Our first stop in Rajasthan was Jodhpur. We wanted to stay in the old part of the city near the fort. Rajasthan literally means “land of the kings”. In the time before British rule, Rajasthan was not a state. Each city was its own state with its own king and its own palace. That palace is inside a fort so if any of the neighboring kings decided to attack (which was often), it would slow them down a bit.
We arrived in Jodhpur early in the morning and made the rounds looking for a hotel. We found a lovely place called the Discovery Guest House. If you ever find yourself in Jodhpur, I highly recommend it. It is lovely, clean, and nicely decorated. The rooms are big and airy. And, best of all, it is run by a really nice family who make you feel right at home.
We had grand plans of going to the fort and doing all the other touristy things there were to do around town, but then we saw the roof of our guest house. It had an amazing view of the fort and really amazing tea… so we camped out there for a good chunk of the first day. Eventually, we decided to wander the streets of the old city and get a feel for the city.
Later in the day, we went to the Umaid Palace. It is mostly a hotel now, but the outside is beautiful. The next day we went to Mandore gardens. There are temples and gardens and some kind of ruins. At the end of the day, we were excited to go back and see the view from our rooftop restaurant at night. We were disappointed to find that the fort isn’t lit at night. Apparently, since tourism is so low this year, they aren’t bothering to turn on the lights. We went out into the city for dinner. We ended up having omelets from a street vendor which may have been the best eggs I’ve ever eaten.
Finally, on the last day, we decided we should really go check out Meherangarh Fort. It was a 10 minute walk up the hill from our hotel. We set out after lunch. On our way up, a man sitting a house said hello. We said hi and he asked us where we were from. When Jigar said Ahmedabad, the gentleman lit up. He is also Gujarati. He invited us into his home. We chatted for a while with him and his son. They invited us back for tea in the afternoon and he said that his wife would put mendhi on me (that’s henna designs on your hands).
We said our goodbyes to our new friend and headed for the fort. It was as captivating as we expected it to be. My ticket (the foreigner ticket, that is) which costs about five times what Jigar’s ticket costs, comes with an audio tour. Between the audio tour and the restoration of the fort, we were transported back into the land of the Maharanas and their Maharanis. The view of the city from the fort was spectacular.
We arrived in Jodhpur early in the morning and made the rounds looking for a hotel. We found a lovely place called the Discovery Guest House. If you ever find yourself in Jodhpur, I highly recommend it. It is lovely, clean, and nicely decorated. The rooms are big and airy. And, best of all, it is run by a really nice family who make you feel right at home.
We had grand plans of going to the fort and doing all the other touristy things there were to do around town, but then we saw the roof of our guest house. It had an amazing view of the fort and really amazing tea… so we camped out there for a good chunk of the first day. Eventually, we decided to wander the streets of the old city and get a feel for the city.
Later in the day, we went to the Umaid Palace. It is mostly a hotel now, but the outside is beautiful. The next day we went to Mandore gardens. There are temples and gardens and some kind of ruins. At the end of the day, we were excited to go back and see the view from our rooftop restaurant at night. We were disappointed to find that the fort isn’t lit at night. Apparently, since tourism is so low this year, they aren’t bothering to turn on the lights. We went out into the city for dinner. We ended up having omelets from a street vendor which may have been the best eggs I’ve ever eaten.
Finally, on the last day, we decided we should really go check out Meherangarh Fort. It was a 10 minute walk up the hill from our hotel. We set out after lunch. On our way up, a man sitting a house said hello. We said hi and he asked us where we were from. When Jigar said Ahmedabad, the gentleman lit up. He is also Gujarati. He invited us into his home. We chatted for a while with him and his son. They invited us back for tea in the afternoon and he said that his wife would put mendhi on me (that’s henna designs on your hands).
We said our goodbyes to our new friend and headed for the fort. It was as captivating as we expected it to be. My ticket (the foreigner ticket, that is) which costs about five times what Jigar’s ticket costs, comes with an audio tour. Between the audio tour and the restoration of the fort, we were transported back into the land of the Maharanas and their Maharanis. The view of the city from the fort was spectacular.
For more photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=51347&l=eb5d0&id=813269869
6 comments:
hey mr.jadav its isabel (hopefully you havnt forgot about me yet). sounds like you are having fun i am really glad to see that. just wanted to make you proud i got my report and my overall average went up a lot since last year i got 89.85 and in math i got 94 i also took the regents for math b not so happy but i passed with a 78 now i take precalc. just wanted to update you on whats been going on both me and joanna miss you a lot hoepfully we can hear from you soon.
Wow Izzy, that's great news! I am so happy for you. That's a big increase in your GPA. I'm not totally shocked because I always knew that you could do better. And now you have proved the same. Let me know how precal is going? I'm sure you're excited about going into Calculus, right? ;)
Say hi to Joanna (your best friend). Howz she doing? I hope all's well with you and hope your health is good. Keep making me proud :)
I am happy to know that your proud of me. i knew i could do it but i never tried to improve but i have been so i am just trying to keep it up. i am excited about going into precalc. it is very good actually i like it a lot. we took a test already so just waiting for my grade on it.
joanna and me are doing very well, she also went into precalc. we are both doing really good and we miss you a lot. we want to know when you are coming back to visit at least? and hope that your doing good.
I'm glad to hear that you're liking Precal. Let me know about your grade! Looking forward to it.
We will be back in 2nd week of August and we will certainly come and visit Tele in September :)
i got my test back and i got 23/25 so its 92.
im so happy to hear that you are coming to visit in september. i am really excited and i can not wait to see you. we all miss you so much. and i just can not wait. thank you because you believ in me and knew i can do better in school and i did. when no one was there you were. thank you and hope to see you soon.
Izzy, that's a very sweet comment you made. We're both looking forward to visiting Tele in September. I'm very happy to hear that my support helped you in any way possible. I always knew you could do better. I'm so thrilled that you've proved me right :)...Thanks for keeping us posted. We feel like we're still part of Tele when you guys fill us in.
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