Monsoon Honeymoon:Part VII: Skepticism at the Pleasure Palace, and a Mountain Adventure to the City of Romance

Scoping out a royal fresco on a palace wall

Sunday, June 23: Jodhpur to Udaipur

During our travels we ran into young European singles and couples who were sojourning through India for three to six months. To do justice to such a massive expression of the human project, this is a realistic amount of time to tour India.  Leigh and I had 21 days, which is still most generous by almost any standard.  However, it meant that in our efforts to cover thousands of miles of sights, landmarks, and attractions, we had to run a tight show.  That's Leigh's modus operandi in any case, and I can keep pace.

Today would be a bit crazy though, as we attacked the best attraction in Jodhpur in the morning, and then ventured over six hours to the south to our next city.

Mehrangarh Fort looms largest over Jodhpur.   Smaller than Amber Fort and less important than Red Fort, Mehrangharh Fort was instead perhaps the quintessential example of Rajasthani royal power.  We climbed the switchbacking road up to the mini-mountain in the center of the city, and began our audio tour of the Fort.  We proceeded through the central gate, large enough to accommodate an elephant entourage, and climbed the sloping stone path into the inner courtyards.  As in Agra Fort, the entryway was an uphill climb in order to better deter invading forces.  Bejeweled inner chambers once again captivated our attention, especially the Emperor's pleasure palace of cushions, precious stones, tapestries, and a throne, where music, poetry, and "the arts of pleasure" were celebrated.  It sounded a bit overblown to me.  I imagined this room more as the Emperor's Crib, where he engaged in the low arts of womanizing and sensory stimulation as much as poetry and music.

We also observed an interesting collection of manual rickshaws, in which servants would carry around rulers on a sort of raised, decorated stretcher, replete with chairs, cushions, and of course curtain-covered rooms for the ladies.  Apparently the wheel hadn't made its way to Rajasthan by the 1500's. . .?

The Raj's Pleasure Palace

As we glanced from the walls of the fort to the city below, we looked  onto the ridiculously extravagant Raj's Palace, containing over 300 rooms!  Really? Did even Louis XIV have so many rooms?  It seems as though the gap between rich and poor that plagues modern India is not merely a modern phenomenon.

We were also amazed by the stunning blue hue of the buildings below.  Many of the stone and clay edifices in Jodhpur are drenched in indigo paint, to provide coolness and for beauty.  It's an inescapable and iconic image of this "blue city."

Goodbye Jodhpur! Shirking bus travel in India forevermore, and discovering no train connection through the mountainous terrain to Udaipur, we booked a driver.  He scooped up a friend at the edge of town to keep him company, and we were off on another five to eight hour driving tour of India.  Leigh and I talked, laughed, read, enjoyed the ever-changing carnival of life outside the window, and contemplated.  After a few hours our flat, straight road turned into a one-lane windy mountain road for 50 kilometers.  The landscapes became lush, green, and forested, and creatures began to pop into the road.  Leigh swears she saw an elusive sloth bear.  Long, grey-haired monkeys abounded, and one cheeky monkey even chased after our car and shook his fist when he felt we came too close to his tribe.

After cresting the mountain pass we emerged into rolling grasslands reminiscent of Ireland or upcountry Maui, full of stone walls, open fields, and afternoon strollers.

We dropped down into the Lake City of Udaipur in the early evening, coming in through the village outskirts, circling around downtown roundabouts, and then driving into the historic old city abetting the Lake.  We hailed goodbye to our driver and walked the last leg of our journey through the narrow, hilly streets of our home city for the next three nights.  We checked in to a lakefront palace that had been converted into a hotel, headed out to a nearby rooftop for a candle and moon-lit late dinner, and soaked up the soothing ambience of the Lake.  Sleep came easily on our first night in Udaipur.