India - Rajasthan Part 2 - The 'Blue City' - Jodphur

The advantages to being in India during the off season are the reduced rates on accommodation and the lack of the tourist hoards everywhere you go. The disadvantages however is the searing heat, reduced facilities available and far fewer transportation options. Due to the latter we had to take a taxi from Udaipur, via the Maharajas fort of Kumbulgarh and the Jain temple of Ranakpur and onto the city on the edge of India’s great desert, the Thar desert, Jodhpur. Both sites date back to the 1400's,

Kumbulgarh was apparently never defeated as a fort, and boasts what they claim is the 2nd largest defence wall next to China's great wall, as its outer perimeter. Stretching for some 37kms around the surrounding mountain tops with various temples and strategic fighting posts dotted within.


Ranakpur on the other hand couldn't be more different in its fundamental purpose. It dates back to the 14th century and being a Jainist temple, which is a sort of version of Hinduism and Buddhism, its main philosophy centres around the non violent approach to all living things. For this reason even leather belts have to be removed before entering the temple as it is deemed that leather is acquired through violent actions to animals. From the outside the temple is similar in style to Indonesia's great Hindu temples of Prambanan, though once inside it takes on a very different form. Intricately carved entirely from white marble and sandstone, the myriad of pillars, columns, stupas, ceilings, doors, platforms and walls is very impressive. Not being of any particular religious leaning ourselves we are able to take these structures at face value and architectural merit, and on these fronts alone the temple of Ranakpur ranks as one of the most impressive of all the temples we have seen during our entire trip.

As a desert state, it comes as a bit of a surprise to find out that a large part of Rajasthan’s economy is based on agriculture however most of it is at a subsistence level, and as we passed through numerous small villages and towns witnessing the people going about their daily routines.... pumping water from wells, carrying bundles of crops on their heads and working the land and all with an explosion of colour, the beautifully bright and vibrant colours that everyone wears, acting as a stark contrast to the largely parched and barren landscapes of the desert. A common site would also prove to be overladen transport whether it be commercial trucks or local transport... men and women hanging on for dear life for fear of there never being another bus or truck passing that way again!

The Israeli girl who ran the hotel we stayed at in Udaipur described Jodhpur as the garbage dump of Rajasthan. Hundreds of stray cows freely roam the streets, meaning piles of cow dung all over the place, clogged open sewers run through the narrow overcrowded streets of the old town and litter is just dumped anywhere and everywhere. Their view on it was along the lines of 'until India develops a proper and effective method for garbage disposal why waste the time and effort in collecting it all up just to take it to an empty space 5kms out of town just to dump it on the ground again'... there are clearly a few simple ways that we could’ve responded to that point of view with, but it was already too hot to get into any sort of debate, heated or not. So why go to Jodhpur? You may well ask.

Litter, cow shit, open sewers, pollution, over crowdedness and noise aside, it is actually quite a nice place. Rose tinted specs preferable obviously; fortunately we purchased ours some time ago, as they only had shit tinted specs for sale in Jodhpur. A medieval walled city packed with narrow winding lanes and streets, packed with markets and bazaars, it has something of a Moroccan feel about it. Set out on the very edge of the Thar Desert, a mountain with an incredibly grand and elaborate fortified palace stands within the middle of the old city from where the Maharajas would hold court over the city. Jodhpur is known as the ‘blue city’ and a large proportion of the buildings are painted a powder blue, apparently for not only aesthetic purposes, but the chemicals in the paint acting as an insect repellent and keep termites etc out of the buildings.

The cliff top fort that dominates the Jodhpur skyline, is known as Mehrangarh is one of the most impressive forts in Rajasthan. It is now open to the public and run by descendants of the Maharajas. It is a beautifully elaborate piece of architecture with a Palace within the walls. It was built in the 1800’s and still contains many historical artifacts housed in a museum within the palace rooms. Looking out from the hilltop, you can see a mausoleum in the distance belonging to the last ruling Maharaja, and another half palace, half hotel where the current 'would’ve been heir' now lives. The Maharaja now being powerless since Indian independence from British rule in 1949, his role in life now seems to be conservation of the Maharaja properties and legacy.

Jodhpur was the hottest place we had been to yet as well, reaching 48 degrees, which really is as bad as it sounds and aircon was an essential when it came to booking accommodation albeit non on the units really cooled the air unless you slept within 1m of the actual unit... not really practical. After a couple of uncomfortable nights, we jumped on a bus the following morning heading back to Jaipur, to the best place we have stayed at yet in India, the Krishna Palace for a night before we travel on to the town of Bundi in the morning.