After enjoying a few days at Mt. Abu it was time to move on. We took an early (ish) bus that was heading for Jodhpur. Yep, the home of the silly horse riding trousers. Though I should say right now that we were unsuccessful in actually seeing anyone wandering around the lanes of the town wearing a sartorially challenged equine outfit. Ahh Pants! That's not to say that there wasn't any horses roaming around, there most certainly was. There were also an abundant number of pigs, cows, dogs, rodents, chickens, people and a whole host of other stink providing animals. Sadly all were only too keen to leave a mess. And a stink! 

 

Rather than pay an inflated rate at our hotel to cover the commission that is paid to rickshaw drivers for delivering you to your chosen destination (for the life of me I cannot understand why commission is paid to a bloke who has done exactly nothing to influence your choice of destination. Indeed, who has typically touted another place owned by his brother / cousin / uncle etc. who no doubt, had lived / studied / married someone from your "very nice country")  we decided to alight at the market place clock tower and then find our chosen hotel on foot. Not exactly the brightest idea we've ever had. Markets all over the world are of course rammed with urchins all to keen to try and charm you out of your cash (ha, ha, ha, what they don't know is that although Scotland may well be "very nice country" we Jocks won't voluntarily empty our wallets just because we're treated to some goofy, gap toothed smile!) stalls set out in a higgledy-piggledy fashion and surround by streets as labyrinth like as any maze you can picture. In short, a terrible place to get dropped off when loaded with luggage and unsure of where your hotel is.

 

 

One street looked just like another lane, which in turn was remarkably similar looking to yet another alley way. But while they all looked alike they were absolutely identical in aroma. And what a foul, noxious pong it was too. All those animals I mentioned earlier, well they all used these streets as their toilet. Often. It would be a urologist's (that's a doctor with a specialism in pee-ology) or a scatologist's (which, interestingly enough is a doctor with a specialist degree in poo-ology and a rather twisted upbringing. No really it's true!) dream. For normal folk like me and Heide however, well it just reeked. Now I don't mean to dwell on this matter (ok, yes I suppose I do) but it was a pretty strong smell. Oddly though it wasn't just of sewer. Oh no. Although it's true that open sewers were certainly around there was something else in the air. It was a blend of spices and incense, blended together helping, to a small degree, to mask the stench. I wouldn't say it made the air as sweet as a spring meadow, nor even as "pleasant" as an unaired adolesent rugby team's changing room, but it certainly did something to the pong. I guess it made it, to use a wine snob euphemism, "interesting". Rather like a water company pouring gallons of eau de cologne into their water works; it doesn't cure the stench, but at least you can breathe.

 

After pottering, tottering and breathing as little as we could we found our chosen hotel. It looked clean, it was remarkably clear of nasty fumes and, perhaps most intriguingly, it had a front door man / waiter who sported the worlds finest moustache. It was sort of a cross between a ZZ Top style facial adornment and the curly moustache of Sgt. Major Williams (I know that's going to be a stretch for most folk, it was Windsor Davies' character in the old BBC show from the 70's and 80's "It Ain't Arf Hot Mum" scroll down through this link for an idea of what it looks like http://www.melvynhayes.co.uk/It%20Ain%27t%20Arf%20Hot%20Mum.htm ) All this said, these amazing, coiffured whiskers were, perhaps not surprisingly, what brought us to Jodhpur. Nope, it was actually the amazing castle that had pulled us here.

 

 

 

From the roof top restaurant at the hotel we had an amazing view of the castle. It looked like, well to me anyway, a cross between the Acropolis, Edinburgh Castle and the Alhambra Palace in Grenada. A pretty impressive blend I'm sure you'll agree. Obviously we had to go and explore the place. Not learning from our earlier mistake of walking through the crooked, stinky lanes we set out on foot. And got lost. Again. Still with a huge castle looming over you, you can't get too lost, so eventually we found our way to a huge gate that could only be part of the original fortification. Great, this is what we came to see. Oddly enough there didn't seem to be anyone at the gate collecting the ticket money. Oh well, what can you do? Onwards and upwards. We followed the winding lanes towards the top, still strangely sans ticket. Well, it would appear that we had accidentally come in through something other than the entrance! This did, I'll admit, become abundantly clear as we strolled against the mass tourist traffic all going in the correct direction. Well sobeit, we made like Salmon and happily went against the tide. The thing is, we seem to have an uncanny knack of sliding in back doors (all inadvertently, obviously!) and thus not having to pay. Perhaps this is why places like the Acropolis and the Alhambra Palace came so quickly to mind here in Jodhpur, as miraculously we'd missed the entrance fees there too! Ooh we are naughty aren't we?

 

 

It was a splendid castle, with an amazing palatial interior which really was worth so much more than the zero rupees we paid to see it. Still money saved here just means more to spend elsewhere. And where else seems like a better idea than at a bar with a waiter with a funny mane upon his upper lip and fridge full of ice cold beer? Ahh, excellent choice if I do say so myself! And I did, as we toasted the really fine castle here in Jodhpur.

 

 

As we supped our cold ales on this roof top we swiveled around to take in some views of the city which didn't include the soaring castle. From our perch we gaped at the sprawling "Blue City" that lay beneath us. It doesn't take a genius to work out why it's called the "Blue City" and I'll let the photo explain, should any explanation be needed. Apparently the city was painted in this colour to denote the large number of Brahmins (one of the higher Indian castes) who lived here. It is also reputed to keep mosquitoes at bay. I don't know about that, and it certainly doesn't keep the flies at bay, though what would one expect given the description of the streets I've offered?    

 

All in all our stay in Jodhpur was really very pleasant though by day three I think we were both ready for a change, not so much of scenery, but certainly atmosphere, the air that you breathe, not the feel of the place! From here it's onwards to Jaisalmer, which is a town out in the desert near the Pakistan border.