Jodhpur: the sun city, blue city

We left Jaiselmer on Monday morning after another delicious breakfast and drove straight to Jodhpur in five hours. We arrived at our hotel, another haveli in the centre of town and settled in before heading out to see the blue city. Jodhpur is known as the sun city for its year long sunny weather. It is aslo referred to as the blue city because of the blue painted houses around the fort. Having skipped lunch, as per usual and still hungry we decided to try McDonalds on the corner of our street. I purchased two maharaja mac meals with fries and a coke and we scarfed them down en route to our first site. Unfortunately, the burgers still had curry in them and we ate quickly.

Our first stop was at Jaswant Thada, the marble cenotaph of Maharaja Jaswant Singh II and the memorial built next to it complete with pictures. Our guide, whose name I didn’t quite catch, was extremely knowledgeable, but a bit of a know it all. He gave us a detailed tour of the cenotaph explaining in detail the cremation process and how the wives’ of the maharaja were burned at the same time as their husband (who was already dead) as a long standing tradition. Apparently it has since been outlawed, but still happens in the case of the maharajas (from what I understood). According to our guide the wives were given a strong drink of opium prior to the burning, so they couldn’t feel anything (um yeah).

We moved further up the hill to the Mehrangarh fort of Jodhpur, a fort that spans one hundred feet in length and towers four hundred feet over its city. It is a marvel, even from a distance it has an unstoppable presence. Rudyard Kippling once referred to it as "the work of giants." Our guide giving us a detailed explanation of the handicrafts and art throughout the fort. He pointed out beautiful silver artwork that was used to conceal wine, as drinking was a no no for the religious. Apparently the Maharaja would leave them in different rooms and grab a sip when no one was looking. We also toured a very impressive armoury room with very detailed swords and gun. Some of the swords you only had to scratch your opponent and the venom in the sword was enough to kill.

Post fort, our guide insisted on showing us the clock tower in the centre of the city, before trying to get us to buy random crap from the street vendors. They must be getting a cut from our buying things, as there is always pressure to buy buy buy (or perhaps they think that this is what we want). Tired of site seeing for the day, we headed back to our hotel for some rest. We decided to make the walk back to McDonalds and eat chicken nuggets for dinner. I realize that McD’s food is shit and we don’t actually eat it at home, lol...What I wouldn’t do for a turkey sandwich with fresh tomato, cheddar and pesto! The return trip to McDonald’s took about 45 minutes and we were harassed the entire way there and back. People want to know your name, where are you from, would you like help, a ride, etc. It has become so routine that we have started ignoring people. We walked by a pack of kids who called out to us and after we ignored them, they threw dirt at us, how charming. :)