Jaisalmer to Jodhpur

We woke up yesterday morning with plans to head out early to Jodhpur, about a 6 hour drive from Jaisalmer.  In a last minute decision we decided to stop by the annual Jaisalmer Desert Festival that began yesterday.  We looked at the program and saw the opening ceremony and a couple events were happening the the nearby stadium so we headed over with Nandhu.  The event was huge, and the whole procession of the opening ceremony was massive.  We stayed for two of the competitions that were in the program, the first being a "Mr. Desert" competition.  Essentially about 10 local men who had been grooming their massive amounts of facial hair for years got up on stage and were judged based on mustache "thickness and attractiveness".  There was definite crowd input with people cheering more loudly for some contestants more than others, but there were also legitimate judges with clipboards, marking things off as they examined each 'stache.  There was a clear winner when one man in the center lifted his mustache up, the tendrils at least a foot and a half long.  The crowd silenced a bit when he did this, and then erupted in loud cheers.  I mean, it was pretty impressive.  After we watched the turban tying contest, where men had the tie up the full 82 feet of fabric used in one turban under 2 minutes.  We ducked out of the stadium after the event was over when we saw an opening in the crowd.  Up next was apparently the foreigners round, where they could also compete in tying up a turban.  While this too promised to be silly and entertaining, we knew it would probably be a much more time consuming event and we had to get going.

Opening procession

Hot day

Sun protection

Mr. Desert contest

Deliberation

Winner!

Turban tying contest--- so much fabric

The ride to Jodhpur was fairly uneventful, but very peaceful through the desert.  The landscape became more and more rocky as we entered Jodhpur, and the streets more winding and narrow when we got to the guest house.  We were promptly brought in, given a cup of tea, and spoke to the owner's brother for a bit before he showed us to our room.  He then told us that there was some confusion in our reservation and said our guest house was actually down the street.  Apparently the room he had shown us was for an Indian girl from the UK.  Oops.  So we grabbed our bags and headed down the street to another guesthouse.  Luckily there was a free room, so we dropped our things and settled in for the night.  The guest house wasn't much, but the view from the rooftop was incredible.  After a quick dinner we headed to bed, ready for a big day.

View from the roof

We woke up this morning to a call from Nandhu who wanted to drop off Elliot's jacket because it was a little cold outside.  Seriously nicest guy ever.  We had breakfast on the roof, talking with a girl from France who had been in Jodhpur for almost a month.  Nandhu found us on the roof, and we all headed out to the markets just to see the city center.  There's a beautiful old clock tower in the center of the main city, and we walked through to reach the entrance of yet another fort.  You would think by now we'd be getting a little bored with all the forts we've been visiting, but honestly each one we get to explore is totally different, and the climb is always fun and invigorating.  The Mehrangarh Fort of Jodhpur was not different.  We entered and bought tickets, while I bought an Indian one Elliot bought a foreigner one to find that it came with a free audio guide.  While neither of us is big on audio guides (or guides in general), we passed on the headset to Nandhu who was very enthusiastic about it.  He would narrate what the highlights were at each stop (almost shouting too, because he had the earphones in).  We had a lot of fun wandering around together, weaving around the massive tour groups.  The view from the top windows of the fort were really stunning-- it's obvious why Jodhpur is nicknamed the blue city.

Nandhu narrating

Mehrangarh

The Blue City

When we left, we walked back down the hill, cutting through another section of the market.  We bought some bananas and snacks for lunch, and took a long walk back to where the car was parked.  We then went to the Umaid Bhawan Palace, a fairly new palace (only a little over 100 years old) that has recently been converted into a super fancy hotel.  Because it is a hotel, you can only go into two rooms in the palace that have been converted into museums and a small courtyard.  We're back at the hotel now relaxing for a bit, making plans for tomorrow's road trip to Udaipur.  It's our last day with Nandhu too, so we're trying to figure out something fun to do (and we're very excited to try his favorite chicken curry in Udaipur for dinner tomorrow night!)    

Clock tower in the city center

Walking through the city

 The market

Umaid Bhawan Palace

Belongs to this guy