Last weekend was Tom's birthday, so we escaped Delhi, took Sophie to her favourite place, the airport, and boarded a Jet Konnect twin prop to Jodhpur. 1 hr 20 minutes later, bags collected, car waiting - we were on our way to the RAAS hotel.
The journey was fairly mainstream until we hit the old town. At entering the gates of the Clock Tower you travel back in time to donkey carts and extraordinary narrow lanes - not made for Toyota Innova's!
The RAAS impressed from the moment we pulled through the grand old gates. We were greeted by lovely staff who applied tilak (red powder dot) to our foreheads and offered a refreshing ginger and lemon drink. Before we saw our room, we were escorted around the grounds, shown the frog pond, the pool and you couldn't ignore the imposing view of the Fort. It was a beautiful hotel of a mere 31 rooms.
We stayed in room 123, this was our view.
As you can see from this pic, this beautiful place is also right next to a mosque.... and it was Friday..... so our first welcome to Jodhpur was the call to prayer, that goes on for a really long time on Friday. However it really doesn't matter and certainly didn't bother us - kind of added to the ambiance.
Friday we spent at the hotel, had lunch, swam, arranged a babysitter and that was about it. Luckily a very nice lady arrived at 8pm to a very wide awake Sophie and we took our leave. Tom and I had a walk around the streets of Jodhpur, met some lovely convincing spice and fabric sellers, witnessed little people worshipping and singing at the foot of Ganesh statues and we dodged inevitable cow poo! We returned to find Soph still awake and running rings around the lovely babysitter!
Saturday was tour day and we left the hotel via the very funky blue tuk tuk....
The streets of Jodhpur are full of amazing things, yes you are in India, so you get used to a certain level of craziness but I really liked the vibe of this town - it was friendly, casual and colourful -always colourful!!!
The first thing I saw on our travels was a funeral procession, a body being carried above the shoulders of its loved ones wrapped in bright, colourful fabrics.... not a piece of black in sight! The crowd chanted, sang and rang bells as they moved toward the cremation site.
As we wound our way through the streets of Jodhpur we saw all kind of things... cows, pigs, dogs, Gods of Sex....
but the team favourite was the elephant
Aren't they beautiful? We stopped, Sophie fed him 20 rupees, which he dutifully passed to his Mahout.
Following on from the elephant spot, we moved on to the reservoir - which was lovely and actively being used by worshippers and also by random dogs to take care of their families.
Of course Jodhpur is also famous for being the 'blue city' - houses are painted blue and the reasons vary from keeping the place cool to repelling mosquito's.
and lovely Ganesh statues are everywhere
The afternoon saw us at the Mehrangarh Fort, this place is spectacular. Built right up on the hill there it has a lovely breeze and the architecture is amazing, not hard to believe it never was successfully attacked.
Beautiful Fort and a must see.... for the Fort and the view
One of the great things about the day was our very nice guide - Ram. He didn't take us to one shop, didn't push us to do anything and was brilliant taking care of our daughter throughout the day. If you are going to Jodhpur and need a guide call Ramniwas (Ram) 09314709126.
So then back to the hotel, more swimming, relaxing and listening to the AFL finals series on the iPad with the free Wi-Fi..... oh and some frog spotting!
All in all Jodhpur was great, the hotel was perfect and nothing was too much trouble - the staff were all amazing and I was quite sad to leave.
The journey was fairly mainstream until we hit the old town. At entering the gates of the Clock Tower you travel back in time to donkey carts and extraordinary narrow lanes - not made for Toyota Innova's!
The RAAS impressed from the moment we pulled through the grand old gates. We were greeted by lovely staff who applied tilak (red powder dot) to our foreheads and offered a refreshing ginger and lemon drink. Before we saw our room, we were escorted around the grounds, shown the frog pond, the pool and you couldn't ignore the imposing view of the Fort. It was a beautiful hotel of a mere 31 rooms.
We stayed in room 123, this was our view.
 |
| View from 123! |
As you can see from this pic, this beautiful place is also right next to a mosque.... and it was Friday..... so our first welcome to Jodhpur was the call to prayer, that goes on for a really long time on Friday. However it really doesn't matter and certainly didn't bother us - kind of added to the ambiance.
Friday we spent at the hotel, had lunch, swam, arranged a babysitter and that was about it. Luckily a very nice lady arrived at 8pm to a very wide awake Sophie and we took our leave. Tom and I had a walk around the streets of Jodhpur, met some lovely convincing spice and fabric sellers, witnessed little people worshipping and singing at the foot of Ganesh statues and we dodged inevitable cow poo! We returned to find Soph still awake and running rings around the lovely babysitter!
Saturday was tour day and we left the hotel via the very funky blue tuk tuk....
The streets of Jodhpur are full of amazing things, yes you are in India, so you get used to a certain level of craziness but I really liked the vibe of this town - it was friendly, casual and colourful -always colourful!!!
The first thing I saw on our travels was a funeral procession, a body being carried above the shoulders of its loved ones wrapped in bright, colourful fabrics.... not a piece of black in sight! The crowd chanted, sang and rang bells as they moved toward the cremation site.
As we wound our way through the streets of Jodhpur we saw all kind of things... cows, pigs, dogs, Gods of Sex....
but the team favourite was the elephant
 |
| No getting passed this... |
 |
| An elephant and his Mahout. |
Aren't they beautiful? We stopped, Sophie fed him 20 rupees, which he dutifully passed to his Mahout.
Following on from the elephant spot, we moved on to the reservoir - which was lovely and actively being used by worshippers and also by random dogs to take care of their families.
 |
| Reservoir near the Fort |
 |
| Ganesh ji |
 |
| I spot puppies under the pavement!!!! |
Of course Jodhpur is also famous for being the 'blue city' - houses are painted blue and the reasons vary from keeping the place cool to repelling mosquito's.
and lovely Ganesh statues are everywhere
The afternoon saw us at the Mehrangarh Fort, this place is spectacular. Built right up on the hill there it has a lovely breeze and the architecture is amazing, not hard to believe it never was successfully attacked.
 |
| Walls of the Fort |
 |
| Entrance to the Fort |
 |
| Umaid Palace in the distance |
One of the great things about the day was our very nice guide - Ram. He didn't take us to one shop, didn't push us to do anything and was brilliant taking care of our daughter throughout the day. If you are going to Jodhpur and need a guide call Ramniwas (Ram) 09314709126.
So then back to the hotel, more swimming, relaxing and listening to the AFL finals series on the iPad with the free Wi-Fi..... oh and some frog spotting!
All in all Jodhpur was great, the hotel was perfect and nothing was too much trouble - the staff were all amazing and I was quite sad to leave.
