Jodhpur, the Blue City

To take us 250 km from the Indian city of Udaipur to our next stop, Jodhpur, we organized a taxi. This meant that we could to stop half way to visit a UNESCO fort that we wanted to see.

The massive walls of Kumbhalgarh Fort (UNESCO)

Three hours later and a very bumpy ride through Indian roadworks, we reached the Kumbhalgarh Fort.

The main fort and wall were built between 1445 and 1458, but it appears it was built over the remains of an earlier structure dating back to the 2nd century.

The fort wall is huge, and built to accommodate eight horses abreast. It is around 38 km long making it the second longest wall in the world, after the Great Wall of China. Needless to say, we didn’t walk around all of it!

Kumbhalgarh Fort's walls-8 horses wide

But we did manage to get to the top of the Fort’s hill and stronghold, for a spectacular view out over the surrounding countryside. Stunning.

Moving on, our driver, doing his best for the cross-India rally, was taking terrible risks on the narrow winding road. Marg asked him to slow down; and just as well, because we met a big lumbering bus rounding the next bend on our side of the road.

Fortunately, we had slowed enough to miss it. 

After a couple more hours, we reached Jodhpur, the Blue City, sitting on the edge of the Thar Desert.

Marg in Jodhpur, the Blue City

Our driver didn’t know exactly where our accommodation was, and so for about the 5th time on this India tour, Leigh used her phone’s offline GPS to guide the taxi driver.

Heading deeper into the old city of Jodhpur, our driver realized that the road was becoming too narrow for his small Suzuki car, so he suddenly stopped.

Then, after alarmingly raised voices between our driver and various tuktuk drivers, we decamped to a tuktuk which took us the final 1 km to our hotel.

Street to the Raj Mandir Boutique Homestay, Jodhpur

The driver did well getting us in that far really as our accommodation, Raj Mandir Boutique Homestay, was in a very narrow part of the old city where cars couldn’t go – it doesn’t tell you that on the GPS!

But there we were, right in the middle of lots of blue buildings within Jodhpur’s old walled city.

The small street at the homestay entrance was clogged with refuse, but once inside, we were very happy. It was a gorgeous old building, decorated with old film posters and beautiful furniture. 

Marg in a waiting room at the Raj Mandir Homestay

A very narrow and steep staircase led us to our spacious and clean room with a lovely modern bathroom.

A rooftop restaurant gave us a wonderful view of the city’s fort looming above us on a huge rocky outcrop. It is spectacular!

The next day, the temperature was 40 degrees, but bearable in the shade, so we took a short walk up the road to the visit the fort.

The Mehrangarh Fort viewed from our homestay

The imposing 15th century Mehrangarh Fort is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Fort’s palace is now a museum with a wide range of interesting exhibits.

It is a stunning Fort in terms of its size, the beautiful architecture within the walls, and the the art and museum pieces. 

We wandered through the many opulent rooms, managing to avoid the tour groups, and enjoyed seeing the items on show. 

One of the beautiful Palace rooms at the Mehrangarh Fort

Near the end, we stopped for a cooling drink and some food at a lovely restaurant in one of the Fort’s courtyards.

The next day, we spent some time just wandering around the little streets of Jodhpur.

We loved looking at the blue buildings and tiny one-man shops, while avoiding roaming cows, Brahma bulls, dogs, pigs, whizzing scooters and tuktuks. People were very friendly and we got lots of smiles and greetings.

The following day, we went walking through the lovely old market area toward the clock tower.

Spice seller in Jodhpur market area

However, the heat got to us (it was 42 degrees), and it was too hot to walk far, so we grabbed a tuktuk for the rest of our little trip.

Coming back towards our hotel, a large bevy of tuktuks (including ours), became gridlocked at an intersection of the narrow roads. 

We sat for ages baking in the hot sun with everyone tooting, yelling, and waiting for someone to move.

Tuktuk havoc

Then a policeman directing traffic spotted us, and stopped everyone to let our tutuk through. Nice man! We drove through waving at everyone like royalty, simply because they all waved at us.

Actually, it’s been like that everywhere we have been (except in Delhi and Kolkata). People are so lovely, and they say hi, want a selfie with us, and want to know where we are from; and people are constantly waving and smiling at us. 

Makes you feel pretty special.

Jodhpur the blue city

And, in case you were wondering…….those sexy (not) pants with giant thigh space called jodhpurs in colonial India, were designed by the Maharaja of Jodhpur's son, here in Jodhpur. 

They were worn by his polo team when visiting the Queen of England in 1887 and the English adopted them – hence the name…….Jodhpurs.

Jodhpur has been a lovely place to visit and we have really enjoyed it here. But the temperature is climbing as we move on to Jaisalmer in the Thar Desert, our next stop. 

The above blog is part of our 2-month tour of India. The first blog on this tour is called "Off to Delhi".