Oh dear, I seem to be playing catch up again. Apologies for the absence, but, as ever, we have been busy, busy, busy. We left you last in Pushkar…..

11th Jan, 2016

We had quite a long drive from Pushkar to Jodhpur and now that we are allowed to leave at the leisurely departure time of 1000, it meant that we arrived in Jodphur mid-afternoon, so we went straight to our hotel. This is the Ajit Bhawan Palace, described in the guide book as somewhat Flinstones like, but that we should not be put off by that. It was a bit that way inclined as some of the photos bear out, but it was largely fine apart from an initial hiccup with the plumbing. A few photos first and then I will elaborate…

The bedroom at the top was our first room – all very nice and we settled in for our two nights. Val & I headed for the pool and I managed a few lengths, though you can see how cold it was by my rather pathetic effort to get in! It was then back to our room for a shower before heading out to dinner. This was where it got interesting. The shower was lukewarm at best, which, after my bracing dip, seemed just about OK and I thought that maybe I just had not given the water time to get through the system. Val then had a shower and decided, quite rightly, that it just simply was not hot enough – tepid at best. So we called reception and a nice man arrived with little or no English, but a determination to make it work. This failed and another man appeared with the same amount of English, but this time with tools (which he did not use). The main method of repair was to turn on the taps and say (I am paraphrasing), ‘there you are sorted’ to which my reply was (paraphrasing again), ‘no, it is still only warm at best’. The third member of the maintenance crew appeared and disappeared to try to sort out the boiler only to return some time later and advise that all we had to do was turn on the hot tap for 10 to 15 minutes and hot water would be gushing from said faucet. He attempted this, but, sad to say, the only steam to appear was starting to come out of Val’s ears. The lady from reception was then called, who advised that this temperature was what they usually provided… I will leave our reply to your imagination. Long story (sorry, I expect you have been looking forward to hearing of the delights of Jodhpur than our first world problems), short (!), we were given another room (photo at the bottom) which, surprise, surprise had excellent and copious amounts of lovely hot water.

12th Jan, 2016

It was up for a 1000 start the next day. Val unfortunately had a touch of the Delhi Belly and even I, the night before had been feeling a bit iffy. We had experienced a ‘village’ dinner (in the hotel grounds) and were possibly paying the price. Anyway, game as ever, we set off for the Mehrangarh Fort. Val got as far as the first floor and sadly had to pull out and head back to the car and hotel, leaving me with our guide for the day, Ashish (‘hashish with out the s, as he described it). He was very jolly, not least with many amusing muses on married life as a Maharajah, dealing with numerous wives and other consorts. The fort is magnificent. I think I said before that we keep thinking we have seen the best that Rajasthan has to offer, but it keeps getting trumped by the next one.

It was described by Kipling as the work of angels and giants and I hope the photos explain why. It was started in the 1500s and for a while was unoccupied and going to ruin before the maharaja of the day decided in 1972 to restore it and open it to the public. It has some excellent exhibits of such items as howdahs, palanquins and royal cradles. Photos, please!

And for anyone who might think that the exterior carvings are wood, they are actually stone and exquisitely done.

From the Fort there are magnificent views over Jodhpur, which is also known as the Blue City for obvious reasons, when you see the colours of the walls of many of its houses (indigo mixed with white limewash – good against termites, apparently). Ashish and I then had a quick visit to the family marbled memorial before setting off downhill to the most vibrant and busy market I have ever seen.

It was then back to the hotel to discover that Val was fine after all and so much better that she was up for a bit of shopping. So it was once round the market place, just to show her what it looked like and then to the jewellers! We had seen a lovely coral necklace in the hotel shop, but decided it was too expensive. We then arrived at the jewellers only to discover that they owned the hotel shop! I will not give away any secrets, but just know that we bargained VERY hard and check out photos of Val in later posts…..