Discovering Jodhpur, India’s Blue City – What to see if you are staying for 2 days Jodhpur Rajasthan.
The train journey from Jaipur to Jodhpur was uneventful, only a slight hitch in the morning as we found the night receptionist asleep with a very loud cock-a-doodle-doo alarm on his phone going unheard! He’d forgotten to book our transport to the station as arranged, but managed to get us an Uber cab just in time. We urgently needed to get an Indian SIM card with internet to make our own arrangements!
Jodhpur train station was interesting, with a traditional feel. It doesn’t have a prepaid taxi booth but by now we were expert at bargaining with tuk-tuks like the locals do.
2 Days in Jodhpur ‘Blue City’
I’d chosen a hostel in the very centre of the old town -the online reviews said it was conveniently located but rather noisy. Haveli was very dilapidated but central it was, just outside the iconic Clock Tower Square.
Jodhpur originally dates back to the mid 1400’s as a trading hub on the ancient silk and spice route, the gateway to the Thar Desert, in the centre of Rajasthan. The faded historical centre has a totally different ambiance to Jaipur and it retains a friendly small town charm, even though a huge modern sector and smart residential suburbs are a short drive away, as we later discovered.
Jodhpur Clock Tower Square
The emblematic Clock Tower is in the centre of a busy plaza where friendly ladies are sitting on the ground selling impossibly cheap saris. It was tempting to buy one but, as Juan points out, when will I wear it and, more to the point, how will it fit into my bag {hiking boots and fleeces are vying for space with shorts and bikinis}, which I am toting around the world. In touristy Jaipur we were stuck for places to eat but in laidback Jodhpur we were spoilt for choice…the food was excellent and the prices too.
There’s a cafe right in Clock Tower Square which serves authentic lassi -we’d become addicted to this in Nepal-a thick natural yoghurt drink which makes a great smoothie with fresh mango or banana. Just outside the square, you’ll find the best place in the whole of India for veggie fritters – the freshly fried savoury pakoras and samosas are so popular that they can’t cook them quickly enough!
Jodhpur Stepwell
The first afternoon we just walked around coming across some amazing sites such as the Stepwell, a large sunken fresh water pond surrounded on three sides by steep tiers of steps, a public place where people came to bathe and cool off. Jodhpur is noticeably hot being close to the desert. Overlooking the Stepwell, we chilled out on a rooftop terrace drinking cold lager and chatted to Naz and her partner Pasquale who were staying at the same hostel as us…coincidentally she’s from the same town in the Costa Blanca as Juan and I, now based in London but away on a six month world trip, if you follow me… it’s a small world.
Next morning it was noisy! At 5am the call to prayers at the nearby mosque, the clock tower chiming, cows mooing very loudly under the window joined by the dawn chorus of cockerels , dozens of stray dogs barking, the noisy engines of large tuk-tuks bringing goods to market and the honking of sundry vehicles as the day’s traffic started…
Jaswant Thada
The walk up to Jodhpur Fort in the heat is well worth the effort. On the way we detoured to Jaswant Thada, a palatial white marble mausoleum in a cool setting against a lake and surrounded by gardens.
Jodhpur Mehran Fort
Mehran Fort {1460} was really interesting and we wandered around for ages. A Bollywood crew was filming a battle scene on the ramparts, extras walked past in medieval clothes and imitation rifles were piled on the ground! Inside the ornate thick walls there are numerous courtyards, a museum and palace, and at the far end of the high ridge, a small Hindu temple which looks over Blue City.
Juan and I wounded our way down through the streets of the old Blue City. It wasn’t what we expected as not everywhere is painted blue. But look carefully and you‘ll see some amazing architecture in the backstreets, houses that must once have been magnificent now faded or crumbling, little Hindu altars at every turn and lots of hidden temples…
It’s a wonderful place to get behind the scenes and glimpse into secret courtyards, once again the local people are friendly and this was the first place in India where we weren’t hassled at all. A couple posed with their gorgeous white dog in a latticework window, ladies spoke to me in the temples, and shopkeepers didn’t mind when I asked the price of the hippy pants which were cheaper than anywhere else we’d been.
In the evening we met Jeetender, an Indian friend who lives locally, and he drove us out to dinner at The Spice Route Restaurant. Located in an elegant suburb some 10 minutes from the major attractions, the setting is perfect in a pretty country garden, the food was superb, and the company excellent. This was just what we wanted to experience, India off the tourist tracks.
Jeetender Singh is a professor and freelance tour guide specialist in desert tourism. An interesting and charming guy, he gave us an insight into the family way of life in Rajasthan.
We said goodbye to Naz, who gave me a sari that wouldn’t fit in her backpack, and we were on our way again – this time heading south towards the scenic lake city of Udaipur.
I had to leave out some incredible places on my original Indian wish list. Sikkim, Amritsar and Varanasi further north were complicated to fit in the itinerary. We were leaving Rajasthan without seeing Jaisalmer and Pushkar which are famous for their camel fairs but our tourist visa was only valid for 2 months and India is enormous.
Related Post: Things to do in Pushkar
*Jeetender Singh is a freelance tour guide in Jodhpur www.indiyotours.com
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