The Blue City and the Monkeys

Our drive to Jodhpur was the same as always and I spent it reading a book I borrowed from Nagina.  I finished it about the time we arrived in Jodhpur and then sat and looked out the window at the city.  My stomach was feeling a bit queasy and I'm not sure if it was the reading in the car which usually doesn't bother me or the egg I had for breakfast.  Nagina was feeling the same so I'm inclined to think it was the latter.  We drove straight to our Palace Hotel which is on the outskirts of the city.  It was a really nicely converted hotel which seemed much more hotel then palace.  We dropped out bags off in our room then headed to the restaurant for a light lunch.

Since we had no afternoon plans we checked out the hotel salon for Nagina and I headed to the internet.  It  was obscene but I paid 6$ for an hour of internet but there is nothing around the hotel so if I wanted to check my email I was stuck.  so I checked me email and sent some messages out.  When my hour was up I went back to the room and found Nagina with dye in her hair.  When I got in the room she jumped in the shower and I sat and organized my suitcase and sent a couple pieces of laundry out to be washed.  I fiddled and organized my stuff.  Then when Nagina was down I jumped in the shower and washed my filthy hair.  I skipped the tent shower as the water didn't ever seem to get hot in the sink and I am opposed to cold showers especially when it's cold outside.  I got out and dressed then blow dried my hair.

When I was done I sat on my bed and attempted to journal while watching the Indian version of Dancing with the Stars which was quite entertaining.  Around 8 we went to the restaurant and had a late dinner which was really good.  We had stuffed potatoes in a mint gravy and  Kemba which is minced/ground meat in a spicy sauce.  It was super yummy!!  After dinner we went back to the room and Nagina went directly to bed while I stayed up and journaled a bit before bed.

We were up at our usual time and got dressed and headed to breakfast.  After breakfast and a quick swing by the room we met Dinesh and our day guide for Jodhpur.  We headed out and drove back into the city and then up the hill to our first stop Jaswant Thada which is the royal funeral ghat or cremation ground.  It was built in the early 1900s on the hill not far from the fort.  We walked around the buildings and took pictures both of the tombs and building but also the view of the city which from this vantage point you can see why they all it the Blue City.

Looking down you can see that the majority of the houses are painted a light blue.  Our guide said that the man who founded the city of Jodhpur realized he had no Brahmins (the caste) and you can't have a civilized city without religious leaders.  So he brought Brahmins in from other areas and when they settled they painted there houses blue which was something only the Brahmin caste could do.  The blue is made up of an indigo and limestone mix which was good for keeping the house cool and also a natural mosquito repellant.   Eventually the caste system was "discarded" and anyone could paint their houses blue and so a lot of people do because of the above factors and now it's the blue city.  I find it really funny that Rajasthan is color coded.  Jodhpur is the Blue City, Jaisalmer is the Golden City, Udaipur is the White City, Jaipur is the Pink City.  The big cities are all color coded so it's easy to remember.  I find that extremely amusing.

From there we drove up to the fort and got to ride an elevator from the base of the hill to the actual fort.  There were some great views of the city if only it hadn't been hazy out.  We toured the fort and went through a little museum area with random artifacts.  They had these crazy huge wooden "women's dumbbells: and this screen that was made out of bamboo sticks and each was wrapped with silk threads into this beautiful floral design.  We saw the amazing dance hall which was unfortunately not lit up so it was hard to see and get pictures of.  Luckily there was a great picture of it on my ticket.  We stopped off in a room and watched a video about the current Maharajah of Jodhpur who has a gorgeous son.  Then it was on to the gift shop area where I bought a cute pair of embroidered chapalas just before heading out to the car.

Next it was off to a Craft shop which we spent some serious time in as Nagina was loading up on presents for people.  I bumbled around as I already had my purchase for the day and ignored the chapala and sari sections.  Eventually we left and drove to the current palace which is part hotel and mini museum and part private residence of the Maharajah.  This palace is called Ummed Bhavan Palace or Chitter Palace as it was built on Chitter Hill.  I would not have been opposed to running into the prince there but that didn't happen.  So much for being whisked away into the palace and draped in gold and diamonds by a gorgeous prince.  Damn, no such luck!!!  We toured around the rooms that were open and then took some pictures out front before moving on.

Our next stop was the Emporium.  Okay, for me this store was utterly depressing because it had some of the most amazing stuff for really good prices but I just don't have the money to be spending on stuff I don't need and or really really want.  Especially things like bedspreads, sheets, blankets.  But it was fun to see all the great stuff they had.  If and when I get back to India I'll come to Jodhpur just to come to this store.  Once we made it out of the Emporium we headed back to the Crafts store which had just received the package baring our forgotten jackets from Agra. Yeah!!

Once we had our jackets in tow we headed back out to the hotel.  We dropped our bags off in our room and went and had a really late lunch which was super tasty.  The food at the hotel restaurant was really good.  I had started to get a headache I think from low blood sugar so after lunch I took a couple of Tylenol and laid down for a rest.  My clean laundry arrived at 4:00 and I had just enough time to check it was all there before we went out and met Dinesh and the guide.

From there we headed out to Mandore Garden which is known to the locals as Monkey Garden and when I got there I could see why.  There were monkeys all over the place and we had to walk down the middle of the road to stay out of there way.  We walked along and were totally surprised to come across some really beautiful old temples in the middle of a forsaken rundown garden.  It was like they had been completely forgotten and left to ruin with the garden which was in bad shape.  There were water ways and fountains built but no water in them and bushes and flowers that were partially alive but needed some serious trimming.  I'm telling you it was so sad to see this rundown garden that could really be beautiful if it was revamped.  We toured through the temples and took pictures then walked on to another more modern temple that had a wall of famous people from Jodhpurs history.  On the way out we saw huge groups of monkeys hanging around and even some little babies monkeys that were so cute.  We made it out after an hour and a half and I was so glad we didn't let the guide talk us out of going because I really enjoyed the park even if it was a little depressing.

We dropped our guide off and said goodbye to him on the drive back out to our hotel.  Along with a stop to get Nagina's camera downloaded onto a CD and her memory card reformatted.  Once back at the hotel we relaxed and watched the same Indian Dancing with the Stars show.  I repacked my newly clean clothes and then journaled and watched.  At 8pm we went to dinner even though neither of us were all that hungry after our late lunch.  The hotel was full so there was a buffet which suited me just fine as I could get just a little bit of a few things.  After dinner we went back to the room and got in bed.  I journaled a while longer and Nagina read.  But we ended up with our lights off before 11pm.

The next morning we were up early and dressed and at breakfast before 8:30am.  We had a nice breakfast then went back to our room to finish last minute packing.  We checked out and loaded the car when Dinesh arrived and headed out for our last city in Rajasthan, Udaipur, the White City or City of Lakes.  Can't wait....