Days 9-12
Our final day in Jaisalmer was spent sitting around waiting for our evening train to depart to Jodhpur. It was incredibility hot, too hot for any sort of sight seeing and to be honest apart from the fort, the desert, and the stunning havelis there didn't seem to a lot else we could do there anyway.
Our train pulled into Jodphur's hectic station which I now accept is the norm for India, and our guesthouse pickup was there to met us in the hustle and quickly whizzed us to the homestay. Our hosts were Mr and Mrs Singh, an affluent couple living in a large house in Jodphur suburbs with no less than 8 staff to run the place for the 2 of them and their guests (we were the only guests). Over the course of our stay we discovered that Mr Singh was a 6th cousin once removed ( I think) from the current Maharaja (Indian King) of Jodphur and attended the wedding of the Maharaja's son a few years previous. Like myself he also was educated by the Irish Christian Brothers in a boarding school in Mount Abu, a hill station in Rajasthan along with other privileged Indian boys. At school, when learning about the Christian Brother's work in other countries I imagined (I am pretty sure it was implied by the school though!) that the Brother's did missionary work in countries like India, educating the street children and helping out the poor of India's slums. But, here they were running boarding schools for the rich and making a tidy profit no doubt!
We took a tour of the Mehrangarh Fort and the Umaid Bhavan Palace, better know as Jodphur Palace. The fort was built by the Rathore clan in the 15th century for extra security and what a natural fortress this is. Rising up above the Old City on a protruding rock, my wife commented that it is very similar set up to Edinburgh castle, it reminded me of something from Indiana Jones the Temple of Doom! The Rathores are a clan of Rajputs and their Maharaja (Indian King) had to be a skilled diplomat to retain his position and hold all of the clans together. This diplomacy stood them in good stead when the Moghuls came around and they ensured that they were well in with the rulers of India's Premier empire by marrying off their princesses to Moghul aristocracy and exchanging gifts with their Muslim overlords. Indeed by the time Shah Jahan came around he was actually 3/4 Rajput! However Shah Jahan's son, Aurangzeb was more of a zealot and he loathed the Rathores and their Hindu faith and he made war with them. However the Rathore's were slippy customers and after initially fleeing their fort they were soon back in their fortress in Jodphur after Aruangzeb's death. Aurangzeb reign signalled the end of the Moghul dominance in India and they were never as great again. The Rathores on the other hand were smart enough to befriend the British when the time came and are still there to this day. While Indra Ghandi ensured that none of India's Maharajas have any political power anymore they are still wealthy beyond belief as our visit to the palace provides ample evidence off this.
The information at Jodphur Palace told us that it was built in the 1930's as part of a "Famine Relief Program" for Jodphur. I smirked at this, as there was similar programs to build a series of follys around Ireland during the potato famine. Looking at it from a 21st century point of view, while we acknowledge that providing work, pay and food to starving thousands of people is keeping them alive, at the end of day it is taking advantage of their misfortune. However I don't have any doubt that the older sites we have visited were built using questionable labour methods, its just that they weren't documented at the time. In any case the palace itself is a magnificent building sitting atop a hill on the outskirts of the city. Unfortunately we could only see a tiny part of this building along with a collection of some of the Maharaja's vintage car collection including 3 RollsRoyce. Indeed as we were leaving there was a 1947 Buick was pulling out of the elite hotel which encompasses most of the palace, which will set you back a cool $800 a night.
That evening we had dinner and a discussion on tourism and drinking culture with the Singh's friends and work colleagues. The food was fantastic, easily the best we have had to date in India. It was also interesting to have a conversation with some Indians who weren't hell bent on trying to flog us something or rip us off .
The next day we were up early for a bus ride to the lake city of Udapuir. We were told that the journey would take six or six and a half hours , maybe seven. A full eight hours later we trundled our way into Udapuir after a journey where the distance to Udapuir seemed to be increasing! Occasionally we would catch a glimpse of sign that said Udapuir 32km and 10minutes up the road we would see another sign that said Udapuir 35km. Our conclusion was that the bus driver and conductor were scouring the hinterlands of Udapuir looking for business. In any case it left us thoroughly frustrated and in bad humour by the time we we arrived in the ciy itself. A downpour as we were arriving only added to our anger and after checking in and a brief nap we set about exploring Udapuir in our foul mood. A young Indian fellow almost felt the full wrath of my frustration when he cut it in front of my wife at a turnstile for pedestrians. I had went through the turnstile when my wife who was following exclaimed, "Excuse Me!" I turned around, saw that this fellow had cut in front of her, saw red, and decided to push the turnstile back on him. My wife then entered the turnstile and went through. I passed on some words of wisdom to the young chap that I often received from my father "you would need to learn some manners!". To my surprise he was incredibly obliging through the whole episode, he seemed to accept that he was in the wrong and that I was just righting that wrong. It was either that or he seen that I had the red mist and was in no mood for compromise. He walked on past us without a murmur, like the whole thing hadn't happened!
Udapuir is known as the city of lakes and is in a wonderful setting. The restaurants and hotels make sure that everyone knows that the James Bond film Octopussy was filmed here. The film was centered around the beautiful Lake Palace in Lake Pichola, which looks like it is floating in the lake. The city has also many other temples, ghats and palaces which all combine to make the city wonderfully picturesque. After witnessing some sort of ceremony in the Jagdish Mandir Temple to Vishnu (the Hindu preserver God) we headed to Udapuir Palace, which is home of yet another Rajput clan the Sisodas. The Sisodas ruled over the Kingdown of Meewar and the Palace was the seat of their power. Unlike their Rajput neighbours the Rathores were in no mood for compromise with the Mogul's, British or anyone else that came their way. They didn't exchange gifts, marry off thir princesses or anything else, they always stood their ground as Hindu Maharaja never compromising their Kingdom beliefs or bloodline. This has gained them respect throughout India and they are now known as the Maharana (King of Kings). However from what I could gather the histroy seems to be slighly skewed from the information I read on the placards in the Palace. For example they fought the Moghuls in a huge battle in the 16th century, which according to the Palace the Sisodas won the battle in a convincing route. But they then had to made a tactical retreat, give up their palace in Udapuir and decided to make a new capital elsewhere! Sounds like a defeat to me but sure they are entitled to interpret their own history especially as they are now back in Udapuir and still going strong.
A boat trip around the lake and the relaxed mood of Udapuir has lifted our spirits significantly and we feel that we are back on top of India again. However we now head back into the "Golden Triangle" tomorrow where the hawkers, touts and scammers are more extreme. A shop keeper told us today that it should be known as the "Bermuda Triangle" because of the amount of money that goes missing there! However we feel that we are battle hardened now and with a few Hindi phrases such as "chello" (Go away) we will be taking no prisoners!
Advice we received from the Californian couple in Jaisamler told us to head to the Taj Mahal before the weekend and its closed on Fridays. So we have decided to end our tour of Rajasthan by skipping Jaipur, and we will head straight to Agra on a train tonight. We will arrive there tomorrow, so hopefully we will be able to see a few of the "other" sights in Agra such as the Fort (yes another one!) before hitting the Taj at sunrise on Thursday.
Word has also reached me that Mayo have shocked Dublin in the All-Ireland football semi final to set the most unlikely meeting possible with Donegal in the final. I am slighly annoyed that I most likely won't be able to see this match however I am glad that an "unlikely" team will be taking the Sam Maguire cup home this year. Though I don't like the Donegal style of play it would be difficult for me not to will them on to win their 2nd title but then Mayo have had a long wait with many disappointments. Still there is a few weeks yet to decide mt allegiance!
Our final day in Jaisalmer was spent sitting around waiting for our evening train to depart to Jodhpur. It was incredibility hot, too hot for any sort of sight seeing and to be honest apart from the fort, the desert, and the stunning havelis there didn't seem to a lot else we could do there anyway.
Our train pulled into Jodphur's hectic station which I now accept is the norm for India, and our guesthouse pickup was there to met us in the hustle and quickly whizzed us to the homestay. Our hosts were Mr and Mrs Singh, an affluent couple living in a large house in Jodphur suburbs with no less than 8 staff to run the place for the 2 of them and their guests (we were the only guests). Over the course of our stay we discovered that Mr Singh was a 6th cousin once removed ( I think) from the current Maharaja (Indian King) of Jodphur and attended the wedding of the Maharaja's son a few years previous. Like myself he also was educated by the Irish Christian Brothers in a boarding school in Mount Abu, a hill station in Rajasthan along with other privileged Indian boys. At school, when learning about the Christian Brother's work in other countries I imagined (I am pretty sure it was implied by the school though!) that the Brother's did missionary work in countries like India, educating the street children and helping out the poor of India's slums. But, here they were running boarding schools for the rich and making a tidy profit no doubt!
We took a tour of the Mehrangarh Fort and the Umaid Bhavan Palace, better know as Jodphur Palace. The fort was built by the Rathore clan in the 15th century for extra security and what a natural fortress this is. Rising up above the Old City on a protruding rock, my wife commented that it is very similar set up to Edinburgh castle, it reminded me of something from Indiana Jones the Temple of Doom! The Rathores are a clan of Rajputs and their Maharaja (Indian King) had to be a skilled diplomat to retain his position and hold all of the clans together. This diplomacy stood them in good stead when the Moghuls came around and they ensured that they were well in with the rulers of India's Premier empire by marrying off their princesses to Moghul aristocracy and exchanging gifts with their Muslim overlords. Indeed by the time Shah Jahan came around he was actually 3/4 Rajput! However Shah Jahan's son, Aurangzeb was more of a zealot and he loathed the Rathores and their Hindu faith and he made war with them. However the Rathore's were slippy customers and after initially fleeing their fort they were soon back in their fortress in Jodphur after Aruangzeb's death. Aurangzeb reign signalled the end of the Moghul dominance in India and they were never as great again. The Rathores on the other hand were smart enough to befriend the British when the time came and are still there to this day. While Indra Ghandi ensured that none of India's Maharajas have any political power anymore they are still wealthy beyond belief as our visit to the palace provides ample evidence off this.
The next day we were up early for a bus ride to the lake city of Udapuir. We were told that the journey would take six or six and a half hours , maybe seven. A full eight hours later we trundled our way into Udapuir after a journey where the distance to Udapuir seemed to be increasing! Occasionally we would catch a glimpse of sign that said Udapuir 32km and 10minutes up the road we would see another sign that said Udapuir 35km. Our conclusion was that the bus driver and conductor were scouring the hinterlands of Udapuir looking for business. In any case it left us thoroughly frustrated and in bad humour by the time we we arrived in the ciy itself. A downpour as we were arriving only added to our anger and after checking in and a brief nap we set about exploring Udapuir in our foul mood. A young Indian fellow almost felt the full wrath of my frustration when he cut it in front of my wife at a turnstile for pedestrians. I had went through the turnstile when my wife who was following exclaimed, "Excuse Me!" I turned around, saw that this fellow had cut in front of her, saw red, and decided to push the turnstile back on him. My wife then entered the turnstile and went through. I passed on some words of wisdom to the young chap that I often received from my father "you would need to learn some manners!". To my surprise he was incredibly obliging through the whole episode, he seemed to accept that he was in the wrong and that I was just righting that wrong. It was either that or he seen that I had the red mist and was in no mood for compromise. He walked on past us without a murmur, like the whole thing hadn't happened!
Udapuir is known as the city of lakes and is in a wonderful setting. The restaurants and hotels make sure that everyone knows that the James Bond film Octopussy was filmed here. The film was centered around the beautiful Lake Palace in Lake Pichola, which looks like it is floating in the lake. The city has also many other temples, ghats and palaces which all combine to make the city wonderfully picturesque. After witnessing some sort of ceremony in the Jagdish Mandir Temple to Vishnu (the Hindu preserver God) we headed to Udapuir Palace, which is home of yet another Rajput clan the Sisodas. The Sisodas ruled over the Kingdown of Meewar and the Palace was the seat of their power. Unlike their Rajput neighbours the Rathores were in no mood for compromise with the Mogul's, British or anyone else that came their way. They didn't exchange gifts, marry off thir princesses or anything else, they always stood their ground as Hindu Maharaja never compromising their Kingdom beliefs or bloodline. This has gained them respect throughout India and they are now known as the Maharana (King of Kings). However from what I could gather the histroy seems to be slighly skewed from the information I read on the placards in the Palace. For example they fought the Moghuls in a huge battle in the 16th century, which according to the Palace the Sisodas won the battle in a convincing route. But they then had to made a tactical retreat, give up their palace in Udapuir and decided to make a new capital elsewhere! Sounds like a defeat to me but sure they are entitled to interpret their own history especially as they are now back in Udapuir and still going strong.
A boat trip around the lake and the relaxed mood of Udapuir has lifted our spirits significantly and we feel that we are back on top of India again. However we now head back into the "Golden Triangle" tomorrow where the hawkers, touts and scammers are more extreme. A shop keeper told us today that it should be known as the "Bermuda Triangle" because of the amount of money that goes missing there! However we feel that we are battle hardened now and with a few Hindi phrases such as "chello" (Go away) we will be taking no prisoners!
Advice we received from the Californian couple in Jaisamler told us to head to the Taj Mahal before the weekend and its closed on Fridays. So we have decided to end our tour of Rajasthan by skipping Jaipur, and we will head straight to Agra on a train tonight. We will arrive there tomorrow, so hopefully we will be able to see a few of the "other" sights in Agra such as the Fort (yes another one!) before hitting the Taj at sunrise on Thursday.
Word has also reached me that Mayo have shocked Dublin in the All-Ireland football semi final to set the most unlikely meeting possible with Donegal in the final. I am slighly annoyed that I most likely won't be able to see this match however I am glad that an "unlikely" team will be taking the Sam Maguire cup home this year. Though I don't like the Donegal style of play it would be difficult for me not to will them on to win their 2nd title but then Mayo have had a long wait with many disappointments. Still there is a few weeks yet to decide mt allegiance!
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