Jodhpur Fort

13 Oct 2010

While at breakfast on the roof of our guesthouse we got chatting to two fellow travelers sitting at the table alongside, one a Frenchman the other a fellow Englishman. Later in the conversation two things transpired; one, that the French chap was called Olivier and two, they were also planning to head to the fort that morning. Amused by having three ‘Oliv...’ names we decided to go together.

Olivia and Olivier!!

Any fort wants to be as high as possible and Jodhpur Fort is no exception, made worse by the searing heat. We trudged up the sloped path until we were just below the walls:

Jodhpur Fort from below

Entry to the fort came with a free audio guide so we all donned the headsets and set off like a group of Japanese tourists, cameras in hand madly bashing buttons on the handsets as prescribed by various numbered boards around the fort. The fort was actually the best one we had seen and the experience was definitely enhanced by having the audio guide.

Jodhpur is known as the ‘blue city’ since the walls of the old city were traditionally painted blue, both to keep the houses cool and also, apparently, as a natural insect repellant. Whether a colour is effect as the latter remains to be seen but the effect is very attractive.

The Blue City

One thing that set the tour apart from other forts we had seen was the quality of the museum element, which included many display cabinets of paintings, weapons and tapesries. On top of this the museum staff ran various demonstrations, such as a turban tying:

A demonstration on how to tie a turban. 

We were very impressed with the fort and the views from the top were really great, especially as from the guest house we couldn’t see the old town. It was great to meet some other folks and share our various travelling tales with one another.

Us under one of the many arches!

We wandered round the markets in the afternoon which sold mainly fruit, veg and spices. We did come across these guys however, which explained how women manage to so perfectly match their scarves, trousers and tops.

A wee bit messy!!