Jodphur

We arrived in Jophur shaken, exhausted and without accommodation at 10pm. The private bus from Udaipur was probably the worst experience we have had on our world trip. Our tuk-tuk driver in Udaipur recommend these as they are faster and more comfortable than public government buses. Let me tell you it’s not that we were unfamiliar with traffic mayhem here. But we should have known better than to get this advice from a rickshaw driver. They are often the tobacco spitting, cowboys of Indian road jungles in India. The journey was, as promised, in a comfortable coach with leather seats. Strangely the cabin sleeper bunks above the seats and driver’s section was mostly walled off. However the drive through the mountains and deserts kept us clenching to the seats the entire way.

It was a HORRIBLE experience. Firstly, the highway was closed so we took a farm road through the desert. But what was most frightening that nobody seemed to have any regard for the safety of people inside. An old man explained why this is. The drivers of private buses try to overtake every single vehicle in front of them so as to make faster more profitable journeys from city to city for the company. We were shaken inside this tin can the whole way. As everyone knows, a horn in India is used to say “I’m coming through”. Our horn never took a break in 7 hours. Every overtake was from a centimeter behind - a swerve that tilted the whole bus on angle, blindly into oncoming traffic. The oncoming trucks then became a game of chicken. The journey was 7 instead of 5 hours. We just couldn’t believe we traveled all this way for 24hrs in Jodphur. 2Why did we travel so far into the desert just take a night train back toDelhi? The famous fort had better be good!

Fortunately their was the Blue Guest House in Jodphur. The family took us in late that night. Their 500-year old blue building had some of the best decorated rooms we have seen on our budget tour of the world.

The next morning we went downstairs expecting a rushed tour of town before the train. Our luck changed when Manish, one of the owners, sat us down for a coffee. It turned out I accidentally gave him the address to this blog in an email the day before. He was really interested to hear what we thought of his hotel and what we thought of India. Manish also let us in on his enthusiastic plans to open a restaurant, internet café, and kerela massage parlor.

Through him we were able to book a great driver for the day and see all corners of town. We ate a fantastic uttapam and thali lunch at Pryia’s (a local institution) and washed this down with a sweet lassi from the clock tower market. But the highlight of Jodphur was indeed the fort that towers over the city. We took the rickshaw up the cliffs to the gate where, by chance, a procession was commencing up the spiral castle road. It was such good timing. This made Jodphur for us.

We were sweaty and completely overheated, but Manish then let us shower back at the hostel before grabbing the train back to Delhi. He even took us to see his future restaurant site - due to open in the next few weeks. We learned that day how a friendly host and home could really turn our trip around!