We discovered that significance as we tried to make transport and hotel reservations to move on from scenic Udaipur. The issue that arises is that, outside of Udaipur, all the main cities in Rajasthan begin with the same letter of the alphabet - the letter ‘J’. To compound the issue, they all sound a bit similar, all feature forts and palaces as their main attractions, and are all tough to pronounce on their own let alone as a group.
Enter the ‘Three Js’, as they’re known to visitors, of Jodhpur (joe‘d-purr), Jaisalmer (j'eye-sal-murr) and Jaipur (j'eye-purr). Outside of the other main tourist route known as the ‘Golden Triangle’ - which includes Delhi, Agra (Taj Mahal) and Jaipur (it’s on both routes) - the ‘Three Js’ is one of the most popular tourist routes in all of India.
The three similarly nomenclatured cities are evenly spaced out on a horizontal line splitting down the middle of the flat, arid desert landscape of Rajasthan. Jaisalmer stands to the far west with Jaipur to the far east,and Jodhpur about halfway between both and a tad bit south.
Pronunciations and locations fairly well figured out, after some practice, we managed to get our hotels and transportation details squared away on the right dates for the right cities which was rather important as we were about to embark on a whirlwind tour of this area of India. In eight days we would cover four cities (Agra, home of the Taj Mahal, in the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh would be the fourth and final stop) and over 600 miles via plane, train, car and camel.
Driving us to undertake such a speedy schedule, aside from my fixed departure date from India, was the promise of quintessential India with authentic Indian towns, age-old forts and palaces and kilometer after kilometer of scorching desert where temperatures often top out at 120F. OK, maybe the last one wasn’t as much a draw as it was a necessity to traverse en route to each city.
Helping us keep straight where we might find ourselves day to day was the convenient color coding of each city. Jodhpur, our first stop, is known as the ’blue city’, while Jaisalmer, next on the agenda, is the ’golden city’, and Jaipur is designated the ‘pink city’. Each of those names refers to the color of the walls of homes, forts or palaces for which the particular city has become well known over the years.
We started off swiftly out of the gate with a quick forty-five minute flight from Udaipur to Jodhpur. As we arrived in the evening, our stay would be particularly short, leaving us just the next day to explore Jodhpur’s impressive Meheranghar Fort and Umaid Bhawan Palace. I, of course, hindered our start the next morning as I remain averse to rising early in the morning.
But, we started out late morning still with ample time to cover those main attractions. Meheranghar Fort, as one might expect, sits on a high bluff overlooking the city. It takes chugging tuk-tuk ride up a long, winding road to get there, but your rewarded with spectacular views of the city almost upon arrival.
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| From Jodhpur '07 |
The walk into the fort is via a series of winding approaches done so purposely so as to thwart the use of elephants used to attack the fortress by opposing armies. The right angles at which the entrance roads twist and turn would force the charging enemy elephants to lose all momentum thus almost ensuring that the barricaded fort entry doors could resist a rival army’s advance.
Inside the fort, sans accompaniment of a pachyderm, we found a tightly packed palace that uses almost as much vertical space as horizontal - an atypical feature from other forts/palaces we’d found thus far. The entry fee comes with a free audio tour, that while seeming dorky initially, turned out to be one of the most informative ways to view the palace. Inside are a museum-like collection of displays of weaponry, paintings, palanquins - the seats kings/queens would sit on as they were carried through the streets - and other exhibits, as well as the standard tour of royal receiving rooms, dining rooms and bedrooms.
From high atop the palace balconies, the collection of buildings that give Jodhpur it’s color-themed nickname stuck out from the city below. A substantial section of the city’s homes surrounding the fort/palace are painted in a blueish tint that‘s used to keep homes naturally cool as well as, supposedly, repel insects and bugs.
The actual color is actually a little more on the purple side as it’s indigo, for the soothing effects mentioned above, that was added to the normal whitewash that usually covered homes a few centuries ago. Whatever good the chosen color does for the home dwellers, it nonetheless makes for a cool look and a great picture.
Our second, and final, main stop in Jodhpur was to the Umaid Bhawan Palace. This stop was on the itinerary maybe more due to recent events than for historical reasons. The lack of historical importance is due to the relative youth of the palace itself which was the last palace built in India, completed in 1944. It’s a beautiful design, but has no other historical significance and has since been turned into a hotel.
That’s where the current events lure comes into play. It’s the place where Elizabeth Hurley was married just a few days before we arrived in Jodhpur. Unfortunately, due to her evidently all-encompassing wedding, as well as one planned for the next day by a wealthy Indian couple, the hotel was closed to the public. Thus, we were left, begrudgingly, only to wander through the ho-hum attached museum and were only able to admire the palace’s exterior beauty.
While our visit to the Umaid Bhawan Palace was disappointing, our stay in the blue city was not. Though our stay in Jodhpur was relatively short, the Meheranghar Fort made it worth the stop and whet our appetite to see what the other J's had in store for us.
JODHPUR PHOTO ALBUM (click photo):
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| Jodhpur '07 |
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