India

The original plan had been to check into the hotel after our flight and have the 'afternoon free for independent activities' then have an evening pick up for the first tour. HA! It's such a laugh this 'free time' as we never seem to get it.  The 6 of us had been planning a few quiet G&T's to recover from the early morning pick up and delayed flight so we had been travelling all day even tho it was only an hours flight from New Delhi to Varanasi. We were quite looking forward to it as we settled into the mini bus that picked us up from the airport.  It was a long drive in, maybe 1hr and I remarked to Jon how much quieter it seemed here and very clean compared to what we had seen.  I spoke too soon. Finally when the bus stopped, it wasn't outside a hotel, the guide jumped in and said we would be driving into the city where we would then be piled onto rickshaws and cycled the rest of the way to start the tour.  We exchanged startled looks, but what about ...

We rolled into Jodhpur late in the day after another all day affair on the road from Jaisalmer. I must admit that I was a little disappointed as I thought it would be a beautiful city full of blue buildings that gave it the name of the blue city. Instead it looked like the many dirty villages we had already passed through only bigger. At least it did from the street level as we first came in. It wasn't until we went up the hill to the magnificent Mehrangarh fort and looked down could we see, dotted in the fog, the blue. I'm sure on a clear day it would be much more obvious. Jodhpur was founded in 1459 by Rao Jodha (hence the name) and was once the captial of the former state of Marwar.  The fort is still owned by the Maharaja of Jodhpur and is kept in great condition. The difference between a state owned monument and privately owned is the condition of said monument. Privately owned tends to be in much better repair.  It seemed to be a huge rabbit Warren a...