OK, its day 30 and half of us are going to Jodhpur, to see the fort and then go down-town. The other half of the group are having a lie in and then doing their own thing later.
I got up and hand-washed my stuff, after cleaning up from my shampoo spillage yesterday. Then after a good breakfast we got on the local tourist bus and went to Jodhpur. The fort is perched atop a rocky hill and overlooks the city. It is really spectacular and we spent a good couple of hours looking around the rooms and enjoying the views. We were due to go down-town and look around the market too, but it was too hot for some of us, so only me, Vicky and Mils ended up going down.
The market (bazaar) is a really colourful place and is very busy, but was very hot. We spent an hour wandering around and getting constant hassle of the locals to follow them to their stalls. I was told that I have a nice moustache and looked like John Cleese!! Everyone there boasted of working for big fashion designers and had all met Richard Gere – He must be really busy travelling around India!!We even saw our first elephant of there trip, just walking down the main road. After a while the hassling got too much so we grabbed a tuk tuk and travelled the 12km back to the Guest-house! The roads are shite here, but it was good fun travelling so far in the tuk tuk.
When we arrived back, I managed to get some new shampoo, before settling down for an afternoon in the shade in the garden. I wanted to mellow out on the swing-bed, but there was already someone on it, so I used the internet for a while, before going back and seeing it empty -It was mine!! I lay down on it just about half past 3. I started to swing it using my foot against the chain and that was me for the next 4 hours. People came and went, having chats and then going off to do their own thing. I had a couple of beers and drifted off to sleep a couple of times – waking up when my foot slipped off the chain. Even Pepsi, Whisky and Happy – the dogs who live in the garden came over to see me. Becky, Frankie and Laura came back from their afternoon out with Awal and Matta and chatted about their day, before we sat down in the garden about 8 for dinner. But not before I had checked the internet for the score from The Ryder Cup. Dinner was as good as yesterdays and when everyone had full belly’s we sat back down at the swing until bedtime, just chatting and relaxing and getting bitten by all the mossies. I had a well nice chat with Becky after having a shave for the first time in 2 ½ weeks and headed off to bed. I was sharing with Kenneth for the 2nd night running and last night we had the air-con on full and were freezing, so tonight we turned it down to keep it warmer. I still didn’t sleep to well though.
Breakfast today was good and after everyone had paid their bar and food bills, we headed off once again for a day on the bus – Destination Jaipur.
I managed to nab the back seat again and this time only Laura shared it with me so we had a lot of room to spread about. Frankie and Becky sat in front, flicking through a celebrity magazine and discussing the celebrities, their dress sense and the who/what/whys of what they are doing!
Me and Mark spotted The Indian Desert Corps headquarters and smiled at their entrance decoration – They have what appears to be the tail of a shot down Pakistan fighter jet adorning the main entrance to the camp. The roads are particularly bumpy today, so I am quite pleased to be able to type on the bus like this, but I think its time to stop.
4pm – Its been a reasonably quiet day on the bus. Most people have slept listened to music and just vegged out. The most exciting thing was having a nosebleed during one of the stops and spotting and taking pictures pof a grasshopper/cricket that seemed to be tame. Its now 66km to Jaipur and as its an all day optional trip tomorrow, most people are planning on a quiet night in the hotel restaurant/bar/internet room - if it has any of them!!
As we reached Jaipur, we had to stop on the motorway as the traffic started to come towards us....There must have been a crash or incident of some kind, so we joined in, reversing backwards down the road towards a gap in the crash barrier that everyone was driving through. Then just as we were about to leave the road, the traffic ahead of us cleared and we continued on towards the city, not knowing what the problem had been. Its a strange place this India!
We are now in a pretty nice Hotel in Jaipur – It has wifi, which is reasonably cheap, so I have enough for a few hours tonight and tomorrow.
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