A Forting We Will Go – Jodhpur, India

With only a month in India and anticipated Indian wedding on Jan. 19, Tina and I had a limited amount of time in Rajastan, unless we were ok with backtracking. Which, neither of us were. So we decided to start our trip in Jodhpur, a desert city southwest of Delhi and make our way east.

Jodhpur is also known as The Blue City for the blue painted houses that surround the Mehrangarh Fort (the city’s main attraction). The king of all Rajastan forts, Mehrangarh Fort stands 400 feet above the city. It’s definitely one of those BAM there is a castle fort in front of you. We stayed at the Discovery Hotel, which was clean by Indian standards, with colorful rooms, but the service was a bit questionable. For 350 rupees we had a double room with a private bath but the area didn’t seem very private. The best part about this hotel was that the rooftop deck offered a spectacular view of the fort. I enjoyed my mornings of peanut butter and toast (seriously never been happier about peanut butter), fruit salads, and omelettes from the roof with the soft chanting from the nearby mosque. Some days it was louder than others, but either way it’s a nice reminder that you are in a completely foreign land. Jodhpur actually reminded me a lot of my time in Cappadocia. It’s one of those desert areas that have been commercialized but still contain many old traditions. While the city is littered with guesthouses and tourists, once you find yourself in a market, their easily lost and you feel like you’re the only tourist around. The wide open spaces and mosques combined with late nights on the rooftop and local company were all too familiar to me. It was almost eerie.

Our first day was spent exploring the local market just outside the main clock tower in town, and for the first time I started to feel like I was finally getting what I came to India for. Every corner you turned there was a picture perfect moment waiting to be captured. The city is a long series of colors, contrast and juxtapositions. Of course, I paid the price of a heavy intake of smog, dust, and a very large headache at the end. But I went picture crazy a bit this day so enjoy the following series.

  

  

  

   

  

  

  

   

  

  

The second day Tina and I set out for some sight seeing around the fort and Jaswanth Thada. The fort was easy enough to get to from our hotel, a 15ish minute walk and we were there. It’s 300 rupees to go into the fort that has a collection of artifacts and an audio guide tour, but we were just happy exploring around the outer structure. You still get all the views, just with less historical knowledge to take in. I for one, am terrible at that part anyway, so I just enjoyed the views.

   

    

The End. And for those of you interested in Tina’s point of view, you can follow her blog as well. It’s all in slovenian, but Google Chrome should be able to help you get through some of it too right? 🙂

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