aussiegnu: North India Tour

Welcome to Day 6. The drive from Jaipur to Jodhpur. We are told it is 300 km but on investigation it seems to be more like 351 km. Not a big deal - except in India. There are a lot of new toll roads being built and about half of our journey will be on 4 lane divided roads. The open speed limit is 90 km/hr so half the journey should take 2 hrs leaving 170 km on 2 lane Indian roads at approx 40 km/hr. Allowing a stop along the way and we are looking at a 7 hour trip.

Today is also the hottest day we have encountered. When we get picked up Ram tells us that it is 45 degrees. Thank goodness for the 'cocoon of cool'. We get under way and crawl through the traffic out of Jaipur and are soon on the toll road. As you look out the window the country side is dry and bare, small trees scattered here and there. It is not unlike the Australian countryside really.

We seem to be making reasonable time. Ram is a 'conservative' driver who is still discovering what the gear stick is for. Its main purpose seems to be to get the car moving then get into 4th as soon as possible regardless of what speed you are travelling. This is not pleasant in city driving but we are now used to it and on the open road it works a treat for him.

About two hours into our trip it starts to get hotter and hotter, Ram drives on, he is in 4th gear and happy. I wonder if I should try and introduce him to 5th but decide it is best left alone. The air conditioning is not working and the 'cocoon of cool' soon turns into the 'sauna on wheels'. We start to wind down the windows to get some air. Well air we get. It is a beautiful Indian breeze, about 55 degrees, blowing over the sandy landscape. Why pay for exfoliation when you can get it so easily here.

Ram stops and lifts the bonnet. He employs the 'If I look hard enough at it, it may fix itself'' technique. He hops back in and shakes his head. His hard looking failed to fix the problem.

Ram stops every half hour or so for another look but his looking has no more power than mine. At about 2:00 pm he pulls in to what is best described as 'a Mexican Cantina' from 'the Good the Bad and the Ugly' film set. With what is happening in the world I begin to wonder if the 'Swine Flu' is waiting for us inside.

We go inside and are greeted by a young Indian boy who offers us the lunch menu. We sit and look out the window to witness Ram pouring a bucket of water over the engine. At this stage I doubted the logic of his actions, the bucket of water poured over my head made some sense! We decline the food offer but buy a couple of drinks from 'the fridge'. In India the purpose of the fridge seems to be to keep things at normal room temperature. ie not to cool but to stop contents from getting too hot. The drinks are wet but not refreshing.

We rejoin Ram and drive off into the sun. Gee I hope this has a better ending than some of the movies I have seen. The heat seems to be having an effect on a lot of cars with numerous pulled off the road. Here we encounter the Indian warning cone. Rather than carrying some safety cones with them (how can you when you have twenty people in the car) they use their natural resources. What is in abundance? Large rocks of course.

When a car or truck stops for any length of time, the driver collects large rocks (that is LARGE ROCKS, not stones) and places them about 1 metre out from the car/truck. It should be noted that with the wind blowing the dust over the road distinguishing the LARGE brown rock from the brown road is not that easy. Needless to say Ram manages to avoid these warning devices and we arrive in Jodhpur.

We check in and rush to the room to cool down but alas as we enter all power goes off. It is a VERY hot day in North India. Turns out that it was 45 degrees. Luckily the power outage is only the normal five minute interruption and soon the fan and air conditioning are purring away. Yes, we are spoilt. We have an hour break while Ram tries to find someone who can look at the a/c fault. It is Sunday and we pray the he finds someone who can do more than 'look at it'.

Ram picks us up at the alloted time and he is a happy man. The 'cocoon of cool' has returned. We head off to see the Mehrangarh Fort and the Jaswant Thada.

Mehrangarh Fort is one hundred feet high and is built on a perpendicular cliff, four hundred feet above the sky line of Jodhpur. Again we ask the question "How did they build this?" It is magnificent. The best quote we have found is from Rudyard Kipling, who called it “the work of giants”. Today, it is acknowledged as the finest living example of a Hindu fortress.

Ram drops us at the entrance and we purchase our tickets. One of the tips we got here was that for 15 Rupees (about 50 cents) you could get an elevator to the top and then explore as you walk down. We did this and by the time we were completed and finally reached the bottom we realised there was no way Lynn could have climbed all the stairs to the top and then enjoy the place. The extent of the climb or the availability of the elevator are not prominent near the ticket booth so we were glad for the tip.

From the top there were spectacular views of Jodhpur with its blue buildings. Whereas Jaipur is known as the "pink city" because the Maharajah commanded that all buildings in the old city be painted pink, Jodhpur is know as the "blue city". The reason the houses are blue is that they have a terrible termite problem and the only way to get rid of them was to add Copper Sulphate to the whitewash. Over time this changed to blue.

The Fort was fascinating with a good display of things to look at and overall was quite well preserved. It took us about an hour to walk down. We then proceeded by car to Jaswant Thada which is about 200 metres down the hill.

It is a white marble memorial built by Sardar Singh in 1899 in memory of Maharja Jaswant Singh II. The monument, in its entirety, is built out of intricately carved sheets of marble. Within this cenotaph, there are also two more tombs. The Jaswant Thada is a traditional cremation ground of Jodhpur rulers. The grounds are also comprised of exquisitely carved gazebos, a beautiful multi-tiered garden, and a small lake.