they can to get you walking away with 45 bags of tea that you can’t make, 12 bags of chicken tikka masala flavouring and 4 bottles of opium flower perfume, that you wouldn’t risk crossing and international border with. I don’t drink tea, try explaining that to the people here. Oh it is not tea, its good for your health, as one guy hands me a small cup with sticks and seeds in it. I knew it was cinnamon and cardamom, but that’s what it looked like and I wanted none of it.
You can’t understand unless you have been to this country and experienced a city like Jodhpur how noisy it is. It’s relentless. There is very little escape here, for example, even when you try to get to sleep, you still have to have a fan on or and air cooler because of the 42 degree heat; and that’s the quietest it’ll get.
After feeling like my health was going downhill quite quickly, maybe exhaustion, the heat or combination of a lot of factors it was time to make it back to the guesthouse for some soup, toast, water and sleep and that’s exactly what I got. I would highly recommend anybody going to Jodhpur to stay at Durag Niwas. Cheaper than most, available to book online, contactable by email and can organise everything from massages to overnight camel safari’s.
The must see thing in Jodhpur is the Meherangarh fort, set on top of a large cliff face, overlooking the blue city. The houses in the old city were originally painted blue because indigo dye was readily available and it was suggested that the colour didn’t attract the sunlight or insects. How true, I’m not sure. This was a brilliant fort, with great views and a museum inside showing you grande rooms that Rajasthani Rulers used, their sleeping quarters, the elephant carriages made of silver and gold called howdahs and weapons and armour used during wars. We spent most of the day here, just wandering around taking time to appreciate the views and take pictures.
Toni could feel the beginnings of a cold or flu coming on, not good in this climate. It’s hard enough to keep your energy levels up never mind having a virus beginning to zap you at the same. We decided to go visit a few emporiums, filled with lots of furniture, artworks, sheesh pipes made of pure silver (out of my budget lol) but it was good to see some of the pieces. In 43 degree heat, it wasn’t long before we were making tracks back to the hotel to rest up and get showered etc then it was off to Jaipur.
Auto rickshaw to train station this time, no walking. Made it there with a bit of time to spare then half our train came. Yes half. Its bad enough that everything is so confusing at the train station, but when you’re still waiting for half a train, it’s very difficult to comprehend, and asking people only confuses matters because sometimes, they’re in the same boat. Eventually the other half came, they attached it on and everybody started boarding.
On we got to the dustiest, mankiest train, and that’s saying something by India’s sleeper class standards. Had to wipe down both our beds with a pair of socks. That was the end of them; they got thrown out the window the minute we got underway. This was the worst train we had been on so far, and at 5 hours long it was just a night mare from start to finish and not what we needed with Toni feeling ill.
Rickshaw at 5 in the morning to our hotel even if it was only a few minutes away by walking then we rang the doorbell. Felt bad that we called so early; but I heard good things about the guesthouse and we were in bad nick. Old woman answered the door and invited us in, then immediately Raman, the guy who runs the place came out welcoming us to our home. Got all the necessary paper work signed then it was bed time.
Not much to say about Jaipur, spent 3 days there and didn’t see much of it at all. With Toni feeling under the weather and trying to get her back to full health for the rest of the trip it was a good idea to rest up as well, saying that we had Delhi, Agra and Varanasi plus a border crossing all within a week. I thought this was the beginning of the best part of the trip (maybe bar Hampi).
This blog is a little shorter im sure most of you will be glad to heat. Photo's will go up when I get them off the camera
Peace x
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