The Blue City

From Udaipur we now find ourselves in the Blue City - Jodhpur. Most of the buildings were painted with paint tinted with indigo, the colour of the religious Brahman class, which also had the dual purpose of repelling insects and creating a cooling effect {allegedly}. This time we opted for a bus to take six hours away from Udaipur to Jodhpur. As we ventured out through rural Rajastan, the scenery became more and more arid and desert-like. In fact with it's stone walls and crispy looking trees, bits of it reminded me a bit of Provence. Well perhaps Provence after some sort of nuclear holocaust. I think I saw a dead cow. Unless he was in some sort of yogic pose, but he didn't look too healthy. Oh and then I saw a cow that was definitely dead; half it's body had been picked away by vultures and all that was left was a couple ribs sticking out. It looked a bit like a vignette from a Lucky Luke comic book.

After a six and then some drive with some fairly dubious driving, we were abruptly spewed out from the bus and told we had arrived in Jodhpur. It was dark by this stage and the cars and tuk tuks raged around us on the noisy streets. What followed was the most bowel-clenching tuk tuk ride of the trip so far, as we darted left and right to avoid oncoming traffic from just about every direction imaginable, all to the soundtrack of a cacophony of beeping, temple bells, chanting, shouting and general noise. {Barry's Tea ad anyone?!} It was a bit like being thrown into a weird computer game {why has no one capitalised on this idea?} where the aim is to swerve to avoid bicycles, tuk tuks, women in saris {five extra points}, mini children, sleeping dogs lying around the place, and oh.. death. At one point we drove through a junction that was like a perverse version of Place Meiser, with traffic weaving in and out from every direction. I ask you, HOW DOES IT WORK? How do people not crash every ten seconds??? And the weird thing is, somehow it does.

We spent the afternoon climbing up to this massive fortress that overlooks the city, with our new little travel gang of people we have been hanging around with since Udaipur. We were told this evening that it was 50 degrees!! FIFTY!! And you really feel it. Especially considering that we walked the whole steep way up because we didn't find the main entrance, whilst most people tuk tuk it up until just outside the ramparts. Darn. Well I'm pretty proud! Oh and i saw a dead puppy on the way up and we also got drawn into some sort of wedding procession. We did a two hour walking tour of the fort and heard lots about the Rajputs and Moghuls and co. And the usual fabulous Maharajah splendour that I don't think i will ever tire of seeing. I think I have been a Maharajah princess in another life because I can totally see myself fitting into that life style.

After a long day and much sweating and consumption of tepid water, we are now relaxing spent up on the roof top, chatting to other travelers, munching on some channa masala and enjoying the starry view of the fort. The heat has still not let up!