Where in the World is Mrs. Rodriguez?

Jodhpur

I arrived in Jodhpur and checked into The Lords Inn. Although my room was spacious and comfortable, this was my least favorite hotel. I'll get to that later. Instead of my usual routine of ordering room service, putting on my jammies, and streaming Griselda on Netflix, I waited for my friend Jain to get off work. I hadn't seen him since he had to leave Delhi early to return to the shop where he works. He arrived around 7pm and we ordered a margherita pizza from a local shop on Zomato. The pizza was great, but it was spicier than an American margherita pizza would be. We also ordered milkshakes. I ordered a chocolate milkshake and Jain ordered a cookies and cream. When the milkshakes arrived they were really runny in my opinion. Not exactly cold either. At first I thought they had sent us a couple of Lassis. That is an Indian drink made of milk, water, and/or fruit and spices. I personally think they are not tasty at all. After a few hours Jain left for home, and I finished Griselda.

The next morning I met my guide and driver at 9am. The plans for the day included visiting Mehrangarth Fort and Jaswant Thada. This was also Republic Day in India which commemorates the enactment of India's constitution on January 26th, 1950.

Jodhpur still has a ruling local royal family. They no longer serve as rulers since India is a democratic country. The current Maharaja of Jodhpur is Gaj Singh II. Their family opened the fort as a museum and they still maintain a family palace across the city. That's him below. He came to the throne at the age of 4.

You can see the royal palace wayyy off in the distance.

Like every other fort in India, this one is located on top of a hill with many tiny winding roads to get there. As we walked up to the entrance I noticed tons of middle school children waiting to enter. Republic Day is a national holiday in India so typically there is no school. My guide explained that despite there being no school, teachers still planned field trips for students to attend. I think that is a great way to use a holiday. Field trips can teach so much more than books sometimes.

Unlike other forts in India, this one had an elevator that took us up to the top. Forts have LOTS of stairs and they are not always the best so I was happy to take the elevator. The top featured stunning views of the city and cannons to show the way things used to be. On the inside there are stunning royal rooms and many rooms used to display royal objects like Palanquins (covered litters) that carried various people in the royal family throughout history. Personally, I think I should be carried around in one of these every day.

This Palanquin was used to carry the royal children.

Peacock litter.

Another cool thing that I saw here that I haven't seen anywhere else was a display of royal baby cribs! Of course they are stunning!

Also of interesting note, this fort was used in the movie The Dark Night Rises and The Jungle Book live version from 1994.

Along the way I photographed the weapons of Rajasthan. Rajasthan is known historically for their fierce warriors. Rajasthan was a state never captured by the British. Instead they accepted British money in order to keep their local rulers in charge. Personally, I feel from viewing the Rajasthan weaponry that the British would never been able to conquer them. Check out the weapons below.