Arrived in Jodhpur on the bus journey from hell at stupid o'clock in the morning so headed to the train station to sit until it was a more reasonable hour to go in search of accommodation. The sleeper buses in India are actually quite luxurious ( compared to the trains anyway), but the roads are horrendous and I think the driver purposefully aims for every massive pot hole just for some entertainment. They actually tried to chuck us off the bus on the side of the highway where some rickshaws were waiting,to rob us blind presumably,for a ride to where we should have been dropped, but we stood our ground and demanded they take us to the train station, luckily there were some Indians helping fight our corner for us.
We had breakfast at the train station and some lovely chai and got a rickshaw to a place we had read about in our book. The book was saying that it was a reasonably priced place to stay, but I think things have changed since the book was written as he was showing us, granted very lovely rooms, for Rs1500 which is about £15. This might sound cheap but when everywhere apart from Mumbai has been £3-4 a night for the two of us we weren't about to start shelling out that much. We'd passed a few places on the way so I stayed with the bags and Kay went in search of somewhere more in our price range. Because we hadn't slept on the journey from Udaipur we decided to go for a wee nap before going to see what Jodhpur had to offer.
Our accommodation was really well positioned for all the touristy things (there isn't much!) so we decided to walk up to the fort of Jodhpur which was only about 10minute walk away. As far as things go here, it was pretty expensive, for the two of us and a camera it cost Rs700 but included in that cost was an audio guide. We spent a couple of hours walking around the fort which was very beautiful and had some amazing views of the blue city below. It was getting quite late and as we weren't 100% confident in the way back to the accommodation we walked quickly to the white temple which wasn't far from the fort to take some more photos, we got some lovely ones of the sun setting behind the fort.
We went in search of a restaurant that we'd read about in our book once we walked back down from the fort but got a bit lost and ended up at the clock tower which is surrounded by a market. A guy came and spoke to us claiming that he worked at our accommodation and told us that the restaurant that we were looking for didn't open until 7pm but that we should go to a "government" shop where we could buy designer clothes even that famous English design house Chanel....I think you mean French!? We eventually convinced him that we didn't have any money for shopping and headed in the direction of the restaurant which he had kindly given us directions to, but again advised it was shut. Of course it wasn't really shut and of course he didn't really work at our hotel but god loves a trier! The restaurant looked lovely but was very expensive, they've maybe put up their prices since being in the guide book, we were so tired we decided to just go back and have dinner at our accommodation. It was nothing to write home about but filled a hole at the time.
The next morning we went on a village safari with two others from the hostel, we took a jeep out to some local villages where they made different crafts. The first village was one where they made clay pots. We watched the guy making all sorts of things from spice pots to candle holders. He made it look so easy but we learnt this isn't the case when we were allowed to try for ourselves. Other things we saw were rug making and opium tea which is technically illegal in India but apparently they turn a blind eye to it out in the sticks. We saw our first elephant walking along the street but the driver was too slow and didn't stop to allow us to take any photos in time. We had lunch at the family house of our guide, we had some really lovely spicy potatoes and chapatti. I'm loving the food here but because we're eating out two to three times a day we have tried everything they have to offer on the menus and are starting to sicken ourselves of a few things. We do treat ourselves to the odd veggie burger or French toast just to eat something bland.
There wasn't a lot to do in Jodhpur and you could probably squeeze it all into a day if you really wanted to so we spent quite a lot of time just wandering the streets and markets just looking at stuff. They had a Mr Softy machine in the market and you could get really lovely ice cream for about 15p. Kay had to drag we away from there each day kicking and screaming! We went to eat at a place called The Omelette Man and I'm sure I won't need to tell you what we ate there. It's a really famous wee place right next to the clock tower and it's literally some stools on the street and one man with a frying pan. He claims he can go through 1000 eggs a day! For about 55p you could get a delicious big omelette sandwiched between two slices of sweet bread and a steaming hot cup of chai.
Our bus to Pushkar (Ajmer) left at 10.30pm and we were told that it would arrive at about 4.30am which wasn't ideal but we figured we would spend a couple of hours in the train station until day light. We were rudely shouted about 3am and told that we were in Ajmer. We hurriedly packed our things and made our way off the bus but because we were so disorientated we didn't realise until it was too late that they'd managed to just dump us a the side of the highway! With only one rickshaw demanding Rs400 to drive us to the train station we had no choice but to pay it as there was no one else, we were in the middle of no where, at the edge of a slum, it was 3am and he wasn't willing to budge at all on the price! Furious doesn't even come close to how we felt that morning and as soon as we were in our accommodation and connected to their wifi I sent our travel agent a message going bananas at him for booking us on a bus that would arrive a that time in the morning! He has tried to book us on more buses but we went so mad that he is cancelling them (at his cost) and booking us on the trains that he should have booked us on and that we paid him through the nose for. The amount of money that we paid for them to book our train tickets has been the biggest "lesson" so far in India.
We sat in the train station until morning and then took an 11 pence bus ride to Pushkar. We had booked ourselves into a dorm room before we left Jodhpur for £1.20 a night. When we got off the bus we had to navigate through the usual wall of rickshaw drivers trying to get your custom but we thought our accommodation was within walking distance (we were wrong) but when we told one of them that we didn't need a ride as we were staying at Milkman Hotel (yes that is the name!) he said he would take us for free as the owner was his friend. I don't really believe that they are friends and I am sure he will receive commission for dropping us there but that's not really our issue, we were just happy to catch a break after our awful morning.
Our accommodation here is fine, a little rough around the edges but what do you expect for £1.20 a night! It's the first dorm we've slept in since we arrived but we were so tired from another sleepless bus journey we managed to get a couple of hours shut eye once we arrived. We woke about lunch time and decided to shower and make the most of the rest of the day. We had some banana and chocolate pancakes for lunch and then walked down to the lake which is surrounded by 500 temples. Your shoes need to be removed and no photos can we taken, although I think Kay managed to sneak a few in when we walked around. There are a few people trying to sell you flowers so you can put them in the water while they conduct prayers. Our book said it was wise to do it as they wouldn't leave you alone until you had a string bracelet which showed you had. A guest in our dorm advised that it was all nonsense though and that no real priest would ask you for money to conduct a blessing and so just to ignore them which we have duly done. They haven't actually bothered us too much since we arrived. We had dinner at our accommodation which was a huge portion blandness and had an early night.
Trip advisor lists the 8 attractions of Pushkar to be a camel safari, the lake and 6 temples. Since we'd already seen the lake and aren't allowed into the temples as tourists we decided to do a wee camel ride today. We had a lazy morning followed by a long lunch at one of the roof top restaurants overlooking the lake. We are really thankful that we decided to only do a one hour camel ride and I'm not sure my legs could have taken much more. They were really sore from clenching so tightly through fear of falling off! A girl at our hostel said she did a two day trip into the dessert and she actually did fall off! She was showing us her hoof shaped bruise from where it stomped on her! It's been a nice relaxing couple of days here...of to Jaipur tomorrow.
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