JODHPUR: A Must see!

February (2012), I went to Jodhpur with 10 of my girl friends. Jodhpur is small busy city and full of great food, awesome architecture and lovely simple people. We hired a luxury Bus- 'Traveller' and started early in the morning (7:00 a.m.) from jaipur.

We had packed breakfast, water and snacks, so had made just one 'Loo' stop in between and it took us about 6 hours to reach our hotel. The roads were in decent shape but it is a long drive so if you are going on a short excursion keep the travel time on mind. If you are short on time you can fly to Jodhpur or take an overnight train.

Best way to make the most of a short stay, say 2 nights in jodhpur is to keep Day 1 Easy  and Day 2 Busy.
On Day one do a bit of sightseeing, spend the evening at hotel and sleep early so you can start day 2 early. On Day two, start early and cover all the important spots and have dinner at an unique place.

DAY1:
We checked into the hotel pre lunch. Post check-in and freshening up, We had a great lunch that we had pre booked at the hotel we stayed in. At around 3 p.m. we left for a bit of sightseeing. We started at the MANDORE GARDENS. Its part garden, part temples in ruins. It was a OK place to spend a little bit of time. There were loads of monkeys, a few local music guys playing unique musical instruments and a lot to walk and click pictures.

A temple inside Mandore Gardens

Post The Mandore Gardens we went to the CLOCK TOWER AREA. Its very similar to bapu bazaar of jaipur. Loads of jutties, tie dye fabrics, sweet shops, handicraft stores and mad rush. We just walked around the bazaar and had a cup of chai at one shop and left for the hotel by 7:00 p.m.
Spent the first night having dinner at hotel and retired early!

DAY2:
Day 2 started very early. We had requested our hotel a night before to pack our breakfasts as we had no time to eat and they were very kind to do the same. We started our day with the BISHNOI VILLAGE TOUR. Our jeep picked us from the hotel at 7:00 a.m. The tour was a unique and wonderful experience. You will get so see so many different communities like the weavers, charwahas, potters, Nomads etc etc. It was so unique going to houses and seeing how these rural people of different occupations and communities live and work. Don’t think If you are an Indian you wont enjoy this. This is a very unique experience individually and even kids would love it!!

jeep that took us to the-bishnoi village

Me at the weaver's village

A potter during our bishnoi village tour

Post the tour the jeep dropped us back to the hotel by 10:30 a.m. and then we just took a loo break and left for the city tour. We started with the gorgeous MEHRANGARH FORT. Mehrangarh is a beautiful fort with very unique architecture. This is very different from any other fort I have seen in Rajasthan and gives a splendid view of the Blue City (Jodhpur). Its also very well preserved and has an elevator. Taking a guide is strongly recommended here. We spent a few hours seeing this marvellous Fort.

Mehrangarh Fort

Post Mehrangarh we went to JASWANT THADA, a crematorium for the Royal Family and all of them have cenotaphs made. This is a pleasant and peaceful place to stop by after a very busy day and I found it very unique in terms of its architecture. After Jaswant Thada we had a quick bite some place.

Jaswant Thada

Next stop was UMAID BHAWAN PALACE MUSEUM. Half the property is a museum and the rest is converted into a hotel that's run by Taj group. We could not see the hotel part as you need to pre-reserve and apparently there is a minimum spend that one must make while there. So check and pre book. What we saw was the museum portion which is fairly small and OK. Grand Courtyards, Vintage cars, sprawling lawns that’s all that we got to see.

Umaid Bahvan Jodhpur

By the end of this we were dead tired and retired for a few hours. Went to the hotel and on way ate the awesome Mirchi vada and Jodhpur Pyaaz kachori. These are a must try when in Jodhpur!!

At night we had pre-booked a dinner at THE RAAS HAVELI. A gorgeous property with the awesome views of the Fort. See pictures and read more about The Raas on http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g297668-d1640132-Reviews-Raas_Haveli-Jodhpur_Rajasthan.html

That brought us to an end of our Jodhpur excursion!