Jodhpur, the Blue City

(check this post later for some added photos!)

Jodhpur is more what I expected India to be like: snaking alley ways, old mud brick houses painted various shades of blue or white, and of course, the ubiquitous cow wandering around eating cardboard.

We ended up spending about 4 days there in which we managed to pack in lots of nothing, and going to the fort. The fort is this massive, rambling creation set on top of the hill (as forts are), and was great fun to explore.. just not in the heat of the day! The fort also has a brilliant audio tour, complete with pompous Englishman narrator, which points out interesting features along a set path including the museum.

Generally, we were pretty disappointed with the food at most places we ate at in Jodhpur, however we did find a guest house/restaurant called Amar Niwas that was homely and acceptable. That sounds harsh doesn't it? We're getting tired of sauces on everything, so it's difficult to impress the flashpackers at the moment.
Give me a fresh salad that doesn't just consist of tomato/onion/capsicum, and I'll inhale it quicker than you can say, "do you want balsamic dressing with that?". Having said that, they did make us a superb goat curry that melted in our mouths (the little bugger was killed that morning for us), and their version of palak paneer (spinach and Indians' version of cheese) actually had discernible pieces of spinach in there, rather than the pureed green goop one usually gets served in restaurants.

The city really was a joy to walk around, we found the people to be really friendly - especially the kids. I think their English teacher at school must encourage them to go up to westeners and practice, because we found ourselves constantly talking to excitable kids about where we come from, what our names are, what our houses are made from, and do we have any pens/chocolates/rupees for them.