We said goodbye to Jaipur around 9am and headed west to Jodhpur, 330kms, or 6 1/2 hrs driving including a couple of stops. Yes even on the highways here you only allow about 50-60km/hr average driving speeds, this allows for the road conditions, cows, dogs, goats, motor bikes and trucks that you have to negoiate along the way.
We went through many small and larger towns on the way, including Makrana, where the marble for the Taj Mahal was mined. We stopped for lunch at about 1pm, Deb and I had Matar Paneer with naan and rice, (that’s peas and cottage cheese). this is one of our favourite curries.
Jodhpur is the home of that very stylish form of pants bearing the same name, popular among the riding community. They were invented here in1887 and soon became a fashion statement in England with the tailors of Savile Row being kept busy making them for the gentry.
We arrived at the Umaid Bhawan Palace at 3pm and were shown to our room, much to our delight our room had been upgraded to a suite. Four rooms and a walk through wardrobe, plus a very deep bath.
In the afternoon we did a tour of the Palace and enjoyed learing a bit about our new home for the next 2 nights. The Marharaja still lives here in the other half of the Palace, and we saw him this afternoon in one of the hotel open areas.
We decided to have dinner out on the terrace and watched the pre- diwali fireworks that are going off everywhere. Indians love their fireworks.
After dinner we were walking back to our suite, and taking the opportunity to explore a bit more. We looked in the smoking room, which didn’t smell of smoke but had an eclectic collection of old world books, we poked our heads into the Trophy Bar, full of the heads of beasts killed by the royals and the tusks of a couple of very big elephants, and then finally to the Billiard Room. We decide to have a game and had so much fun, the snooker was bad but it was fun imagining who may have played on this royal full sized table.
We are both looking forward to tomorrow, and sharing Diwali with the locals.
Observations of India
* It seems that the Massey Ferguson is the tractor of choice here. There are lots of them in use and lots of new ones on the back of trucks being distributed around the country side. The use of bullocks isn’t going to disappear anytime soon, but at a bit over $10,000 the Massey Ferguson is making a dent.
* Today is the last of the one day cricket matches of the Australian tour of India. We listened to part of the match on the car radio during the drive. It is interesting that the radio broadcast is in both Hindi and English, alternate 3 overs of each (We lost)
* Speaking of cricket, it seems that the population here is either a cricket fanatic, or don’t follow the game at all. It seems that everyone interested in cricket have a favourite player and know all their stats backwards, as well as a very good knowledge of every other player, for both India and Australia.
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Awesome!! I finally sat down and read one full week of your adventures in India.
I remember reading someone else’s comment saying that reading the blog, they felt they too were there with you – I must agree.
I’m thoroughly enjoying my “escape” from the real world – I’m loving India!!
Thanks for sharing, Deb & Greg. It’s great reading! xo