eating our way through jodhpur

Mel and I agree that Jodhpur was our favorite of the three cities we visited in Rajasthan. What one does in Rajasthan is visit historic forts and eat delicious food—and Jodhpur excels in both these areas.

We spent about a week there and stayed at Heaven Guest House. The food at the guest house was some of the best I’ve had in India—excellent channa masala and subzi. It’s run by a Jain family, and they serve no eggs or meat, so that their food is so good is kind of amazing. 

Speaking of amazing, down the street from the guest house is omelet man. On the outside, this looks like any other Indian omelet stand. But that’s until you taste the omelets. Your average Indian bun omelet (served on something approximating a hamburger bun) is buttery and quite tasty, but this dude’s omelets make you rethink what this breakfast food is capable of. That’s why he has a stream of customers all day and into the night.

If you walk from omelet man’s through Sadar Market, you’ll find another local landmark, the lassi man. Lassi is a sweet drink that has a yogurtish consistency. I’d had it before and not been impressed. But that’s because the lassi I had sucked. A true lassi is almost like eating cheesecake out of a cup.

Now I’m making myself all hungry.

Just in case you thought all we did was eat, we also did a bunch of stuff. Mehrangarh Fort looms over Jodhpur no matter where you go, like a big, giant, looming thing. Inside, it’s simply gorgeous—plenty of beautiful courtyards and miniature paintings.

Jodhpur's known as the blue city, what with all the blue houses. There's a bit of debate as to why they are blue--it's either a caste thing or to protect against termites.

We also took a zip-line tour through the wilderness preserve on the back side of the fort. I thought I would be terrified, but it was actually relaxing and exhilarating at the same time. It’s also the best way to see the city, as you fly high above it. Flying Fox, the company that runs the tours, is based in Switzerland and they do a fantastic job.   

At the Wilderness Preserve

Since we had a lot of time, we also went off the beaten path. We visited the Jodhpur City Museum—the best museum 30 rupees can buy. It's alleges to be a natural history museum and does have a number of stuffed animals. Here are some of its finer exhibits…

These are some birds. They are missing their heads.

Here is a sign...

...and here's the exhibit under the sign.

 After our wonderful Jodhpur visit, Jaipur was a bit of a bust. We did go to City Palace, which was great, if a bit too touristy for our tastes. But then I came down with the flu and we holed up in the hotel for a few days watching the finest in English-language movies on Indian TV. (Armageddon, Fast and the Furious, The Mask 2...it wasn't pretty.)

udaipur: more WPIDK than we can count

After saying bai bai to Mumbai (couldn’t resist), we took an overnight train to Udaipur, a town built around some peaceful lakes.

Ah... The view from our room.

We needed peace, as you can see from our travel “portraits.”

The first thing we noticed about Udaipur was the massive quantities of WPIDK. This is a “code name” we made up, in Mumbai, to surreptitiously comment on the foreigners around us. If you haven’t guessed, the acronym stands for “White People I Don’t Know.”

English quiz: Which line is grammatically correct?

It’s not like there aren’t white people around India, but living in Mussoorie sometimes tricks us into thinking we work with or know every white person around. Mumbai certainly had some WPIDKs, but Udaipur was packed. It’s like there was some website saying, “If you’re white and sort of hippy-ish, visit this place and wear baggy pants!” They flocked all over the touristy part of town we stayed in.

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One of our best days in Udaipur was spent wandering around City Palace, a beautiful relic from the city’s early rulers. As you’ll see if you check out our facebook page, we (read: Melanie) couldn’t stop taking photos. Around every corner awaited another view of the lakes through some sculpted stone window.

Lake Pichola through the windows

Mustachioed sun. Sweet.

We also enjoyed taking a peaceful boat ride around Pichola Lake. The boat dropped us off on one of the two small islands, upon which is an extraordinarily overpriced café. We had our mediocre $4 coffees, wandered, and then boated back to the mainland. The fresh air felt great!

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Udaipur was a city of firsts: first fort palace in Rajasthan, first Indian boat ride, and my first real bout with good, old-fashioned food poisoning. (The offending food came from a restaurant claiming it was “organic” and “healthy.”) I spent an entire day cooped up in our hotel room, cleansing my system of everything. Chris was an amazing help, and I’m thankful that we’re taking our time on this trip; losing a day to illness didn’t prevent us from fully enjoying the city.

What is that, you say? Why, my friend, it's the world's largest turban!

One thing we learned from this experience is that the English-language movies playing on Indian TV are absolutely horrible. We have no idea who chooses the movies that make it here, or what standards they use, but you end up with everything from Baby’s Day Out to Rush Hour 3 to Three Men and a Little Lady. Needless to say, I watched many inspiring pieces of cinema as I recovered from my illness.

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One last Udaipur shout-out. We stayed at a lovely guest house called “Dream Heaven” with a great rooftop restaurant. But the best part of our stay had to be this guy: the fattest dog we’ve seen in India yet. He was always laying outside our room or at the restaurant, soaking up the sun. Such a sweetie.

Love.