Jodhpur

Jodhpur - April 4

Johan, our guide for the day brought roses for Eva for her birthday.  He looked and sounded a bit like Jack Black, the actor, in the movie Bernie

Our first stop inside the Mehrangarth Fort  was the royal crematorium site. While the kings are cremated here their ashes are taken to the Ganges in Varanesi.  The main shrine was built by the wife of a maharaja. The smaller shrine is for other royals.  The wood is for the pyres.

One of the main courtyards is comprised of a fantastic assortment of carved stone screens, all different patterns, that allowed  women to look down on the festivities without being seen.   One maharaja had over 300 wives!

Various rooms were built through the 1700's, some using colored glass to brighten the inside without letting people see in from the outside.

From the fort you look down on the town where many of the houses and roof tops are painted shades of blue.

The Sadar Bazaar down in the town was total overload for the senses.  It's were local people shop, not the tourists.  As our guide warned us, be careful taking pictures so you don't get run over!  I had to grab Eva a couple times to pull her out of the way of things.  More bangles, clothes, etc. but most interesting were the stalls selling rice, lentils, etc. where the grains were just spread out on a bag on the ground. I guess the stones are meant to keep the cows from walking right over the rice...or eating it.

The Umaid Bhavan Palace was built by the enlightened Maharaja Umaid Singh starting in 1929 partly to create jobs for his people.  It took 3000 workers nearly 15 years to complete and incorporated Art Deco (he was very modern thinking) along with Rajput and Jain architecture.  His grandson still lives there and much of the palace was converted to a hotel (Taj Hotels) in the 70's.  A bit out of our price range but truly a palatial hotel.