View from atop Mehrangarh Fort – it really is the Blue City!
After our interesting arrival in the Blue City, we have hit up quite a few places, and slowly gotten used to staying in the Old City. The Old City is full of winding narrow streets that go in all kinds of directions, and some so narrow as to deny rickshaw access and encourage cutting through alleyways to get to certain destinations (like our hotel).
Being in the Old City, our hotel has a nice little rooftop terrace that looks directly to Mehrangarh Fort, and at night, it was very peaceful and awe-inspiring to chill on the terrace with a cold drink and take in the view.
View of Mehrangarh Fort from our hotel rooftop terrace
During the day, we walked up to the Fort, in the steepest way possible (stopping for water a few times due to the heat). Once we were at the top, it was well worth it. This has to be the best official “sight” we’ve been to, with museum-like displays of ancient carriages, weapons, and royal cradles, as well as a walk-through of some of the opulent rooms such as the public audience room and the ballroom reserved for events.
One of the grand rooms in the Fort
We also took a tour to the rural villages outside of Jodhpur, to see artisans at work. We visited a potter whose big clay jars were stacked everywhere in his yard. These jars are quite commonplace, and are meant for storing water. Because it’s porous, it actually keeps the water quite cool during the summer, too. Our guide’s family was part of the cooperative working on durry udhyog, or handloom woven carpets. We saw his parents at work, and he also laid out quite a few carpets they are selling for us to see (and buy). As much as one of them really tickled my fancy, I couldn’t bring myself to buy because not only was it kind of pricey (for Indian prices – cheap in Canada still), but I am constantly pained by the fact that I have no home to decorate! We took his card and promised if we ever returned when we have a home, we’d be sure to stop by.
Alex and his attempt on the potter’s wheel
The village artisans at work on the loom
Really liked the gray one in the back, thought it’d be perfect for the foot of a bed…but we don’t have a bed.
We continued on to visit the Bishnoi people, who have 29 rules of living in harmony with nature, or as our guidebook calls them, the “original tree-huggers”. What makes me laugh now that I think about it is that we visited, and they showed us the opium drinking ceremony, which I guess is a big tourist attraction. However, Alex and I weren’t really interested – and I’m glad we opted out because as you’ll see in the picture, the water gets passed through a weird purple sock-like thing quite a few times to “filter” it. So the funny thing is that this poor old man saw tourists, and had to have a shot of opium. We did tip him though, but random. We were also treated to chai at his house, which was deliciously made with the man-made lake water, fresh unpasteurized cow milk that had no means of refrigeration, and tea leaves and spices. I’m not being sarcastic – it was actually the best chai we’ve had so far in India, in my humble opinion, and I think the unpasteurized milk gave it a caramel-like taste. Yum!
Bishnoi man preparing the opium
Our last day here, we’re taking it easy and then visiting a real local family! (Avi’s family…in case you’re interested.) Then we’re off to Udaipur…and goodness knows how long we might be there. We’ve realized there’s no way we can make it down to southern India at the leisurely pace we’ve been moving, and we’re not sure if we want to in this heat anyway…so that might have to be another trip, another time. Traveling without a firm schedule can be nice, but also quite stressful as we’re always looking at the calendar and urging ourselves to move on before we got too comfortable!
