Jaipur, Udaipur, Jaisalmer are the
cities we have visited in Rajasthan and S and I were keen to complete our tour
of the state by visiting Jodhpur. Sure, there are lots of other places worth
visiting in Rajasthan - we haven't done Bikaner, Ranthambore, Sekhawati,
Pushkar etc. But to be very honest, I'm kind of done with the state. There's
only so much royalty and architecture and heritage that one can digest and I
guess I've had my fill of it. Plus keeping the various royal families, clans
and dates straight in my head was not happening! I always tell friends and
relatives who are planing to visit Rajasthan to try to avoid going the whole
nine yards and visiting all the cities in one go. It gets extremely
overwhelming and at the end of the week or 10 days, one is exhausted to say the
least.
In any case, we had Jodhpur to see and
a nice ITC hotels free night voucher to be used! So we went ahead and booked
ourselves into one of Jodhpur's swankiest properties. The only advantage of
having a travelling husband :) Jodhpur is a convenient overnight journey from
Delhi. We boarded the train at 6.30 pm from Gurgaon, and reached Jodhpur at the
unearthly hours of 4.45 am! It was cold...brrrr.....and the hotel pickup failed
to arrive. It was not a pleasant experience haggling with the taxi-wallahs who
on hearing the name of the hotel, promptly charged us at triple rates! We
reached our hotel around 5.30 am and were happy to warm ourselves with some
warm cocoa (for the kids) and hot chai (for the adults).
Our room was actually a suite with 2
TVs, 2 bathrooms and so on. The restaurant on the same floor had a superb view
of the Balsamand lake over which the palace-hotel had been built. Hurray for
private lakes that don't have boating facilities, food vendors and trash - this
was my only thought. The large lake was pristine and clean, enclosed by stony
hillocks and really, it could have been anywhere in the world but India; it was
that clean, calm and unspoilt.
Having failed to get the kids to make
up for lost sleep, we decided to set off as early as we could to see what there
was to see in Jodhpur. Mehrangarh Fort, Jaswant Thada (cenotaphs of the Jodha
Marwars), Umaid Bhavan palace (the part that has not been turned into a Taj Hotel)
and Mandore Gardens are part of the standard itinerary. Mehrangarh Fort was
quite impressive, and not just because it made for a majestic sight on a cold
crisp winter's day, the golden yellow sandstone looking even warmer by sunlight
and countless flags of the princely state of Marwar fluttering in the brisk
breeze. It was impressive because it had good signage everywhere for visitors,
clean loos, audio guides and was generally extremely well-maintained by the
Trust that runs it. In addition, there was a standard guide fee to be paid at
the entrance kiosk itself which was a relief as one did not have to haggle over
a guide's services.
The fort also was the first place in so
many years that my kids were scolded in public by someone other than family! They
had been behaving in a pretty pesky manner and I am afraid both S and I have to
take the blame. They were tired, sleep-deprived and then we bring them to a
boring old fort! I broke several of my own cardinal rules about travelling with
kids! The minimum I could have done (and in our defence, this is something we
would in the normal course have done - well, we were sleep-deprived and tired
as well!) was for one of us to have taken them outside the museum and
entertained them while the other person walked around and listened to the
guide. Since we did not do so, they were mightily scolded by another guide who
said "Main tumhe choohon ke kamre mein lock kar doonga!" The white
lady next to him looked shocked - probably she was wondering how to reach Child
Services!
We stopped for lunch at this place
which served an awesome Rajasthani thali. While the kids stuck to boring and
safe paneer and naan, S and I indulged in gastronomic delights like Gatte
ki sabji, Ker-sangri, Kadhi and Bajre ki roti. Bliss!
Back at the hotel, we watched the sun
setting over the lake and hillocks before turning in early. It had been a long
day.
We didn't do much the next day except for a fruitless trip all the way
to Guda Bishnoi Lake to see migratory birds. There were more birds back at our
hotel grounds! Ads was quite disappointed, as was I. But the silver lining is
that we are going to Bharatpur next weekend and hopefully that will make up for
lost time! Ads is super-excited at the prospect of seeing the many birds of his
dreams :)
umm..the Rajasthani Thali sounds so yummmm...want to have one..
ReplyDeletelol on the choohon ka room..poor kids! I can imagine their condition..
Just one state has so much to offer, right? you could be the brand ambassador for tourism in India! Am sure you'd love the profile. :-)
THe 'poor' kids (and poor parents) all deserved the scolding!!
DeleteWhat stood out more than your trip was that person yelling blatantly at the children! I understand her yelling - but what she said - wow - even I would be shocked. May be I need to get conditioned again to Indian ways! I could have understood a stern voice saying - you stay quiet or you will be sent out of the room with your parents or some such thing!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your travel posts...you travel so often that now I expect it very often! How do you manage really! I can't even imagine it! One trip and both of us need a break for one month at least! Making them eat is the hardest part! Of course costs a ton also - hotels.
You must really love to travel! Keep it up! Am enjoying India through your posts! Can you post more pics of the little things - like the food/restaurants/streets etc! :) Please! :)
Noon - I think u've been out of India for too long :) Honestly I did not mind that person (it was a man) scolding my kids. He didn't yell but he was stern. It was like how our parents/uncles/aunties used to tell us the boochandi would come and take us away if we did not behave. I think way too much fuss is made of these things in the western world.
DeleteGlad u enjoyed the posts. Unfortunately I'm not able to post pics -i think I've exceeded my google storage limit. Will have to figure out a way.
Howdy Aparna - send it to me as a flickr link then!
DeleteI totally don't mind random people reprimanding bad behavior when deserved - I think it takes a village to raise a child - I kind of like that about India in some ways - when people take liberty to watch out for other's kids etc. But I never liked this poochandi or ummachi kann kuthiduvar type scare tactics even when I was in India. I myself never tell my kids - police will catch you or rat will come etc. I just don't like scaring kids like that...pavam they are children. I do yell at them badly - which also I feel guilty about when it is too loud - but there are certain things I don't say ever. I hate myself when I get very angry and give them a odhai - never odhais that hurt - but just the act of raising my hand at them - I really hate it when I do that...Stern reprimands are surely ok with me. But scaring them or shouting in a way that they feel little - I don't like that. I remember vividly that there was a huge dog in our school in one room and if ever the teacher mentioned sending kids to the dog room I would be really scared of that possibility. It's me - not so much the western world.
Oh i see...Ok...I shd check with ads and Y whether the whole chooha thing scared them or not! We don't use the poochandi/ummachi example at home, and neither do the grandparents etc - so that has not been something that ever came up. I'll see whether I can upload pics again otherwise will send my fb link.
DeleteHi A - hope you didn't mistake me for saying so - kids get used to things - like my kids are used to my yelling - so unless it is super loud or something - it doesn't scare them. So kids get used to things mostly. But I just never liked harsh scare words used to children...just because they are children.
DeleteDon't worry - I didnt mind at all - its good to get a different perspective on these things cos I never looked at it from your angle.
DeleteI have been to Jodhpur... nice place :)
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't blame the kids... Mehrangarh fort is huge and can get tiring after a while for them... plus they hadn't slept properly
We too enjoyed the Rajasthani thali... did you try mirchi pakoda and mava kachori in Jodhpur? Yummy! Another thing I enjoyed in Jodhpur was shopping... there was so much variety at such reasonable rates..
Hope you are able to figure out a way to upload the pictures. Would love to see them :)
The mava kachori sounds yummy!! I wish I had tried that :( Didnt do much shopping except for some bedsheets.
DeleteWoah, lady! You guys are sure travelling this year! :)
ReplyDeleteLoved the description. Pics please? Would love to see them!
Rajasthan is one place that I would love to visit. I will take your advice and not go the whole hog in one shot. :) I don't think I would like that. Better to explore slowly, comfortably, peacefully, at your own pace.
LOL @ only advantage of having a travelling spouse. I can relate to that. Other three advantages of the same:
1. Once in a while, when you are free, you can accompany the spouse on his travels. You explore, he works. :)
2. The spouse can bring back goodies for you from the places he visits! :)
3. A travelling spouse is well versed with the nitty gritties of different places, and so, knows exactly what to arrange for when you are planning a trip together to a place where he has already been to. You can sit back and relax. No hassles. :)
Being in Delhi gives you the advantage of being near to several awesome places. Most wonderful places are just a few hours' travel from there! The OH and I keep saying that we can travel A LOT if we stay in Delhi for just a year. Some day...
Hi TGND, Agree with all your points re travelling spouse except #1, which doesn't always hold...there've been many times when I've begged to accompany him on some trip and he has flatly refused! I guess it totally depends on the spouse :)
ReplyDeleteYup, stay in Delhi has a lot of advantages esp with regard to travel....Hmmm...I just heard from a friend about how awesome Indore is :))
In all the marathon bloggers catching up, I seem to have missed this post :(. I am so envious of you by the way, currently the only language my kids are speaking well is English :(. I am trying to make at least tamil claw its way back as Hindi will anyway come from school, but it's a tough battle.
ReplyDeleteOk in reading on the same page, I managed to comment on the wrong post too - sorry :(...
ReplyDeleteThe thing that most struck me about your rooms was - 2 bathrooms!! No fighting on who goes in first, at least not much. Any place I've stayed in, even a largish suite like the Club M stuff, only 1 BR!
Must have been a weird experience for the kids, can quite imagine strange looking person suddenly saying something like that!
I studied in Rajasthan but never managed to see much of the place except Jaipur for a day! I have been wanting to plan a trip next year, but as you say - definitely max 3 places, even that might be overkill for a week or 10 days that we'll have.
Yup I think with 2 smallish kids, even 3 places might be overkill...however it can be done and maybe a day's desert experience in jaisalmer or Bikaner would really excite them.
Delete