| Part – 2: Jodhpur |
[06 Feb 2004|07:55pm] |
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Kuch tou hua hai - KHNH |
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26th Jan, 2004
One good thing that I had done on 24th was to book a deluxe bus ticket to Jodhpur for 25th night. So, on 25th night, after returning from BV, I left for Jodhpur. The bus was very comfortable and the ride was very smooth. I would like to state one point here that the state highways in Rajasthan are pretty good. It reached Jodhpur at around 5am. I was fast asleep and did not notice that I had reached Jodhpur. I was asleep in the bus for almost 15 minutes after reaching Jodhpur when an auto-rickshaw driver entered the bus and woke me up. I was supposed to meet my friend there. But where in Jodhpur will I go in search of him at 5 :15 am !? He was supposed to call me, but hadn’t done so. So, I decided to take up a room in a hotel. The driver took me to a hotel, where to my surprise and sheer coincidence I met my friend!
Jodhpur is a lovely place. I would say, better and cleaner than Jaipur. We arranged for an auto-rickshaw to take us to all tourist spots. I would say that Umaid Bhavan, the royal palace, now converted into Welcome Group hotel, is an amazing place to visit in Jodhpur. And so is the fort of Jodhpur – truly magnificent and mammoth. Jodhpur gave me a feeling that I am truly in Rajasthan – those sandstone structures with rustic look! The houses are painted blue to give an effect of coolness because Jodhpur is the hottest city in Rajasthan (I guess that’s why its called the Sun City).
In the evening, upon returning to our hotel, I met a Swede girl named Fida. With just a small introduction and talk we became friends and went for evening tea. I learnt a lot about the life style and culture in Sweden from her. She works in a departmental store in Stockholm and is also attending the University there. She is 21 and stays with a guy Daniel away from her home, which is in a remote part of Sweden. She started narrating how she felt about the Indian culture. She also started telling about how girls like her in Sweden have the dreams of remaining beautiful, rich, and have a home. About how people in India consider her to be rich just because she is a foreigner, even though she is actually poor back home. Shopkeepers quote higher prices just because she is a foreigner. Well, the currency exchange rates might make her cash expand in India, but not to a very large extent. We exchanged ideas and views about India and Sweden. It was almost dark when we parted. I was supposed to catch a night bus to Jaisalmer. So, I packed my luggage and set off to Jaisalmer.
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