The Last Team to Arrive

After another hot night last night, complete with about 10 trips to the shower to get drenched, we were up early this morning, had our usual cheese and tomato toast for breakfast, then headed to Jaswant Thada. This is a memorial to Maharaja Jaswant Singh II, and is also the royal crematorium sight. It's a white marble structure set high on the hills overlooking Jodhpur, earning the nickname "The Taj Mahal of Mewar." From here we walked along the mountainside towards the Jodhpur Fort, or Meherangarh. Along the way, we stopped at the very spot where The Amazing Race contestants reached their checkpoint on the episode we watched just yesterday.

Meherangarh is a really cool fort overlooking Jodhpur from the desert mountains above. It is very medieval looking, with cannon studded ramparts surrounding the inside, and huge entries with thick wooden and iron doors that even elephants couldn't beat down. We spent about 15 minutes just sitting on a wall overlooking the city and enjoying the brightly coloured blue houses spread out almost as far as we could see. It used to be that the blue colour signified the home of a Brahmin but these days nearly everyone paints their home in some shade of blue. The colour is also said to be an effective mosquito repellant (a theory I definitely shot down during my stay). It was amazing to hear the noise of the town rise up from below. We could hear a general buzz as well as individual sounds: pots banging, children crying, men yelling, dogs barking.

For the next few hours, we took an audio tour of the fort, narrated with dramatic tones and even some sound effects. Besides the royal buildings themselves, there are also many things from the Rajput era on display including clothing, jewelry, royal elephant chairs, paintings, carpets and of course armoury and weapons. It was fun wandering around, imagining how life was back then in Rajasthan, the Land of the Kings.

When we were finished, we walked back down into town through the crowded alleys. We did some laundry (which dried in 30 minutes), had more beer from the suit bag and a few more matches of carrom after dinner before heading to bed.