Travel to Jodhpur

Our day began with a home cooked breakfast at the home stay, after that it was time to say bye to Jawai. 

We did not have any stops and drove straight to Jodhpur. Jodhpur is the second largest city in Rajasthan and is known as the “blue city” due to its blue buildings. The city is build around the massive Mehrangarh fort which lies on top of the hill. 

We drove around Umaid Bawan palace, which is the current palace of the Jodhpur maharaja as well as a luxury hotel. This is one of the newest palaces in the world, which was constructed less than 100 years ago. 

Next we headed to the old town of Jodhpur, which is lined by small streets but still hustling and bustling with bikes and autos. First we started at the old clock tower (Ghantar Ghar). The clock was sourced from London and we were lucky enough to meet the person who looks after the functioning of this clock. The clock is wound once a week on a Thursday and the kids got to lift the heavy lever he uses. 

After that we met up with our pre arranged guide to take us around old blue city. The Brahmins at the time painted their houses in blue, and the number of arches they had in their houses signified how senior they were. This got Savik excited and counting all the arches at houses. Even though it is chaotic in the streets life seems very slow here, with people sitting in front of their houses chatting away or playing cards. 

“Jodhpurians” if that is a word, are meant be the highest chai drinkers in the world, with up to 10 to 12 cups a day. Kids were excited to see the man with  the “best” moustache in Jodhpur while we were walking. 

After visiting a few landmarks, we had a quick street food dinner which the kids loved and headed back to our Airbnb. 

Tomorrow will be the time to explore the fort with a different angle on a Zipline.

 

Kumbalgarh, Ranakpur and Jawai

 

We hired our Uber driver from the airport for the next three days to take us to all the places he told us about on our first day.

We started with Kumbalgarh, (Great Wall of India) it’s the largest fort wall in India (38km) and the second largest in the world (after Great Wall of China). It had 360 temples but now, 87 are functioning. The fort divides the Mewar and Marwar lands. We shared a guide with another family who had 3 boys one of them was Savik’s age and they bonded quite easily.

It was interesting listening to the story of how the fort kept collapsing and to rectify this, a priest sacrificed himself and how his headless body kept moving on horseback. 

The views from the top were amazing and we all got to walk on the wall (Hopefully we get to do this in China).

Next stop was Ranakpur, to visit the Jain temple. This is one of the largest Jain temples in the world and wow how beautiful it was. The white marble building with the intricate carvings, and the single marble statues were so intriguing. Above all the serene, quiet and peaceful background makes you slow down and admire the place.

Back in the car again to get to Jawai. We are doing a home stay and they hire out jeeps to go out and explore the village. 

Whoa what an experience that was, they drive you up and down rocky mountains with you holding on to your dear life. The kids were screaming and laughing at the same time as were the adults. Before the ride they guarantee you, that you will see a leopard 99% of the time. We were initially all excited to see peacocks, monkeys, and crocodiles and as the light started fading, were feeling anxious that we might be the unlucky 1%. By then we saw so many peacocks that when we saw another peacock we were hoping to see one being eaten by a leopard. 

 The views were breathtaking, and everybody agreed, this was the best sunset they had seen so far on this holiday.

As dusk settled in we were all feeling a bit low and then there was a surge of activity with all the jeeps scampering to get to a place. When we got there we were shown a leopard far away in the distance which was quite hard to visualise even with a pair of binoculars. Hoping they didn’t count that as a sighting. Our driver Vinod was feeling a bit glum as well and was determined to find some leopards. After roaming around a few places we were lucky to spot a pack of leopards. 6!!! in total. 2 adults and the cubs walking along the top of a rocky mountain, clearly visible through the binoculars. We were all overjoyed by this sighting. Then the cherry on top was when we came down the hill and the pack just passed next to us and were visible to our naked eyes.

Wow what an end to the day. We all agreed that this was one of our best days we’ve had in our travels. It was hard to believe that we didn’t even know about these places 3 days ago. Going to bed happy wondering what would be in store tomorrow.

 

Udaipur - Cenotaphs, lakes and Ghats .

Savik was feeling a bit better so we went to see the rest of the things on our list . I really wanted to see the Ahar Cenotaphs after reading about them in a blog. They are the area where the kings (and their wives performing sati) were cremated and domes were built at the site to immortalise them. Our taxi driver, random dude on a motorbike and a man we met inside the campus gave us information about the area. The common thread I noticed is how proud they all are of their heritage and of being from Udaipur (the white city that has been undefeated). You can no longer enter the area of the Cenotoaphs but walk around the walls and admire them from the outside . 

We then walked around the Fateh Sagar lake and it appears Maggi and momos have taken over India . 

In the evening we went to Ambrai Ghat and there were two men taking an entrance fee , not sure how legitimate it is but the place is beautiful so it’s worth paying for it. The view is so pretty  that we went to the Ambrai Hotel for dinner. The kids got to witness their first wedding proposal, such a gorgeous backdrop for it . 

Last night in Udaipur, even with the sickness, it’s been one of the best places I have been to in India .