Palaces, Forts and Blue Houses, Oh My!...

January 12th

I woke in the morning fairly late – 9:30, and we were scheduled to leave on our tour at 10. I took some more grapefruit seed extract, and got ready. We dropped our laundry off downstairs to be washed and picked up at the end of the day. My stomach was feeling better, but I was far from well.

We first went to the Umaid Bhawan Palace – it was an interesting mix of art deco and traditional architecture and design.
There were many interesting furniture and art pieces, and much glassware and clocks.
There was also a great collection of automobiles from the early 1900’s.

Afterwards, they took us to look at antiques. Jodphur is known for antiques. I started looking around at the things in the room, and then we were taken downstairs for the sales pitch.

They layed out a bunch of blankets and things – I wasn’t really interested in them. The guy also was trying to bullshit us on some things, and the prices on some things were much higher than we had seen previously. He did have some nice things, though, and Mike ended up with a nice Armani scarf. The man showed us all the newspaper articles and magazine clippings where his shop was featured. He also had photos with Richard Geare and Bill Murray, and showed all the business arrangements he had with stores like Anthropologie, and others in other countries around the world. Richard Geare bought 108 of the same blanket, because he had purchased one at a shop in London for an outrageous price, and got a much better deal on them. I didn’t buy anything, but I probably would have, had I been given the opportunity to look around at the little statues and things. The man who was trying to sell us things told Mike he was lucky, because the man’s wife likes jewelry shops, and he takes her to go shopping only once a year, for the kite festival in January. I guess he thought I didn’t like shopping, or at least didn’t like jewelry because I wasn’t wearing any.

After the antique shop, we went to lunch at a restaurant called “On the Rocks”. I thought it was ironic, considering my ice experience from last night.

I still wasn’t feeling so well, so Mike finished my food. I had a tonic water. It made my stomach feel more settled for a while.

After lunch, we went up the hill to Mehrangarh Fort. We got to walk around with a guided audio tour. I had to pay extra for my camera – 100 rupees.
The fort was magnificent, and the view, amazing.

From the upper levels, you could see the area of town where more of the blue houses are concentrated, but it was rather smoggy or dusty, so the photos are not so clear.

Towards the end, I started to feel pretty weak, and my legs were shaky from walking around and climbing so many stairs while not feeling well, so we went back to the hotel. We had another reservation for the same rooftop restaurant for dinner, but I opted to stay in at the hotel. I fell asleep, and then went downstairs to the restaurant in our hotel a bit later and joined Mike and the ladies for dinner. I had bread and curd and lassi. The yoghurt is supposed to help my stomach.

Mike picked up our laundry, and misread the bill, thinking is said 5000 rupees – about $100. Expensive laundry! It really was about 500 rupees, so not so bad; I only had 3 items washed, Mike had all of his things cleaned. I went down to try and call my bank to see if I could get my Visa card working again – but couldn’t figure out how to call out, and the man who helped me ended up looking up the country code for Mexico (when he asked me what country, I said U.S., and he said “what country in the U.S.?” and I said “New Mexico”; he said “Mexico” and I said “NEW Mexico”…). I tried by email instead – we will see what reply I get, and I also sent another email home.