The Road to Jodhpur

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Originally uploaded by susiebarber

This morning at 9:00am we left Udaipur for Jodhpur. I thought “250 km, not bad”. Little did I know that the first half of the journey wound through the mountains, often on single laned road with no pavement. It was slow at best. And then there were the pilgrms. They were marching either to the Zen Temple, which we stopped at briefly, or from the temple toward Jodhpur. Even once we hit flat paved road, we couldn’t go very fast. There were so many pilgrims that cars, trucks, etc. were slowing down to pass them. Thousands. I couldn’t get over it. They were all walking (although a few were on bicycles or motorcycles) with their flags flying and carrying their luggage. I saw parents with babies strung between them hammock style in a sari, both men and women walking with luggage on their heads, people washing their laundry at stops on the side of the road, and some even taking a rest or napping. Truly unbelievable. Anand went on this type of pilgrimage with his family when he was a child. His trek was only 100km round trip and took 5 days. I know that some of these people are walking for much further.

We arrived at the hotel around 2pm. This is by far the nicest room I’ve had in India – not only is it beautifully decorated, but it’s clean! I’m posting some pictures. After a quick lunch we headed to the Umaid Bhawan Palace overlooking the city. It’s the residence for the Mahraja, so I only got to go into a small part and no photos were allowed. The bit that I was allowed into was a museum, with info on the building of the palace (in the 1940’s and 50’s), the history of the Maharaja’s family, a clock collection, and a glass vase collection.

Anand has a bit of a cold, so I decided that we’d come back to the hotel. He’s napping and tomorrow morning we’ll check out and go to the Mererangarh Fort on our way to Jaisalmer. We’ll have some time there before a long 2-day journey back to Delhi. I’m so not looking forward to going back there, but that’s the way to Nepal for me. And I’ll have a chance to send some stuff home, buy a camera for Africa, and go see the spot where Ghandi was cremated -- I hear it’s very special.