Namaste

Well we have managed to stay in the same place for 2 days and are still in Jodphur!!

Today we took in the sights of the city with Raju, from just about everywhere in the city you can see the Meherangarh Fort which is huge and looks impressive from a distance so we couldn't wait to get inside for a look around. We would have to wait for at least 45 minutes as we made a stop at Jaswant Thada, built from milky marble as a memorial to a Maharajah by his wife, it sits around 1km from the fort and also looks down over the blue city.

Once at the fort we opted for an audio guide and strapped on our headsets then entered through the huge gates, no sooner had we entered you could see holes in the walls where cannonballs had hit during battles, from here the path twisted its way uphill to another gate built at 90 degrees to the path to stop elephants charging it!!!

The audio guide steered us from one courtyard to the next and unlike the fort at Jaisalmer this is free from shops and people living inside it. As usual there was not a cloud in the sky and we enjoyed the cooling shade that the fort offered us. We climbed higher through the fort to the ramparts where we got great views of the indigo blue houses belonging to the Brahmins, it is said the blue colour keeps the houses cool and repels insects as well, but it is also why Jodphur is called the "Blue City"

Near the end of our tour Mel opted for her palm reading by Dr Sharma the astrologer, he was very precise with his analysis of Mel and got her down to a tee calling her grumpy and stern (only kidding!!!!) but he did tell her a lot of things that were accurate and it was good fun to watch, I declined having mine done as watching was enough for me.

By now 3 hours had passed and we were ready for lunch, as ever Raju found us a great restaurant where we refueled on Aloo Pushkara (stuffed potatoes) and Mutter mushroom (pea and mushroom curry) and of cause chappattis all of which was delicious. We have been vegetarian for a week now and I have to say the choice of food is so wide I have not missed meat yet.

Once fed we tackled the markets by the clocktower, this place is manic with rickshaws spewing out exhaust fumes and kicking up dust.They sell everything from houseware to handles and spices to shoes here but after an hour the heat and dust got the better of us so we retreated to the car to take us back to the hotel where we had a cold beer and relaxed for a while. Tonight surprisingly we are having curry for dinner, although Mel told me today that a curry diet exists!!!!

Tomorrow (Sunday) we leave for the drive further south to Ranakphur for an overnight stop before continuing onto Udaipur.

Lots of love

M & M

xx