It’s difficult to convey in words what Jodhpur is like. It was named after a local brand of trousers and is an absolutely glorious place. Noisy, bustling, friendly, full-on and wonderfully mad. I love it.
Our accommodation is based in the old heart of the city and because the roads are so narrow, cars are not permitted in the area.
I’d taken that to mean that the area is pedestrianised but not a bit of it. There are miles of narrow streets, shop after shop of everything you could want, and people, scooters, animals and tuk-tuks all over the place.
Tuk-tuks make perfect sense in a place like this. Nippy, manoeuvrable and cheap. Most rides cost no more than IR 100 (about a £1.00) provided you are prepared to walk away when the drivers try to push for more. It’s all good humoured though and the rides are thrilling or terrifying depending on your point of view.
WordPress won’t let me add the videos I’ve done at the moment so you’ll just have to imagine things for now.
Annette’s top travel tip for tuk-tuk rides might help. If you’re going to ride in a tuk-tuk, make sure you’re wearing a good sports bra. And she’s not just talking about the women.
Heritage Accommodation
The main tourist attraction in Jodhpur is the fort. This is a hugely impressive structure which dominates the town and we’d booked a room in a ‘heritage’ accommodation hotel that promised us a balcony view of it.
The hotel is great but it turns out that ‘heritage accommodation’ means quirky accommodation with steep flights of stairs for people with young, fit legs.
The proprietor took one look at us as we checked in and offered us the choice of the top floor room we’d booked or another one on the first floor. We went up, we came down. The lower room we can get to is fine.
Mehrangarh Fort
Mehrangarh Fort is amazing. It’s one of the largest forts in India, worth going out of your way for and blows the places we’ve seen in in Delhi and Jaipur out of the water.
It was built in 1459 and has been attacked many times but has never been breached.
We took an audio tour and heard tails of the daring do of the Maharaja and the ladies who listened to poetry and danced ‘til dawn. Sometimes dancing even seemed to mean dancing.
We also heard about the Maharaja’s wives who joined their husbands on their funeral pyres, apparently silently joining them in eternal bliss. Yeah right!
On to the sights.
If you’ve got to die, do it in style. Here’s where the royals were cremated and interred.
And here is where they still live. If you’ve got a few bob, you can stay in the part of the palace set aside as an hotel but you’ll miss out on the glory of the city.
Dave and Annette in India and Nepal 