Jodhpur to Agra

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 and even tho we had an audio guide leading us around we still had difficulties finding the way. The entire fort is 5kms long, has seven gates leading into the fort and once inside there is a series of courtyards and palaces. We saw the different apartments with their carved panels and latticed windows so the women could peep out to see what was going on without being seen. They also had a great collection of palanquins (used to ferry the women around, again without being seen) and elephant howdah used when the Maharajas rode their elephants in processions as well as miniature paintings, costumes and furniture. There were men demonstrating how to tie turbans or smoke one of those long pipes which I gather must have been doing it for years going on the comments from people who have been here in the past. I guess you have to make a living somehow and this seems to be a life long job. It was the best fort we had seen so far with some beautifully decorated mirrored rooms and great views overlooking the city.

The next stop was a short distance away at Jaswant Thada, a white marble memorial to Maharaja Jaswant Singh II. It was built in 1899 and also had great views from the terrace.

By this time it was sunset and although we were offered to be taken out for dinner everyone declined as believe it or not, it's hard work sitting on a bus all day, especially in India. We were delivered to our hotel which was again beautiful with a long courtyard down the middle of the hotel, completely netted over the top to stop the pigeons getting in. Each room had huge balconies at the back of the room and a little one outside the front door overlooking the grassy courtyard so 6 of us gathered for drinks and nibbles to recover from the long day.

Jodhpur  to Udaipur

Unfortunately we were only in Jodhpur and our beautiful hotel for just a few hours and by 8am the next morning we hit the road for Udaipur - the city of the lake.  On the way there we stopped at the Ranakpur Jain temples, buried deep in the jungle and reminding us very much of Angkor Wat. They built them in the jungle to protect them from the destructive forces of the Muslims and other religions that wanted to destroy temples of other faiths. In fact this temple had been lost to the jungle and one day a very wealthy guy decided to restore it. It took him 11 years with the help of 200 artisans working on it every day. Imagine how much that would have cost.

This was meant to bring you good luck (luckily he didn't get stuck!)

The Jain faith seems a particularly hard one to follow as it very strict and restricted. They don't kill at all and even cover their months so as to not Destroy any microorganisms or insects by mistake. They eat little and fast a lot, they don't wear shoes and some strains of the sect don't even wear clothes. We had to remove anything leather like belts, wallets or shoes before we went inside. This is the largest and most complex Jain temple in the country with its 1444 exquisitely carved columns out of marble, each one unique with its own designs. One was even crooked to show the imperfections of humanity. For such a gentle race I had a bit of an argument with the fierce girl at the door holding a wand as I had only paid for one camera yet I had my mobile in my pocket. The battle was brief and I lost so I was finally admitted sans phone, cow.

After that the scenery changed again to winding green hills, very lush with long legged monkeys at the side of the road calmly watching proceedings, changing their poses as the cameras clicked.

India is such a land of contrast, you see it everywhere you go. From the desert sands to the green forests, brightly coloured beautiful saris dragging in the dusty dirty streets, big piles of rubbish on the sides of the roads to beautiful hotel oasis, big temples next to delapitated buildings, oxen pushing the wheels around to grind grain or draw water while the operator talks on his smartphone. Even in their behaviour, it's acceptable to piss in public but unacceptable to kiss, women can't show their face but they can their belly.

Again we arrived late & Once again I think we got the best room, it was on the corner so we had a huge picture window with a marble window seat looking up to a palace on the hilltop on one side and a balcony overlooking the lake on the other side. Right next door was Shirene and Malcolm's balcony although within minutes it was turned into a Chinese laundry as they did their washing and hung it all out. They did take it down later so we sat on our respective balconies with wine and relaxed. It makes us laugh as on the itinerary it often says when we have a travel day that 'the rest of the afternoon is at leisure' but the reality is we usually only have an hour then it's dinner then bedtime as we usually have to be up at 6 am to be ready to leave by 7.30-8.00am so hardly leisure time.

Next morning was a little sleep in as we had the whole day and was much more relaxed. Still, had to be ready by 8.30 as we were going for a boat ride on the lake, lake Pichola to be exact. We saw where Octopussy was filmed, the beautiful lake palace hotel which just sits in the lake all by itself seemlingly hovering like a mirage and stopped on another island of some significance but I can't remember what that was.

Later we walked through some lovely gardens know as garden of the maids of honour where Malcolm manged to buy a charger for his camera, lost in the missing bag which has never turned up. Then a quick trip through the spice market in the old city which was extremely busy with all manner of people and vehicles all trying to get down the narrow streets. I saw two donkeys with their sidesaddles full of concrete slabs poor things. 

Then we had been invited to our guides house as this was his home town to have lunch with his family. This is something he doesn't normally do but I think he had taken a shine to our group. They put on a great spread and as it was his sons 7th birthday we had bought a cake and sung to him. Shirene & I had our hands hennaed by a family friend then spent the afternoon trying not to knock It off. That night was a very exciting and slightly terrifying ride in the tuk tuks, tearing through the old city to our rooftop restaurant overlooking the lake and hotel in the middle. It was a special night.

Up early next morning to be ready by 8 and off to Jaipur stopping at some more temples on the way.  These dated back to the 8-11th century and were in ruins but you can still see the amazing intricate work carved in the marble, some were of a very saucy nature!

Another long drive, going through many villages and towns along the way. In some towns, early morning we saw large gatherings of people, these were the villagers who came to town looking for work. If you needed some workers for the day you would come along here and selected who you wanted and away you go. There are lots of marble places lining the road for kilometres between the two cities, huge slabs of marble were piled up and lots of trucks carrying marble along here to. More crazy driving, mostly it's  two lane road but cars wanting to pass will turn it into 3 lanes and squeeze in-between a truck and a bus, nothing to it.

Jaipur, founded by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh in 1727, is known as the pink city but it's really more of a terracotta colour, guess that doesn't sound as romantic. They painted it this colour in preparation for a royal visit from England back in the 18 th century and the tradition has continued, now they have to use this colour. Guess it makes it easy on the paint shop. 

This was the first modern city we had seen with real high-rises (outside the walls) and an ultra modern looking hospital as well as a real life shopping centre. Our guide had taken Malcolm shoe shopping while we had lunch at his place and the howls of protest from the women when they found out they had missed on shopping was deafening.

Day 11 we started out with a quick photo stop at Hawa Mahal, palace of Winds, a five storied pink building with a spectacular pyramid shaped facade with overhanging lattice screen windows, domes and spires. Then onto Kantar Mantar observatory, a stone astrological and astronomical observatory which was built by the same bloke who founded the city. It was amazing as it was filled with these enormous pieces of time keeping sun dials but very sophisticated ones, designed to be accurate in both winter and summer. Has to be seen to be believed.

From there it was onto the Amber fort, slightly out of town. Construction started in the 17th century.  It sure was impressive and slightly exotic as the brightly coloured elephants ferried people up and down to the fort and back. There are over 100 elephants and a queue a mile long of people wanting a ride. Poor things, with support like that they will never escape from servitude. To make matters worse, one of our party who didn't pre book the elephant ride we were doing which was at a sanctuary, wanted to ride one of these and actually cried when the guide said the line was too long!   FFS. So he relented and on the ride she went. Never liked her after that performance. The rest of us went up in jeeps. 

Shirene, Malcolm and I had pre-booked our elephant ride so we were taken out in a private car outside the city for 45 mins or so, down a sandy road until eventually arriving at the sanctuary when we were starting to think we were lost. We had been running late but on the way he was pulled over by police for speeding. It seemed ludicrous to us considering all the overloaded  vehicles on the road and so many broken road rules. It's not that there  isn't any rules, just everyone  ignores them.  So our poor driver was stung 300 rupees. At the end of the ride we did cover his ticket as well as a tip. This place once we eventually got there was old style British with a huge lawn and large building to one side. Apparently they play camel polo there. I had an elephant to myself and the other two shared while we plodded veeeerry slowly around the jungle, me feeling a bit like the queen of Sheba. The two elephants were great friends & my elephant rumbled every now & then to her friend which vibrated through her entire body. It was a lovely experience.

We got the taxi guy to drop us off at the mall to do a bit of retail therapy before catching a tuk tuk back to our hotel.

Our last long drive from Jaipur to Agra on Monday was about 7hrs so another early start. Along the way the road was lined with sandstone works this time, lots of tall chimneys for the kilns and statues of all sorts. Also fields of mustard, with their yellow heads waving in the smoggy breeze. Approx 40km from Agra is the abandoned capital Fatehpur sikri. It was built by Mughal Emperor Akbar in 1569. It was the capital for 16 yrs but it actually took 12 yrs to build so was really only the capital for 4 years before being abandoned. 

We had to fight through the usual crowd of hawkers that ask the same innane questions, where are you from, what's your name, come to my shop, you buy from me, promise? I don't make eye contact and completely ignore them but sometimes you almost trip up over them and they seem so friendly. You can't engage in conversation tho, not even to say no as they think you don't want to buy the product for that price so they will suggest another price, you can't win.

Giant bed he use to sleep on

It must have been an amazing city in its time, built out of red sandstone the buildings encircled different courtyards, gardens, a big pond and palaces for the different wives of the emperor. He catered for one vegetarian wife by giving her her own kitchen, another wife had a summer bedroom and a winter bedroom while he slept on an enormous bed that he had to climb a ladder to get to and the bedchamber had secret tunnels so the different concubines could come and visit with no-one knowing. What a life. He even built a monument in memory to his favourite elephant. This elephant was the executioner, he'd stomp on the head of the unfortunate prisoner.

On arrival in Agra we went to the Red fort. I didn't really know about this fort when I was here last, don't know why as it is huge. 

Akbar also built this fort which was added to by his son then grandson, who was Shah Jahan, same bloke who built the Taj Mahal. Shah Jahan was imprisoned by his son and spent the last year's of his life here but at least he had a wonderful view of the Taj containing his dead wife, assuming of course there was no smog back then. Unfortunately we could barely make out the lines of the Taj through the thick pea soup of smog which didn't bode well for the morrow. Anyway, there are worse places to be imprisoned as this must have been absolutely beautiful in its day. The walls to the rooms which overlooked the city use to be lined with gold and diamonds so when the sun rose or set it would have caught the jewels and just sparkled. The marble was inlaid with semi precious stones as well, like the Taj and in one room was a sunken fountain made with marble and jewels and when filled with water looked like a flat carpet. 

View of the Taj Mahal!

Shah Jahan met his third and most favourite of wives at the fort when she was just 19 selling her wares at the market place in the middle of the fort. Only women were allowed here so he dressed himself in disguise as a woman and there she was. After they got married she disbanded the market so he wouldn't do it again!

Next morning was the big one and what we had all been waiting for so we were up early bright eyed and bushy tailed, all except Shirene who was anything but. She chose this special day to get sick, not on purpose but very ill she was with the dreaded Delhi belly. Not much you can do about it, we had taken as many precautions as we could but it's just one if those things. She did recover somewhat to still enjoy the Taj as it really is a magnificent building. We were so blessed to have a clear morning, the first one ever on the trip. Apparently lately the smog has been so bad that even standing right in front of it you still couldn't see it as the white building merged into the grey/white smog. We had all been crossing our fingers and it must have worked as there she was in all her splendor with a blue sky behind. As we were leaving the smog was beginning to cover it up so we really were very fortunate. I can't say enough how beautiful this building is, Having taken ten million photos but every time I turned my back on it then turned around again it took my breath away. After 28 yrs since I first saw it, did not diminish the effect it had on me again, here before me was a wonder of the world and such an iconic building & so well deserved how could anyone not be moved by it.

Our tour finished with such a highlight & we were all abuzz (except for maybe Shirene who was busy throwing up in the garden) we all agreed it was a wonderful way to end the tour.

We had farewell dinner that night which was a bit sad as we had a small but great group and had shared so much in such a short time. 

This morning everyone left to fly home except 6 of us who are going onto Varanasi for a couple of days.