Today was sightseeing and action day. We had booked a car from the hotel to take us around to all of the sights of Jodhpur. We started out from the hotel at 8:30 and first went to Mehrangarh Fort, which really was a feast to the eyes - it was really well kept and the museum there held an impressive array of platforms for elephant rides, weapons, clothes and cannons. We spent more than an hour there with our audio guides like good little tourists.
Afterwards we went to Jaswant Thada just a few hundred meters down the road, which is a memorial to Maharaja Jaswant Singh II and made of marble - it was really peaceful, apart from the lawn movers running at the time, and well impressive. The inside was very stylish too and contained a range of paintings.
Then we headed off to the Umaid Bhawan Palace at the other end of the city, a.k.a. Chittar Palace, which also functions as a private residence for Gaj Singh II - and as a luxury hotel. Much of the palace was therefore inaccessible but the wing that was accessible was really well kept and hosted a museum with some history of the family and its locality. There was also an impressive show of vintage cars, including open top Rolls Royce's, Cadillacs etc. Unfortunately the covering windows were well overdue a cleaning and so I couldn't take some good pictures without literally placing the lens against the windows, resulting in a very limited view range - but I got a couple of good pictures, if only partially of some of the cars.
Then our driver took us down to the Clock Tower and Markets - where we spent a total of 20 minutes - it was around lunch time and insanely hot and neither of us were in a mood (or had any space) for any kind of shopping so we quickly called our driver again after a quick trot around - at this point we had seen the main sights and asked him to return us to the hotel.
I then called the Flying Fox team and booked a zip lines trip with them for 16:30 that evening. So we called up our driver and made arrangements to bring us up to the Fort where the action was happening for 15:30.
We then relaxed in the room and also had a small lunch to keep us going. At 15:30 we were ready and went up to the Fort again where we found them and sat down.
There we got to talk to of the people there that we were going to do it with - there were a couple of singles, a couple with a kid from London and a couple from Canada (Derek and Christine). After talking to people for about 45 minutes and signing up (turns out we got a really good deal, buy one and get one free, totaling Rs.1,350.00) we had a quick lecture on safety and how to zip.
Then we were off to our first zip line. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't nervous (and I'm sure Claire was too although she was displaying a certain amount of cool ;-) but I managed to control the urge to run away and off I went. The experience was amazing - zipping at a speed of probably 30km/hour at heights of perhaps 50m at times was just exhilerating and we both really enjoyed it. We had a total of 6 zips (the longest being 320m) lasting just over an hour and everyone enjoyed themselves. There were no incidents and although a few people got "stuck" near the end of the line, they all heroically managed to pull themselves backwards hand-over-hand to the platform - even the kid, who was 11 years of age, displayed an incredible cool when he got stuck and started pulling himself in - although he had tried it before - through school...?!?!
We had gotten talking to the Canadian couple and we got on with them very well. She was a nurse and he worked in IT (banks in Canada) - so not unlike myself and Claire. So we ended up agreeing to have dinner together in our hotel Ratan Vilas. The two girls also had a patch-up session of Derek's toe nails, some of which were bleeding and in the process of falling off from previous hiking expeditions, both at the camp and later at our hotel room - as I always carry a first-aid kit.
At 19:00 we sat outside the hotel, while waiting for the dinner section to be ready at 19:30, and had mostly non-alcoholic drinks (well, I had a few beers during the night ;-) but the mosquitoes quickly moved in as it was getting dark and "bullied" us away from the lawn and up onto the veranda.
Afterwards we went for dinner together and ended up spending 3.5 hours talking in front of a fantastic array of curries, rice and naan bread - they are a really nice couple and we got on really well. The topics of conversation included travelling, IT, nursing, the global economy etc.
At 23:00 we went on the hunt for a rickshaw but didn't find any at the road so I went back into the hotel and asked them to book one. It had literally only been 2 minutes after the guy at the counter had called the rickshaw and until it appeared - by far the fastest service in India - EVER! ;-) We said our goodbyes and wished each others good luck with the onwards journey before parting ways.
After that it was bed time - time to give the remaining guests a break from loud conversation at the out-door dining area ;-)
Afterwards we went to Jaswant Thada just a few hundred meters down the road, which is a memorial to Maharaja Jaswant Singh II and made of marble - it was really peaceful, apart from the lawn movers running at the time, and well impressive. The inside was very stylish too and contained a range of paintings.
Then we headed off to the Umaid Bhawan Palace at the other end of the city, a.k.a. Chittar Palace, which also functions as a private residence for Gaj Singh II - and as a luxury hotel. Much of the palace was therefore inaccessible but the wing that was accessible was really well kept and hosted a museum with some history of the family and its locality. There was also an impressive show of vintage cars, including open top Rolls Royce's, Cadillacs etc. Unfortunately the covering windows were well overdue a cleaning and so I couldn't take some good pictures without literally placing the lens against the windows, resulting in a very limited view range - but I got a couple of good pictures, if only partially of some of the cars.
Then our driver took us down to the Clock Tower and Markets - where we spent a total of 20 minutes - it was around lunch time and insanely hot and neither of us were in a mood (or had any space) for any kind of shopping so we quickly called our driver again after a quick trot around - at this point we had seen the main sights and asked him to return us to the hotel.
I then called the Flying Fox team and booked a zip lines trip with them for 16:30 that evening. So we called up our driver and made arrangements to bring us up to the Fort where the action was happening for 15:30.
We then relaxed in the room and also had a small lunch to keep us going. At 15:30 we were ready and went up to the Fort again where we found them and sat down.
There we got to talk to of the people there that we were going to do it with - there were a couple of singles, a couple with a kid from London and a couple from Canada (Derek and Christine). After talking to people for about 45 minutes and signing up (turns out we got a really good deal, buy one and get one free, totaling Rs.1,350.00) we had a quick lecture on safety and how to zip.
Then we were off to our first zip line. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't nervous (and I'm sure Claire was too although she was displaying a certain amount of cool ;-) but I managed to control the urge to run away and off I went. The experience was amazing - zipping at a speed of probably 30km/hour at heights of perhaps 50m at times was just exhilerating and we both really enjoyed it. We had a total of 6 zips (the longest being 320m) lasting just over an hour and everyone enjoyed themselves. There were no incidents and although a few people got "stuck" near the end of the line, they all heroically managed to pull themselves backwards hand-over-hand to the platform - even the kid, who was 11 years of age, displayed an incredible cool when he got stuck and started pulling himself in - although he had tried it before - through school...?!?!
We had gotten talking to the Canadian couple and we got on with them very well. She was a nurse and he worked in IT (banks in Canada) - so not unlike myself and Claire. So we ended up agreeing to have dinner together in our hotel Ratan Vilas. The two girls also had a patch-up session of Derek's toe nails, some of which were bleeding and in the process of falling off from previous hiking expeditions, both at the camp and later at our hotel room - as I always carry a first-aid kit.
At 19:00 we sat outside the hotel, while waiting for the dinner section to be ready at 19:30, and had mostly non-alcoholic drinks (well, I had a few beers during the night ;-) but the mosquitoes quickly moved in as it was getting dark and "bullied" us away from the lawn and up onto the veranda.
Afterwards we went for dinner together and ended up spending 3.5 hours talking in front of a fantastic array of curries, rice and naan bread - they are a really nice couple and we got on really well. The topics of conversation included travelling, IT, nursing, the global economy etc.
At 23:00 we went on the hunt for a rickshaw but didn't find any at the road so I went back into the hotel and asked them to book one. It had literally only been 2 minutes after the guy at the counter had called the rickshaw and until it appeared - by far the fastest service in India - EVER! ;-) We said our goodbyes and wished each others good luck with the onwards journey before parting ways.
After that it was bed time - time to give the remaining guests a break from loud conversation at the out-door dining area ;-)
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