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.
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!!
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.
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.
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.
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!
Need help Planning a trip to Jaipur or are in Jaipur and there is a query: be it shopping, Sight-seeing, eating Out, Excursions...this blog aims at answering all these queries and more.
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