Day 126 Sunday 21 January 2007 Rohet Garh to Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India

After lazing around in the Rohetgarh garden all morning, we drive the short distance to Jodhpur and head for the clocktower. As usual the LP mud maps point us generally in the right direction but fall apart when they get near the destination, on this occasion a haveli in the midst of the bazaar in the old city, inside the city walls. These massive sandstone walls punctuated by narrow gates with spiked doors which have served for centuries keeping out marauders on elephants are equally functional keeping out foreigners in four wheel drives although are impervious to autorickshaws, camel carts, donkeys, goats and stray cows. Driving thru the bazaar is an experience but we are becoming adept at gazing fixedly ahead and inching forward, missing motorbikes, donkey carts and rickshaws not to mention stalls laden with pots pans, bangles, spices and all manner of mechanise by the thickness of the paint on the wing mirrors.

After exploring many more alleys than necessary we find the haveli inside another haveli with a similar name. We drive up its ramp only to be confounded by the devious Rajputs make all the doorways as doglegs to prevent elephants and BMWs charging in. Eventually we are inside, sitting on the roof with a cold beer gazing at Jodhpur fort which looks like an enormous sandcastle and dominating the view. Beneath its towering ramparts is a maze of blue painted little houses, all higgledy piggledy and cubic like a discarded pile of children’s bricks.

We take an autorickshaw up to the fort and enter thru its series of five sequential doors, stopping to look at one covered in cannonball dents, another with a stone marking where a volunteer was buried alive as a sacrifice during its construction in the 1400’s and a third with red hand prints placed there by the rajput wives passing thru the gate for a final time on their way to commit suti on a mass funeral pyre when the fort was being attacked and overrun by the moghuls.

The fort itself is massive with a series of palaces at one end, with elaborately carved stonework, screens, balconies and parapets. The palaces have ornate decor, beautifully painted ceilings and walls with lots of gilt, mirrors and coloured glass, including one with a ceiling lined with Victorian Christmas balls and delft floor tiles.

In the evening we return to the fort for dinner on a terrace overlooking the town. LP says its romantic but its bloody freezing and blowing a gale so we swallow the food and beat a hasty retreat.

Distance Today: 49km Trip to date: 19,201km