jodhpur and pushkar

so i flew from bengaluru to jodhpur via mumbai and udaipur over 2 days. the flight from bengaluru was with jet airways and it was lush, i had my own little tv screen on which i watched some scrubs and house, and the food was actually tolerable. when i got to mumbai i knew i was in for a pricey stay as i needed to stay near the airport which meant staying in one of the trendier suburbs of juhu beach or bandra. the first place i went to wanted 9000 rupees but the room was a dive, so i went on to the jw marriot. i had a huge room which was opulently decorated and had a stunning view of the arabian ocean, free broadband internetting, free laundry, 3 swimming pools (i made sure i went in each one) and a spa. the restaurants were pretty great as well. all in all it was a slice of rich india that was sorely needed. i don't think i told you in my last post about the termites i had in hampi. sit there and grind your teeth for a second - that was the sound coming from my bed and those of you that know me well know that i am a big wuss who doesn't like beasties very much. so i got about 2 hours sleep each night in hampi. in bengaluru at about 2am some bloke tried to get into my room, and then walked up and down outside it grumbling and banging on the door. so again (swiss army knife and a chair at the ready) i didn't get much sleep that night either. by the time i got to mumbai i really needed some kip.

the next day my chauffer (wooop!) took me to the airport for my flight to jodhpur with air india. i had heard horror stories about them being crap, surly and really bumpy at takeoff and landing and i can confirm that air india are indeed crap. but i didn't care, i was in jodhpur! i grabbed a rikshaw to the guesthouse the girls had picked (yogi's) and had a beer on the roof terrace gawping at the immense mehrangarh fort looming over the blue city while i waited for them to get back from the market. we had a nice bite to eat and a drink or two talking about our experiences in the week since we had parted company. there was lots of giggling which was nice and i was glad that i had decided to come and meet them. we got chatting to an aussie guy who had been travelling for the past 18 months the lucky sod and he said that if we did one thing in jodhpur it had to be the audio tour of the fort.

so the next morning that's just what we did, and it was great. the narrator was really good, he didn't bog us down with too much history or too many facts. just enough for us to get a basic understanding of what life was like at the fort and how the maharajas lived. the views from the top across the old city were stunning, the blue painted buildings all huddled together against a harsh desert backdrop. we happily wandered around the fort for a few hours before toddling back down the hill for our next appointment, a cooking lesson. an indian lady had offered to teach us how to make a few dishes so she took us into her home and set about teaching us how to make toasted masala sandwiches, pav bhajji, some crazy paneer masala, gulab jamon and about 7 different rotis. she was wonderful and told me to video her teaching us so we could watch rather than write down what she was saying. i was touched that she had let 3 complete strangers into her kitchen, with her kids running around and her daily life going on in the background. we bought some spices from her husband and we headed off into the crazy maze of streets 3 very happy bunnies. we had a wander around, bought some bits and bobs and headed back to yogi's for a game of cards and a drink (saffron tea is now my new favourite thing by the way).

earlier we had bumped into a girl called anne, who kim and hannah had met in jaisalmer and we had arranged to meet her at the omelette man for tea. the omelette man is a little dude with a stall outside the market clock tower area who makes the best omelettes ever and has become a traveller's waypoint that must be visited. he claims to go through 1500 eggs each day and i can see why as they were yum. he has a secret sauce that he wouldn't give away the secret to (wouldn't be much of a secret then i guess...)

the next day was travel day so we packed up and headed to the bus station. next stop... pushkar... on the local bus. 6 hours later we arrived to noise, a wedding parade, and non-stop hassle "you want rikshaw you want room we have fine guesthouse you want shoppings" it amazes me how many times you have to say no to people before you end up screaming at them. we looked at a couple of rooms and settled for the diamond guest house, 80 rupees a night for my concrete cell. awesome. pushkar is a very holy place, so no drinking, no photography on the lake or at the ghats and no drugs. someone should tell the israelis.... at the moment hannah and i are in an internet shop grumbling about the fact that crap internet just makes us grumpy and we really shouldn't bother.

i couldn't do that to you now could i though? :D