Saturday, August 30, 2008

North India - Day 5: Jodhpur

It's been about 3 weeks since North India trip but work and travels have been keeping me from blogging so I'm opening up to guests. Here's one by Joe.

Johdpur! Yours truly (Joe) was project manager for Day 5. FYI we decided as a group to take turns deciding the days’ itinerary. We being overly nice beings could not for the sake of Shiva decide on anything; hence someone had to take the daily lead. At the end of the day, there will be a meeting in the room, and someone will be fired.

Putting my trust wholly on Lonely Planet; the itinerary was going to be something like a balanced meal. We’ll get a decent serving of Sleep, Sightseeing, Activities and Drinking. Here’s my plan:

>> Sleep in
>> Breakfast at Newton’s Manor
>> Tour the incredible walls of Meherangah fort.
>> Lunch at someplace
>> Shopping at Sardar Market
>> Free time – yoga or massage
>> Dinner at Restaurant/bar called On the Rocks
>> Dancing and drinking!

The girls excelled at the “sleeping in” part of the itinerary. But the guys never blamed them. Their beauty had to come at the expense of something. In this case, I'm guessing its sleep.

Breakfast at Newton’s manor was a pleasant continental serving with baked goodies. Here’s where we met the French family on a India excursion similar to ours. We mentioned we might check out Sardar Market today; and they’re face lighten up. “Yes! The Market!”. … and I thought, “Ok … cool.”

Meherangarh fort is quite a sight. It was a proud contribution of the Sultan as a show tell the story of the lives of those who lived there for the people. It was well maintained, organized, with a great audio tour.


View of "blue city" from the Palace

Candice and myself visited the palmistry at the end of the tour. The guy had a mild case of Dr.Jekyll and Hyde; who seems tired and sleepy while reading our fourtunes (yet had the energy to pick up his cellphone); but friendly while greeting us in and wishing us well on the way out. With 200Rupees, I found out that I will live to 75 years old, and will find love at 30, 34 and 38. This is a good year ladies! As for Candice, … she is adaptable, good PR skill, with good fortune and comfortably financially. I could have been a palm reader myself.

On the rocks came highly recommended. We stopped here for lunch instead (My PM skills were challenged by our friendly driver insisting on seeing the place. After a few detours unable to find our restaurant, … On the rocks it was) There was a lot of buzz in this restaurant. The food was good, despite the constant fly swapping. Recommend cleansing the gut with a whiff of whiskey.

….

Shopping was next on the agenda. One word to describe Sardar market is “Wow”. I see now why our breakfast companions brighten up when we mentioned “the market”. It’s a busy local market serving up the unimaginable, from grains, candy, clothing, food, to dudes playing gin rummy, carefree wandering cows to rattan furniture and black smiths.


The rest of the day’s activity was spent shopping at the handloom house – a fixed price joint ran Stevie Wonder. The girls shopped their hearts our. Me, I enjoyed my Masala tea while Mervyn helped to bargain. Small place India can be, because we ran into Stevie Wonder again on our walk back from dinner later in the evening.

We never got to dancing and drinking. No yoga nor massage… It’s cool cause we were way beat by then.

More Jodhpur Pictures

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