DAY TWO – INDIA

Wow, here I am luxuriating in my room with a herbal tea and the remains of my Costco brownies at 3 am – a combination of jet lag and the screeching peacocks outside my room have woken me from a restful nights sleep, and has given me time in the calm of the night to reflect on our family’s travels this weekend….

….Our eldest is traveling by bus from London for Ockoberfest in Munich….our youngest is traveling by train to Delhi for the mid-term break and soccer tournament, then the rest are doing the return leg from Adelaide to Melbourne driving into the night to be back for the AFL Grand Final: Hawthorn v’s Sydney Swans. Even the dog has travelled ……just 2 km’s down the road for a reciprocal stay with his great mate…..

And here I am in a gorgeous heritage hotel in India!

At Rohet Garh each room is elaborately decorated with hand drawn art work

Breakfast at the House of Rohet, c1622AD is a simple affair and a nice mix of western and Indian foods – perfected in the years since the family opened it’s gates to the public in 1990.

Our car was waiting outside after breakfast and we returned to Jodphur to pick up our Guide TeTu who introduces himself as TeTu and from the second highest Warrior Tribe, but a non violent one – phew that’s a relief.

Jodphur is a prosperous stone mining city, at the gateway of the Thar Desert. It is known as either Sun City or the Blue City, due to the blue painted buildings around the Mehrangarh Fort. Fortunately (haha!) there is a lift to the entrance where we collect our audio guides…..

zMehrangarh Fort Jodphur 1459 AD – one if the mightiest forts of all time

We continue our morning by walking down from the Fort through the medieval streets to the Old Town. It’s nice to walk easily without beggars, and street traders hassling us to buy. We are happy to follow TeTu as it’s a chaotic labyrinth of lanes, various forms of transport, sacred cows etc

We stop off with a couple of traders from a spice seller to textiles. The textile merchant exports for the like of Hermes, Kenzo and Donna Karan, the warehouse is on ten levels, but we’re not invited beyond the first floor…. It’s hard to believe that things from here end up on the streets of Paris….We follow in the footsteps of Prince Charles and Camilla, Richard Gere, Brad Pitt etc They politely decline our photo for their publicity!

After an amazing Indian lunch in a garden restaurant, we transfer into a jeep to visit some local Bishois villages. We stop at a ceramics house and watch the potter make three pots on a wheel which is a stone, precariously perched at a lop-sided angle on a rock, he whizzes round with a stick….

The potter’s kids play happily with items made for sale….

Jeep to villages ….to look at rural life. We are offered opium tea, which is a simple ceremony involving drinking three times from the palm of our guide…I decline, looking at the villager who looks doped to he eyeballs, our guide explains today is a festival and much celebrations….

Then onto the carpet weaver, who wears spectacles after years of eye strain from the intricate work but a shame because combined with the smart car outside does make you wonder ….. still buy a rug to support the local community – my only purchase of the day….

We spend the drive back trying to locate my bag which is still on it’s way from Singapore. Our Guide tells me that I am wearing the latest perfume: Spirit of Rajasthan!

Little Wandering Wren

Location:Jodphur, INDIA