Hectic City with an Incredible Fort

I'll start off by going over my stay in Jodhpur.  I arrived late in Jodhpur on Tuesday evening.  Even before I arrived in the downtown, I knew it was going to be a big change from the peace and quiet of Jaisalmer.  As we were approaching the city in the bus, you could feel the dust in the air, taste the auto exhaust and your ears were greeted to the melody of honking cars, scooters, etc.

The biggest attraction in Jodhpur is the Meherangarh Fort, which sits on the hill overlooking the city.  Its sheer size and the fact that the city surrounds the hill that its built on insures that the Fort dominates the Jodhpur skyline.  The Meherangarh Fort is not a palace in the Versailles sense.  From the outside, it doesn't look particularly luxurious.  Instead it was built first and foremost for defense.  Once inside however, you'll find that its been restored to an excellent condition.  The audiotour is outstanding.  After seeing the fort, I took a short walk over to the Jaswant Thanda...a tomb for a 19th century Jodhpur Maharaja.  The main reason to go there is the excellent view of the fort.  That being said, the view will be best from there in the morning.

From an aestetic sense, the other defining characteristic of Jodhpur is the blue color of its buildings in the old city.  While the original reason for the blue painting is debatable (caste distinction or termite prevention), its caught on and is now part of Jodhpur's image in tourism circles.

After checking out the castle, I spent most of the afternoon wandering around the market.  Perhaps more than any other bazaar I've been to in Asia, this came the closest to meeting the picture I had of the frenzied, covered bazaar jam packed with people haggling over everything from spices to vegetables to bicycle wheels.  The sheer color of clothes people were wearing and the energy of the salesman at each stall was a joy to watch.

Unfortunately, I got sick last night...vomitted several times.  So I was ko'd for most of the night.  Not sure what caused it...I'm guessing it was the street food I had for lunch that was cooked in oil that probably hadn't been changed in well over a month. In any case, while still feeling a bit tired, I felt much better this morning.  Today, I went with a group of people from our hotel on a village safari.  Basically, one of the guys from the hotel drove us around to a bunch of the Bishnoi (ethnic group) villages in the countryside surrounding Jodhpur.  The tour was interesting from the crafts perspective...got to see pretty good demonstrations of pottery, weaving and block printing.  But the explanations of the villages themselves could have been a bit better.

The heat outside here is really intense...I finally understand why the Latin cultures have adopted the idea of a siesta.  Even if I really haven't been doing much, by 2 or 3 in the afternoon, I just feel wiped and need a few hours of doing nothing until I'm ready to set about doing anything.

While Jodhpur is definitely worth visiting for the fort, its really not worth more than 1 day.  In contrast to Jaisalmer, it definitely feels more like a big city and is therefore not really a very relaxing place.