Jodhpur, the Blue City of India

We loved our time in Udaipur especially as we had splashed out on a beautiful boutique hotel with a rooftop swimming pool. Our first bus trip to Udaipur was much easier than we had imagined in terms of reliability and punctuality, so we booked another to get us to Jodhpur. Over the course of the five hour journey I snoozed for a few hours and then started listening to Pimsleur Hindi for a slightly different way to learn the language. James was quite happy sticking on his big noise-cancelling headphones and watching a few YouTube videos he had downloaded, meaning we only exchanged a few pleasantries over the entire journey. There seemed to be a great number of locals travelling between Udaipur and Jodhpur which I was surprised at – some of them looked like they had just finished work which made me wonder if they have to commute this far for work.

The bus dropped us off at our stop – the edge of a busy roundabout. We had a 10 minute wait for our Uber driver; meanwhile it felt like each tuk tuk driver who went past stopped and tried to get us to ride with them instead. Lots was going on at this roundabout – horses, cars, tuk tuks, bikes and around the very edge (of the road) were street vendors selling various staples of food; locals would hop off their mopeds to grab the food they needed, whilst the other person waited on the bike usually holding up everyone behind them – but that’s just normal here.

One slight issue we faced was when the uber driver told us he couldn’t take us all the way to our accommodation. We didn’t quite understand why, but he pointed at the city gates. As it was close to 10pm the streets had quietened down and we couldn’t see any other cars going through apart from tuk tuks so we had assumed there was a no car policy past that point. The driver stopped next to a tuk tuk driver and told us to get in with them for the rest of the journey (expecting us to pay the full Uber fee and then the additional for a tuk tuk). We were fairly close to our accommodation, 800 meters or so, so we opted to just walk. Once we said we would walk he was suddenly able to drive another 500 meters, which included going through the gates; at this point we realised he was just having us on as he probably didn’t want the agro of going down the narrower streets, which are nortoriously hard to get through and requires lots of patience waiting for other drivers to come through and copious amounts of reversing down narrow roads to let ongoing traffic through. He still didn’t take us directly to our accommodation but it was just a few minutes walk, needless to say he didn’t get a tip.

The accommodation we had booked for our stay in Jodhpur was a more traditional Haveli, named Geel Haveli. Upon registering all of our details we were given a very tacky plastic necklace each, we acted as though we were very fortunate to have been given these; I put mine around my neck while James’ landed in his pocket. These ended up staying in our room once we checked out in hope they could be reused for future guests.

We were both a little peckish when we arrived so were very relieved when they asked us if we wanted any food and that their rooftop restaurant was still open. When we got to the restaurant they had to turn all the lights on as no one else was there; we think they must have re-opened it just for us, which we were very grateful for. The table and chair setup was funny and can only be described as the chairs being super wide and looking as if they each had a mattress on them. Whilst enjoying our food we sat there for about an hour planning our runs in this town. We soon realised there isn’t a whole load of green space available nor any fitness parks in the vicinity. We ended up searching various social media platforms for other running routes and occasionally firing off a quick question to someone in the hope they would respond to some of our questions. We even managed to find an old running group that looked like it was at its peak activity around Covid; the group looked like they went on some great runs but unfortunately didn’t share the locations which led us to stalking various people from the running group on strava instead – this was more successful and we even found a few runs for Delhi and Jaipur, but still none for Jodhpur. Our idea of re-using a route that had already been mapped out and completed by a local was that they would have the insider knowledge of which roads would be safer to run on etc, or even better any roads that had pavements. We played a quick game of monopoly deal then realised the hotel staff were probably just sitting around waiting for us to finish, so we decided to retire for the night. 

Our room at the Haveli didn’t have any windows, which James quite rightly pointed out was probably not a great idea for us; the next day we didn’t wake up until late morning which made us thankful we didn’t pay extra for breakfast. Instead we used Tripadvisor to find somewhere for breakfast, and we opted for a place called Indigo. The food was really nice but the owner was just a bit too chatty and friendly with us which started to make us feel uncomfortable – probably more so for me. He then mentioned how he and his brother own the spice shop down the road and if we visit they would show us a few bits for free. We knew he was on a big selling trip so we didn’t even bother saying we don’t have any space in our luggage nor do we need any in the near future. From then onwards each time we walked past his spice shop we walked at a much faster pace incase he or his brother would recognise us.

After enjoying a great brekkie (despite the slightly awkard chat) we headed over to the fort which took us an hour or so to look around. Our admission ticket came with a free audioguide which was really interesting. A few things I noted from the audio guide

• Anyone’s house can now be painted blue, a colour chosen not only for its aesthetic appeal but also for its practical benefits. Blue helps keep the interiors cool during hot summers and is known to reduce the presence of certain insects.
• Security at the fort was enhanced by adding a gate positioned at a 90-degree angle around a corner, preventing elephants from gaining enough momentum to charge through the entrance.
• Lions are considered symbols of royalty. In addition to being a symbol of royalty, elephants are also symbols of power.
• Among the Rajputs, opium held cultural significance and was traditionally consumed to resolve disputes, mark marriages, or mourn deaths. It was also closely linked to hospitality, with its consumption often accompanying the welcome of guests.

The rest of the day was spent exploring the blue city, resting for a quick drink at Gopal Rooftop. Of course we enjoyed a game of cards and also managed to spot some Indian wedding celebrations; although it really wasn’t hard to spot as you could literally hear the party bus which featured huge speakers with music blarring out of from blocks away.

We went to visit the clock tower and the neighbouring streets before the sun had completely set; the waiter from breakfast did warn us that a lot of poor deprived people will be at the clock tower. We were approached a number of times by men, women, girls and boys, all indicating with their hands for some food. We walked around the market which sold lots of different bits and pieces including fabric all colours of the rainbow, and then an endless number of fruit and veg vendors. The fabric sellers positioned all of their items on the floor, carefully positioned over a single piece of  fabric to protect their goods. It was mainly The rest of the day was spent exploring the blue city, resting for a quick drink at Gopal Rooftop. Of course we enjoyed a game of cards and also managed to spot some Indian wedding celebrations; although it really wasn’t hard to spot as you could literally hear the party bus which featured huge speakers with music blarring out of from blocks away.

Just as it was starting to get dark we visited the Step Well which coincided with the wedding party bus doing another loop around the city, we tagged along at the back as it was going in the same direction as the step well. We had no idea what to do but just copied those around us – those at the back, where we were, were walking whilst the women and younger boys closer to the bus were busting out more of the energetic dance moves. Once we arrived at the step well we split up from the wedding party to admire the beautifully carved stone steps. The visible off white stone steps are just the ones which have been restored but the steps apparently extend much further down into the water. There was this lovely restaurant overlooking the Step well which took my fancy so we went there for the evening – it turned out to be a good choice and James even went as far as saying it was his best meal of the trip so far. 

James had mapped out a run for us the next morning so we had an early(ish) night to make sure we were up to beat the morning sun. The run went past the fort but getting to the fort was via a very cobbled uphill path which wasn’t particularly suited to running on so we walked up the first bit – I would also like to mention, so you can experience this path in all it’s glory, that it absolutley stank like a public urinal so each time we went up/down it we would have to hold our breath. Once we got to the top we started the run which was entirely on the road, very different to what we had done so far in this trip but there was no other option as pavements were not existent. Although we’ve found it tough getting up for these morning runs what we’ve enjoyed is experiencing a bit more of what life is like day to day for Indians, how the locals go about doing their daily life when the sun isn’t at its hottest. Of course we met lots of cows, dogs and puppies enroute aswell. There’s not a whole lot to write about the run as it wasn’t particularly scenic, even the lake we went past looked more of a grimy green colour than an emerald dazzling green! 

We liked the area around the Step Well so we went back to the area for breakfast where we ate at a cute little indoor cafe called Sam’s (we actually liked it so much we ended up going for breakfast the following day too). We looked at the map to decide what we wanted to do for the day but surprisingly it seemed that we had completed all the tourist attractions the day before. Our onwards bus to Jaiselmer wasn’t until the next day at 6pm. We used the time to just chill out and ended up going back to the restaurant we had dinner at the day before. We got some lunch, took the laptop where James started and finished the Udaipur blog post, and I did a little more Hindi practice; this eventually turned into enjoying a second nights dinner too. We needed to get cash to pay for the accommodation as our host had told us we could pay by card but there would be an international card transaction fee. We got a tip that SBI atms don’t charge a fee for withdrawal so we opted for one of these. We followed what we thought were trusted google map directions, which took us through the clock tower area at around 20.30. The clock tower at this time seemed to be a very lively time for the locals – lots of people packing down for the day and then others trying to get home as quickly as possible. We got to the location of where the ATM was marked on google maps but we couldn’t find it. We were a bit frazzled with the amount of people and traffic going on around us so we decided to call it quits for the day and resume ATM search the next day.

Our third and final day was another chilled one. We didn’t quite make it up for a morning run. We went back to Sam’s cafe for breakfast and stayed there for a little while, then decided to search for the ATM again which fortunately was much more successful. Frustratingly, the ATM was just a short distance from where we were looking the evening before! India isn’t a place you can walk side by side, which is a bit of a shame considering we are on our honeymoon, it’s more of a single file walking affair. A young girl, say 4 or 5 years old , had sneaked her way in between James and I, James hadn’t noticed yet but this little girl who was after money poked James very delicately a few times with her fingers on his bottom – he obviously thought it was me so took this little girls hand for a second and had a huge fright when he realised it wasn’t the hand of his wife!

I had noticed on Google Maps there was a tourist attraction marked as “blue city lane” and so thought this would be the best place to go and see the blue streets of Jodhpur. We had a wander over there which I found quite interesting as it gave us a bit more of an authentic experience of the city, as opposed to just walking around the Blue City which is mainly catered for tourists with guest houses, havelis and restaurants. On the walk we zig zagged our way through various streets frequently having to change sides of the road to keep out of the way of oncoming mopeds and cars. We got to see the streets lined with the local street vendors specifically targetting the locals, again it was nice just to see life more from the perspective of the local. The “blue city lane” was very disappointing, it was just a few buildings all painted in various blue colours like most of the hotels and restaurants in the old city. We still had another 5 or so hours until our bus, so we decided to go back to the Open Cafe – where again I spent a bit more time practicing Hindi and James read his book. It was well positioned for people watching over the step well – this day there was a group of kids hanging out at the step well, one of them more of a dare devil than the others and was jumping in from the highest point of the step well to the water below. He definitely picked up a local and tourist audience from his jumping performance. 

We booked a tuk tuk from the Haveli we were staying at, so that took us directly to the bus station – another very busy roundabout. The bus arrived 30 minutes before its departure time. As we were getting onto the bus a young girl maybe 5 years old approached me asking for money, I said no but she kept on asking – which is quite common. But she then pinched my arm to get my attention which made me really speed up my game to get onto the bus, but just as I was getting onto the bus she then decided to poke my bum which I didn’t take well and so let out a small scream as I definitely was not expecting this, and then she proceeded to touch my boob which at that point I was fuming and shouted for James to get back to me now – he was only a metre away but was physically on the bus as I was just stepping onto it. James came back and I got on the bus, whilst the girl disappeared.

We made ourselves as comfortable as possible on the reclining bus chair and air conditioning. We had another six hours on this bus and another late arrival to our next destination. We arrived at the bus stop in Jaiselmer at about 10pm. We just had a short distance to get to our next Haveli so opted to walk there. James was on walking direction duty but he didn’t quite tell me that he was trying to do a short cut using google maps – our running head torches came to their first use on this off beat path James took us on. It definitely wasn’t a short cut and we never took that route again whilst we stayed in Jaiselmer….