Only in India!

Relapse – back to the pharmacy.  New pharmacist on duty and he prescribes something totally different – a 5-day course of antibiotics – a grand total of 150 rupees ($2.30) – Indian medicine is getting costly!  Tim at the street-side pharmacy.

Views from  the pharmacy front.

Decide to try and find a textile shop recommended in LP and top off our rupees once we find the ATM.  Can’t find the textile shop and the ATM machine eats Tim’s card!  No warning, no sign, nothing – just a blank screen and a disappearing card.  The shopkeeper next to the ATM comes over and says ‘Oh yes, it does that 5 or 10 times a day.  No problem, you go to the bank and they will have your card.’ 

What???  Big bummer.  We get the address and phone of the bank, the name of the manager and decide to just head home and wait until the bank will have retrieved Tim’s card (‘any time after 3:30’ according to the shopkeeper).   Back out at 3:30, go to the bank and it’s closed!!  Even bigger bummer.  Back again tomorrow morning when they open at 9:30.  Only in India . . . 

Now this is a Fort!!

Adventures in Indian Medicine – Tim still not feeling well and decides to take Mr. Bantu up on his offer.  I head off with one of the workers (Koran from Nepal) to the pharmacy.  It’s a quick walk through these narrow streets and there it is – a streetfront pharmacy.  You take one step up to the counter, just out of the way of motorbikes, tuk tuks, pedestrians, dogs, cows . . . and relate your symptoms.  The pharmacist nods and then cuts off two pills from two different slabs and tells me how they are to be taken.  The cost – 20 rupees, including the consultation!  That’s about 30 cents.  

All four pills later and Tim’s feeling much better!  We’re off to the Fort!!

Now this is a Fort!!  Built by the Raj Jodha, it rivals anything we’ve seen anywhere in the world.  It predates Columbus’s voyage to the New World and is just plain spectacular.  We learn that the Jodha family (and hence Jodhpur) did not officially join India until the mid 1950’s!  After the Brits withdrew!  I hope the photos do it some kind of justice. 

We’ve been looking at the fort from down below; seen from inside the walls, it is breathtaking.  we've been seeing just a small portion of it.

These doors at the top of the long, sloping access road are massive and studded with elephant repelling spikes.  The idea of riding to battle on an elephant boggles my imagination . . . 

The scale and workmanship are absolutely astounding.

I have to keep reminding myself that this was built before Columbus sailed for the West Indies!

The Hall of Pleasure . . . a riot of color and ornamentation.

One of many ornamented archways . . . 

The sounds of drumming reverberate within these stone walls.

The view of the city from the walls of the fort.  The current Raj Jodha and his family still live in the palace compound (you can just make it out on the far edge of the city) which includes a few high-end hotel rooms!  The brahminpuri neighborhood stands out, and we even manage to pick out our rooftop restaurant!

Two giggling young ladies on their camel!!

And the Raj of Jodha has set this up as a National Trust and appears to have done it all right.  Every ticket comes with an audio guide (no touts promoting their guide talents), there are alternate routes to the strenuous climbs inside the fort, several tasteful places to get a cold drink and rest, and at the very end of the tour, a first-class gift shop.  Can't resist a few touristy souvenirs!

Watching DA in the Blue City

John returns mid-day with some Rx he’s brought on his trip, thinking it might help Tim.  We all read the cautions and decide not.  Sweet thought and another lovely long conversation with our new friend.  We promise to come and visit him at his lodge in Scotland and invite him to visit us in the States.

Not much else to report – Tim still not feeling well and he wants to wait a day to see if it will pass.  I check in with our host who assures me there’s a medicine for what ails Tim, and we can go around the block to the pharmacy to get it.  Not today – it’s Sunday and the pharmacy is closed.   

Nothing quite like an episode of Downton Abbey on the iPad as solace. . . . 

A Gobsmacking View!

What a view!!  We pull back the curtains and there is the Fort!  

Our accommodations are at the top of this remarkable structure, and are complete with a sitting area, generous bathroom, and a BATHTUB!  Very, very nice.  Just above is the rooftop eating area.  Shahi is 350 years old, a former zenana – a place of purdah where women could be protected from the lustful gazes of men.  The women could see out but supposedly, no one could see in.  The wide-open windows are obviously a modern concession to tourists.  

Quick note about the blue city - blue is apparently the color of the brahmin caste, the highest caste in India.  I haven't been able to find out if there are colors for each of the other three main castes (I'm pretty sure the untouchables don't have a color of their own).  Early on, this old part of the city was pretty much brahmin (priest class) and residents painted their homes blue to designate that - hence the  brahmpuri district.  

Now the 'hood is a lot more diverse, but the tradition of painting buildings blue has carried on because it's believed that blue repels mosquitoes!  Every building is made of concrete; we watched some finish work in process and the expertise and craftsmanship is excellent - and all with the most rudimental tools.

Tim’s feeling like crap so we decide to take a day off.  Around 11, a knock on the door and it’s John from our train ride!  He’s at some swish digs farther out and decided to come and check out our place.  Tim's asleep so John and I go have a coffee on the rooftop.  Interesting and rambling conversation, all travel stories (mostly John’s) and we head back downstairs to check on Tim.  He’s awake but still not feeling well.   

Time for a day of rest and recuperation . . . John says he has some meds be brought from home and will bring them back tomorrow, see if they might work for Tim.

Hello Blue City!

Our train is scheduled to leave at 12:20pm, but it’s been raining all morning and, big surprise, the train is delayed – 3 hours!!  That means we will get into Jodhpur at somewhere around 9 pm, if we’re lucky.  The train station is chaos – rain means delays, delays mean people everywhere, sitting, sleeping, begging, pulling gargantuan loads of cargo on these two-wheeled carriers (very efficient actually) . . . if you’ve been in an Indian rail station, you know what it’s like.  If not, words are inadequate . . .

There is an ‘Upper Class’ waiting room (yes, that’s what it was called).  Even has a ‘Ladies only’ and ‘Gents’ area.  Not too bad, seats reasonably comfortable (except for the ones that had come unbolted from the floor and nearly dumped an unsuspecting white woman when she went to sit down) and clearly a higher-paying class of passenger.  Nobody was sleeping on the floor or begging.  Decent place to wait – for 3 hours. 

Finally, our train arrives!  And we find our AC2-Two Tier car, seats 7 and 9.  A wee digression – Indian train travel is available in nine classes (yes nine!)  Our first ride was AC First Class, top of the line.  Large, closed compartment, coat racks, a real ladder to the upper bunk, a trash container – free food en route.  Pretty decent all around.  Max four people – two on either side of the compartment and no one-overs on the other side of the aisle.  Next down, AC-Two Tier.  Almost the same as AC First but smaller and there’s an up and down compartment across the aisle (like Tim and I had on our Jhansi-Agra run).  The two tier means that with the beds engaged, you are sleeping one over the other.  We haven’t done AC Three Tier but that means three to a sleeping side – yikes!  Probably fine for a family but these kids aren’t doing that!  I won’t bore you with the remaining 6 classes – you’ve no doubt seen them on PBS specials.  What they do is afford even the poorest Indians transport.

And we are so fortunate on this ride (which turned out to be over 7 hrs long) – our car mates are delightful!  There are two Indian couples across the aisle who we learn are en route to a posting – the men are in the Army – in Jodhpur.  They are obviously all good friends and full of youthful exuberance – so sweet.  Our car mates are Alka, an Indian Revenue Service accountant en route to Jodhpur to join her husband who has been posted there and she’s hoping for a transfer from Jaipur soon.  And finally John Gardner, a lifelong traveler and hunting lodge owner/falconer from the UK.  What a fun ride!  Sadly, I didn’t get photos of any of these folks . . . but did get their emails and a promise from John to look us up at at our guesthouse the next day.

Another of those trusting rides into the darkness with a stranger from the RR station.  Off we go in a tuk tuk into the bowels of the Brampuri district, snuggled under the Fort’s walls.  And we have to walk the last few hundred feet to Shahi Heritage Guest House - the tuk tuk can’t even get into this narrow street.   The owner, Mr. Bantu, awaits us and assures us we can still get something to eat, despite the hour (it’s close to 11 p.m.).  Then the astonishing climb to the top and our home for the next 6 nights/5 days. 

The cows live next door.

Happy Birthday Shiva! Godbye Jaipur . . .

Today is Om Shiva’s birthday – who knew?  Our helpful host, Om Sharma, helps Tim adjust his scarf to reflect the solemnity of the day  

 and then directs us to the Bapu Bazaar, just inside one of the six gates to the Pink City.  It’s not pink by any stretch; it’s more like a faded adobe or pale orange.  The Old City was painted pink to honor a visiting British monarch (late 19thc?).  And never been repainted.

We know how much Tim despises touts and people in his face, this is the worst place yet.  And this is a quiet day!  The walkway is covered and the streets lined both sides with motorbikes.  Most of the shops are selling sarees, clothes, tourist trinkets, with a few welding operations and shoe repair shops thrown in.   

These touts are right in your face, literally.  I can see betel juice when they open their mouths.  Then one of them actually grabs Tim by the shoulder – ‘Come in here.  Nice stuff.  Good price for you, sir.’  -  I thought it was all over.   About face, and get a tuk tuk to what is described by LP (and our host) as ‘Very nice, upmarket shop.’ 

Anokhi is actually part of a mini-shopping plaza, right out of a suburban US city.  Glass and marble front, three stories, parking lot, coffee shop and, miracle of miracles, a bookstore!!  A real bookstore.  Well you know where we went first – by elevator, no less (can’t remember the last time we were on an elevator).  This could have been Barnes and Noble in miniature!  Books in every language, albeit a rather strange collection of English fiction; we have to buy an English mystery. 

Anokhi – this is the absolute, polar opposite of bazaar shopping.  We can’t even find anyone to wait on us!  Everything is folded on shelves and so discreetly labeled I can barely tell what it is.  Their claim to fame is that they encourage and promote the ancient art of block printing for which this part of Rajasthan is well-known.  Prices are fixed – no haggling or bargaining.  Sadly, we can’t find anything either of us like.  The designs are mostly floral, nothing to mark it as Northern Indian – or even Indian - and not a bit of bling in sight!  Quality is very fine but style is flat.  Too bad . .

We’re done with Jaipur.  This is the first city on our adventure that we don’t like.  It has, for lack of a better description, a bad ‘vibe.’   Not sure what it is - a tension, lack of friendliness, something which we both feel (and was confirmed by a fellow traveler we subsequently met in Jodhpur). Friends who’ve traveled to India had warned us – ‘Don’t spend too much time in Jaipur.’ Gentle guidance – glad we followed it.

The very best part of Jaipur has been the Hotel Anuraag Villa – they couldn’t have been nicer, more professional, or friendlier.  A big 5 stars!  Tomorrow morning, the train to Jodhpur.