Jodpur 24 Jan 2009

24 Jan - Saturday

Jodpur - our driver got off today as we decided it's easier to take tuktuk or walk to the fort



- Shahi Guesthouse Jodpur Old City
The view of the fort is great from the guesthouse with the morning sunshine bouncing off the walls of the impressive fort standing across the ridge on top of the blue city. It was still a little chilly this early. I found the helper - Shanker was still asleep. No eggs and vegetarian breakfast - toast & banana chocolate pancakes with our instant no sugar coffee.

Mr Bantu advised to conserve our energy for the fort and take tuktuk instad of walking up the fort - very good advice! It's not a short walk, if we had stayed outside the old city, we would have our driver take us. We only managed to bargain to 50rs which seemed to be the price for foreigners. I think it was still over charged ... Sigh. Same amount to return.

Mehrangarh ticket includes the audio guide which we find to be the best audio guide among the sights. We took our time (3hr) to finish the fort and had lunch at the café at the exit - just ok for a quick lunch. Jodpur was in the former region of the Marwar (I was confused with Udaipur Mewar) and the seat of power for the Rajput Rathore clan. And Mehrangarh was probably the only reason to go to Jodpur, the market in the old city around the clock tower is pretty dull and very dusty, you can finish in 30min. M bargained for a set of bangle for 30rs which is probably the normal price - down from 100rs. Our driver told us foreigner has to bargain down to 30% and for local 30% down.

There is an area known for block printing - Balotra which I only learned later when we visited Anokhi Museum of Hand Printing. I think it is pretty rural and sothwest of Jodpur, if you have a driver and very keen in textile, it looks very interesting. (I bought a book that described the process of one family in the area)Otherwise do visit the museum while in Jaipur, just at the base of Amer fort - hidden in the Amer village within a restored haveli.

We had a little difficulty finding the way back to guesthouse as we thought it was nearer. Anyway if you turn left after the exit to the markets and keep walking straight till you see a green mosque, you will find signs to get to it. Might be even more difficult in the night.

Also dinner sucks! Cook was absent due to some personal emergency and we were served sort of what we suspected leftover from previous night, it looked & tasted so similar. We did not see others having dinner.

India Delhi - Rajasthan Jan-Feb 2009

21 Jan 2009 - Wednesday

Delhi
The flight arrived early 5.50am and we thought the driver had not arrived to pick us as we did not spot the signage among those of the 5 star hotels. It happened that non-passgeners have to wait after the exit. No touts or whatever at that hour, too early I learned later, Indian start their day mostly towards 10am.

We were shown to our car - Toyota Innova, by Mr Rampal Rao (from Rajasthan Four Wheel Drive), our driver for the first day in Delhi. We were given a folder with corporate profile and the cards with drivers detail including phone numbers. Ram advised we go back into the terminal to get phone SIM card as nowhere is open yet and the activation should be quicker. We got 2 cards for about 400rs each with like 30min local talktime. They need the local address - hotel address will do, a passport photo and they took a copy of the passport detail. Can only pay in cash and work perfectly with our older Nokia phones.

We decided against going to saubhag bed&breakfast directly since it was really early and went to Humayun's Tomb. Supposed to open from sunrise, when we reached there it was already bright and 7.05am but they refused to let us in and said open from 7.30am, then at 7.30am they said the ticket man is not here yet, Rampal threatened to bring us to tourism office to file a complaint - well Indian way of working. Anyway the ticket man appeared and we got our "foreigner" tickets which is priced very highly different from Indian tickets. We spent about 2.5hours and went to saubhag bed&breakfast.



Meera Dass - the owner was very nice, it was her home on the lower floor, and she looked after us really well. She made us breakfast at no charge and told us what we could do for the day and gave us some bananas to pack for the sightseeing.

We went to Jama Masjid which was quite a letdown and they collected 200rs for camera fee - there was not much things to shoot. No doubt it is a holy place but the desire to collect exorbitant prices left such a bad taste. We respect people's religion but I find it unjustifiable to collect such a huge fee when there is nothing much to offer, even Turkey blue mosque is free and visibly a lot more exciting. Skip this place if you do not have enough time.

After that we went to Karim for late lunch, we figured it was easier to cross the Masjid square after we came out and they refused to let us in again without paying a camera fee even though I have kept it. Entry is free so they insisted we have a camera in the bag and must pay the fee!! Ridiculous!! Anyway after some haggling, and mentioning Karim, they let us cross. Just took the shoes and hold in our hands. India - never take NO as the answer.



Not too hard to find Karim, directly opposite Gate 3 and on the left side, in one small lane. It was packed despite being 3pm, we had some small portions since dinner is coming up. But it was good! After that we walked along the outside perimeter of the mosque to meet our driver.

We wanted to go the spice market to have a look and was told only accessible by rickshaw as the lanes are too small. We then tried to get hold of one, Rampal after a while came down from the car and tried to help us. One "manager" asked for 200rs!! That is not the price, we were told it was about 50rs. Rampal told us these days nobody do 50rs, do not know how much truth. One thing I observed, they were not keen to obstruct each other business, e.g. driver should not help to get a better deal for us directly, we have to do it ourselves sort of thing. Meera helped when she brings her guests shopping and thus sometimes got into arguments with sellers. We got the rickshaw at 80rs. It was a teenager boy and his skill was good, navigating the small lanes and alleys with hundreds of other rickshaws and cows, humans, dogs, etc. It was quite an amazing experience. By the time we got the spice market we did not really want to get down, the sight and smell along the way was enough to fill our senses. We headed back and gave the boy 100rs as he asked - it spoilt them I know but it was really hard work.

We headed back to B&B to wash up and prepare for dinner. Meera <saubhagbedandbreakfast@ yahoo.com> had her staff prepared a fabulous spread - non vegetarian and the ice-cream with roasted almond is heavenly!! I still missed it. Her son also had dinner with us and we had good conversation. As we were the only guest, we sort of had the second floor all to ourselves including the common area. We used the internet PC for a while and turned in early as our flight next day to Udaipur is at 7am, the driver is coming at 5am! Meera was going to pack us some sandwiches as she was not sure the Kingfisher airline served breakfast and in case of flight delays etc, we will have something to munch. So thoughtful!!