April 25th: Jodhpur, the Blue City
After a long trip in the bus, we finally reach Jodhpur. The first tought coming to my mind will be: “why blue city?! The houses are no blue houses here”. The sun is burning, my watch indicates a good 40 degrees.
Keerthi will opt to hire a rickshaw for the day to take us around the city, starting with the Umaid Bhavan Palace. This palace is nothing special, mainly a museum to the glory of current Maharaja and his family. I would just recommend to go there for the view, and if you are interested by the history of this particular family and if you have some extra time to spend you can enter the museum.
Our next stop turned out to be much more interesting: Mehranghar Fort. This huge fortress dominates the whole city. Unlike most of the palaces and museums I could visit in India (ok, that is not a lot I must admit), Mehranghar is very well maintained, organised. After a rather high entry fee (Rs. 250), you are handled an audio guide and you can start following the sign boards. The visit is superb, be it from an historical and architectural point of view or for the view over the city. Mehranghar is indeed the place where you realise that Jodhpur is the Blue City.
Entering Rajasthan also means entering the place of Rajputs. The Rajputs used to be the warriors and protectors of Maharajas. People from this caste are famous for their sense of honnour, commitment towards their king, and also, their moustache :). They wear the traditional head turban called Pagadi which is used to maintain the hair and protect the head.
Our stay in Jodhpur will be short, we’ll choose to take an early bus in order to reach Bikaner before 12am. Indeed, Dal Singh who works for Keerthi from time to time has arranged for the accomodation there. We are looking forward to our first night in a static bed. However, I felt like staying some more time in Jodhpur as I could not see much of the bazaar and I could not take all the photos I wanted to take with a nice light.
To be continued…
» Show/Hide comments
Friday, May 5th, 2006 at 12.24 pm
Sympa…Ca rappelle des souvenirs ! A quand notre tour ? Demande à Keerthi de poser sur une photo …! Merci
Friday, May 5th, 2006 at 8.24 pm
Bien les photos de la Ville Bleue….Est-ce un mirage ? ou un choix delibere fonction d’une orientation (est -sud-??)
Monday, May 8th, 2006 at 6.14 am
La photo de Keerthi dans les prochaines nouvelles. La ville est bleue car la peinture utilisee l’est aussi. Cette couleur est supposee eloigner les bestioles en tout genre et aussi aider a conserver une maison relativement fraiche dans la journee.
Sunday, August 10th, 2008 at 3.28 pm
Hello,
I am very much impressed by your blogging skill. I will be visiting this colourful city in the very next month. In this case, I want any one to suggest a cheap and comfortable accomodation for me. Please can I get any guidance form any one? I will be very much glad to receive the reply.