The Rajasthan Diaries - IV

The ride from Jaisalmer to Jodhpur, our next destination was uneventful. The bus was full, and all of us had no energy left in us. We just slept through the entire journey. We were woken up by cries from the conductor, of the bus entering Jodhpur, and we just took a spot decision to get down. We got down at a desolate road junction in the city, equipped only with the knowledge of finding a hotel near some place which Avinash knew. The autos in Jodhpur are a strange combination of ancient and modern design. The auto looks like a modified bullock cart, and chugs along at its won pace irrespective of the urgency shown by the rider. We picked up some food along the way, the famous dal,bhati and churma, which I had heard was the speciality in these places and trudged around looking for a hotel which would be open at that point of time. The auto driver 'Vinoo' was giving us some expert advice on hotels in the city, but we were adamant on going to one particular place. In hindsight, it would have been better if we had listened to him, as after reaching the hotel, we found that it was way above our budget.
The next hotel which we looked at was the 'Heritage Hotel'. This was a decent hotel, and the cost also did not burn too much of a hole into our pocket. We packed off Vinoo and settled down into the beautiful room which was fit for a royal couple. The dinner which we had picked up along the way turned out to be a anti-climax. The food was too spicy, and we ended up chucking most of the food away. The night was pretty cold, and we snuggled up for a deep slumber.
The next morning was supposed to be spent sight seeing in Jodhpur. We got up and made arrangements for the taxi cab through one of Avinash's contacts. The cab turned out to be a spacious Qualis, and the driver was a nice soft spoken man called Anwar. We first made our way to the house of one of Avinash's class mates, where we were treated to a sumptous breakfast and a hot cup of tea. With a loaded stomach, we started out on a tour of the 'blue city'. If Jaipur was called the 'Pink City' due to its pink city walls, Jodhpur would certainly have been called 'the blue city'. Most of the buildings in the old part of the city were painted a dark blue in colour. Our first stop was the Jodhpur fort. The fort was atop an imposing hill, and overlooked the city majestically. We got down at the foot of the hill, where the entrance of the fort was, and made our way up into the walls of the fort. The walls of the fort bore the marks of cannon balls, and the majestic fort walls which overlooked the city had an array of cannons lined up. There were cannons of all shapes and sizes. After going around the walls, we ventured into the Jodhpur fort mueseum. The museum had a decent collection of art and artifacts from the time of the Maharajahs of Jodhpur. Our next stop was at a place called 'JaswantThana'. This was the burial place of all the kings of Jodhpur. The place was made entirely of marble, and had a memorial for every king who had ruled over Jodhpur during the past. From there, we went across to the palace of the current king of Jodhpur. The palace, is only partially open to the public, while the other half is used as a hotel. There are suites in the hotel, which are rumoured to be more than a lakh of rupees per night. It is aptly called the 'Emperor Suite'. We skipped lunch as most of us were not hungry after the heavy breakfast which we had. We made our way to a very famous Jain temple which would fall along the way to Mount Abu, our next stop.
The Jain temples of Ranakpur are very famous in the Jain community. The temples themselves are very old, constructed close to a thousand years ago. There are three temples in the complex, and we could make it to only one of the temples, as the time had already passed for entry into the other temples. A common rule in all the Jain temples is that anything which is made of leather is not allowed inside. So, we had to leave our belts and purses in the cab itself. Another common factor in all the Jain temples is the absence of any electrical lighting. Whatever lighting is available is through lamps, which gives the temple a really eerie look. We entered the temple, in time for the final aarti. We witnessed what was the auction for the post of doing the aarti for that day. The rate started at Rs.100, and went on to close at Rs.7000. The person, who wins the auction, gets the chance to do the aarti on that evening to the statue of Lord Neminath, one of the premier tirthankaras of the Jain religion.
We couldn't visit the fort of Kumbalgarh, which was a few more kilometers away from Ranakpur. We made our way towards Mount Abu, our next stop in our trip across Rajasthan.