Tuesday 31 March 2009

Jodhpur

On arrival in Jodhpur we managed to leave our bags in the station for the day, whilst we had a look around the city. We visited the Meherangarh Fort, which towers over Jodhpur and the view from there was breathtaking. We could see a palace in the distance and the whole of Jodhpur’s blue city beneath. The fort was our escape from all the hustle and bustle and it was great to take our time and chill with coke, fanta and cool, cool water.
We can’t believe how busy the small and winding streets here are. There are loads of autorickshaws, motorbikes, cars and people, not to mention the camel and all the sacred cows. There are more markets with people selling spices, clothes and crafts.
We took a shortcut up a dark narrow street where families socialised with one another in their doorways. There were more cows here and a load of flies!
We’re writing this blog right now in the Mishrilal lassi bar in the market in Jodhpur right next to the clock tower. Everyone is really friendly, and Manish Borana has given us some great Indian music to play in itunes. The makhania lassi here must surely be the BEST in the world; and at only 15 rupees (21p) we thought we should at least try it. Yum! We’ve had six right now already, and we had 4 for breakfast.

Then we stumbled upon a shop selling traditional Rajasthani puppets in many bright colours, all sold in pairs so that the maharaja puppet comes with his matching queen. This style of entertainment must surely be centuries old? And then it was time for our first real taste of restaurant food in India. Would it be different from the style of food we love so much at the Taj Mahal restaurant in St Austell? Lots of people say that Indian food in India is very different from that served back home, and boy were they right!
We found our waiting train for Jaisalmer in very good time: our carriage was in pitch darkness and it was a little intimidating settling into our dusty berths with no light. Eventuallly we got underway and gradually the air coming in through the window began to change: we were entering the Thar Desert, and the sand was getting everywhere! Jon woke up half way through the journey to find that loads of sand had blown in through the window and all over him. Ears included!

1 comment:

  1. Jodhpur…. holy cows… batman.
    With all that mad traffic it’s a wonder the sacred cows arnt scared cows… had to be done …. Nearly as funny as the pecking peacocks :)
    Not more lassz you will get in trouble.
    So how was the curry different ? I hope your gonna bring back plenty of recipes we can try out. OOO LOOK I MADE A NEW ACCOUNT.IT works FINALLY :)))) PS im using yr old laptop in the garden... lovlely wever ere.

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