Day 86 - Nimaj to Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India

Day 86 – Hers.

 

Up at 6 this morning for a sunrise jeep safari.  In an open top jeep, we drove through the semi-desert landscape and climbed a dune to watch the sun rise over a lake – drinking chai and commenting  that if we didn’t know better, we would think we were in the African savanna.  We saw blue bull antelope, peacocks, wild pigs, green parrots and some strange striped bird – perhaps some kind of jay.  Tigers were hunted to extinction in this part of India 50 years ago – but we still saw more wildlife than in Chitwan National Park.  Only 5 of us decided to get up for the trip – the rest of our group really missed out.

We stopped in a village – where an old woman showed us how to make chapati on her clay stove, brick makers and potters demonstrated their crafts, the village elders gathered under a central tree to discuss the day, women in brightly-coloured saris set out trinkets to entice us and goats, dogs, cats and cows wandered at will through the narrow streets.  We also stopped at a 9^th century temple – partially in ruins, destroyed by the Moslem Murghul rulers – with intricate carvings of Durga, Kaali, Ganesh and a number of other gods and goddesses still so fresh that they could have been carved yesterday.  We returned to our hunting lodge hotel for coffee and then a walk to tour the Maharajah’s palace, just up the hill and now a hotel - and a taste of the street food, a sweet, sticky orange thing called Jalla-something.... (My head says ‘jellybean’, but I know that’s not right......).

We then packed up our belongings for the 2 hour journey to Jodphur – home of the game of polo, the ‘Blue City’ and the famous trousers.

 

Day 86 – His.

 

We are homestaying in Jodphur. Basically that means we are spread out between two houses that offer rooms as part of some homestay program that as far as I can see is a sort of B and B deal unique to this area. The places are nice and homely and the families are doing a good job at making us feel welcome. Lunch was served by a kindly older lady who has far too much chintz for my taste but as we are actually staying down the road at a cousin’s – who is an ex military man- it hardly matters. Lunch was a home cooked affair of spices and cakes – lovely – i particularly liked the spicy cheese sandwiches but Patti went head over heels for the stuffed pitta bread things – she had three!

After we settled in, which really means dumped our bags off, we headed out to visit the fort on the hill. It’s an impressive structure with 30% open to the public and an audioguide to take you round – which means no tipping – now that’s a first. It took a good two hours to get round but it was fascinating with a good look at the life of the local king – who is still around. He lives in the old palace across the city, we saw his chamber of love, the armoury, the manwar paintings, the scars of old battles and the spiked gates that kept the elephants at bay. Apparently, the fort was never captured in all its 500 year history.

We appear to have arrived at the beginning of the Jodphur Riff – which is a folk music festival – that kicks off at half 8 in the main square so we decided to go into the market place, grab dinner and wait for the festival to start. The market place was dusty and uninspiring so after 15 minutes we retired to a handy coffee shop and drank coffee and watched the market from the window. This seemed to be a favourite option for most of the group as we met them in there and only a few dragged themselves around the trinket stalls diligently looking for presents for home. The restaurant we chose was some rooftop place that had a write up in the lonely planet and it was very cool to have dinner outside, three floors up with the fort – well lit for the night – looming over us. Another real moment. I was kind of reminded of that scene in Bladerunner where the replicant is dying and lets go of the dove and just before he dies he talks about all the things he has seen and says – all those moments!

This was truly a moment.

We finished dinner at just the time the festival began and were sitting in front of the clock tower as the first act came on. Though we did have to pass through quite a throng of people and most of the children seemed intent on touching us as we went by. A couple of the girls thought they were just being molested until I told them the kids had been touching me too – some kind of good luck thing? Who knows – well they do I guess, but they weren’t telling, just touching us as they went past.

The festival was pretty cool. We saw fire dancers, traditional music, some kind of weird fusion of didgeridoo and trad Indian and a couple of girls dancing with a bicycle wheel balanced on their various body parts while a boy sat on their heads – I kid you not. What those two girls couldn’t do with a teenage boy and a bicycle wheel just wasn’t worth doing.

We headed off just before the end and before the crowds got serious to climb into a tuk tuk convoy – there are 16 in the group so it takes quite a few tuk tuks to carry us all and makes for quite a convoy – and we set off for home. Quite an odd day from antelopes to didgeridoos all in one day – only in India I guess.