9 January -- Jodhpur
Yesterday's main events: our adventure at the Udaipur main post office & visiting the Jain temple at Ranakpur on the drive from Udaipur to Jodhpur.
Today's main events: touring the Mehrangarh Fort (1459! www.mehrangarh.org); a great lunch at Jhankar Choti Haveli; purchases at the fort's museum shop, Sambhali women's cooperative boutique, & the highly recommended MV spice shop; and a good long walk through the local bazaars in the old city. Oh, and we also visited the Jaswant Theda, a gorgeous white marble memorial.
5:46 pm and we are back at our beautiful hotel, Devi Bhawan. Just google it-- it's everything the web site says. Got upgraded because there were a rash of travelers who seemed to want a "proper twin room" so we said "sure!" to the large and comfy king suite. Lots of foreign (non-Indian) tourists here. Our driver, Ravi, is now on his way to Jaipur. We'll take the train early tomorrow morning.
So, in Udaipur, we were able to scrounge a couple of boxes and we packed up the wedding saris and dresses (along with the bangles which take up a surprising amount of room), assorted gifts and purchases, and a couple of other things we decided not to schlep around. Two boxes totaling about 10kilos... Once we got to the post office yesterday morning (it opened at 10) it was quite the process and it took about 2 hours. That included the guy sewing up the boxes in muslin, and the other guy who didn't know how to find the kind of service we wanted in the computer. We got a very late start, but Ravi was very patient and a very great help to us.
The Jain Temple was very beautiful and interesting. (You can read about it here http://religions.iloveindia.com/jain-shrines/ranakpur-temple.html).
We enjoyed our day today without an official "tour guide". It is good to have a driver though, and not have to negotiate rickshaws or other transport. It's worth every $$ that it cost.
The fort is HUGE and simply amazing. The view of it dominates the city, and it's walls were never breached by the "enemy" -- although there was a famous 6 month long siege that the audio tour called "hungry and hot".
Our train to Jaipur leaves at 6 am and Ravi will meet us when we arrive there. Apparently it is very common and "the usual way" for the tourist to take the train because it is shorter time-wise than the drive. Yesterday's drive was interesting but long, so the train will be a good change. The hotel boxes up breakfast for early departures :) and the TBi representative will pick us up and deliver us to the proper train car.
Still marveling at all the extreme contrasts here: the fort ramparts from the 1400s in the background and the cell tower in the foreground stood out today. I am not gawking as much: old narrow streets from one city to the next have a lot in common with each other. I am still tending to take photos of random animals, though!
We are past the halfway mark and there is still so much to see and do. I wonder if our parcels will make it back before us?
