india | Siddoway Get Away

Jodhpur is the second largest city located in the northwest state of Rajasthan. “It is the historic capital of the Kingdom of Marwar, founded in 1459 by Rao Jodha, a Rajput chief of the Rathore clan. “ ~ wikipedia

Buckle up this is a long post!

After Monika and Mohit’s beautiful wedding, we flew back to Mumbai for the night. We booked a room at the Sahara Star for the night, it was really convenient being right next to the airport as we were flying out the next morning for Jodhpur. One thing that surprised us in India, was the attention to service. It was unreal. We felt pampered everywhere we went. The Sahara star was no exception for the price of what a mid range hotel is in the states we checked in and we’re told to leave our luggage it would be brought up to our room by the porter. We headed up and not five minutes later there was a knock on the door and fresh faced porter was there with our bags. We tipped him for his speedy service and he eagerly asked us if there was anything else he could do for us. He asked if “we want him to close the shades for us?” These were floor to ceiling windows, the shades were about halfway down and I said “oh they’re good halfway closed is fine” something was lost in translation and he picked up the remote for the shades to close them all the way for us… when I say that the shades moved at a snails pace, I am not exaggerating! All three of us stood there and watched as the shades slowly closed . It felt like an eternity. Karen and I could not bear to look at him or look at each other for fear laughing. Honestly, I felt so terrible that he thought I asked him to close the shades and then he had to painfully stand there as we all watched them close! It was hilarious. 😂 here’s a picture of the windows so you too can feel embarrassed for us. 😅

We woke up early the next morning to catch our flight, landing early morning in Jodhpur, our next adventure began.

We booked our stay for the duration at Daspan House. If you ever find yourself booking a trip to Jodhpur you have to stay at this hotel! I think it was the most beautiful hotel I have ever stayed in. We felt pampered from the moment we checked in the staff was so kind and attentive, and the hotel and the rooms were stunning not to mention the food and atmosphere was incredible. We ate there every night in the garden amongst the tropical flowers and the beautiful sandalwood incense. breakfast every morning was a buffet of the most delicious Indian breakfast foods (and a continental breakfast for anyone who wants a more traditional western breakfast … but why would you???). Every meal was incredible here and the atmosphere was so calm and peaceful. I could’ve stayed there forever. I won’t waste your time trying to describe it in more detail, I’ll just put the pictures here …

OK, enough about the hotel, it was incredible! One thing I want to say about Jodhpur is that it is the most beautiful smelling city! The air is laden with rose perfume, and sandalwood incense. It was incredible. Our first day we were there we hired a tuk- tuk driver for the day which the hotel recommended. He took it all the places we wanted to go, first on the agenda was a clothing shop where we could purchase some clothes that were tailored to us. This was a really fun overwhelming process because there was so many choices of beautifully hand block printed fabrics, and lots of Chai! We had a really hard time deciding, we wanted everything they showed us. Lunch was next at Indique, a rooftop restaurant that was highly recommended. With a view of the Mehrangarh Fort and the Blue city nestled at its base we sat for a tasty meal and a much needed rest after shopping! The last stop for the day was a shop in the Sarafa Bazaar where the guy who ran it mixed scents specifically tailored to you and what you like. Here is his instagram handle @Chitrakaarx. He is awesome, It was a very cool experience, including all the sites we saw in the bazaar along the way!

Here are the pics start to finish on day 1, including our awesome tuk-tuk driver Wakim.

The the last two days we had booked a tour through the app Viator with @jodhpurbluecitytours (IG handle). they were a wealth of information and the best tour guides! Highly recommend!

Ok, here is what we saw…

Mehrangarh Fort once housed the toyal court , now is a museum of stunning architecture, art and relics, you can read more about its history here.

Jaswant Thada was built in 1899 it was built as a memorial to the Maharaja to house his ashes and the ashes of the Maharajas to come after him. Our guide told us this was the counterpart to the Taj Mahal, that was built to commemorate the Queen this one the King.

The rest of the day was spent walking through the streets of the city, taking in all the sites and sounds of Jodhpur

the next day we went to Mandoor Gardens, in its hay day i think it was a bustling temple site, now fallen into a bit of disrepair garden wise, still some beautiful temples within the park tho. After, our guide asked us if we wanted to see something special that not many tourists see? we of coarse said YES without hesitation! As we were driving away from civilization Karen and i exchanged a look with eachother. Without words i knew her thought was the same as mine… 😬 hopefully we are safe…it seemed safe 😅 turns out we were! He took us to an older Kings Memorial that was on the outskirts of the city. This memorial was not a popular tourist destination but so beautiful. Their shape reminded me of elephants. Next up was a walking tour of the Blue City followed by a food tour in the bazaar of local food for lunch. The one thing George had asked us not to do was eat Indian street food, he had heard horror stories. Karen and i again looked at eachother and said, well we havent gotten sick yet, we leave tomorrow, how can we say no?! 😅 We were fine, the food was awesome and it was all included in the price of the tour! while we were walking through the blue city, our tour guide asked us if we wanted to go to a temple and see a color celebration since it was a holy day. Of course, we said yes! It was really cool to see and the tour guide made sure to tell people not to hit us with color power 🥰 The walking tour was the perfect way to end our time in Jodhpur, one of the most beautiful and beautifully smelling cities i’ve visited!

Madoor Gardens

Kings Memorial site on the outskirts of Jodhpur

while we were there we saw these women laying out these colorful pieces of cloth. It turns out they are the cloth for the turbans the men wear they are hand, woven, and hand died, and laid out in the sun to dry.

Blue City

In Jodhpur (“The Blue City” of India), the blue-painted houses in the old quarter traditionally belonged to the Brahmin caste, who painted them to honor Lord Shiva (known as Neelkanth, or the blue-throated god). According to Hindu mythology, his throat turned blue after he drank the Halahala poison to save the world. ~ Quora.com

Color Celebration

Street food walking tour

I dont think anything could have prepared us for the rich sights and sounds of India.

After landing Karen very smartly booked us an Uber from the Airport to the Taj Lands End where we would be staying the night. What we didnt know was that choosing the cheapest/smallest Uber option in India was not the same as the US. We didnt need anything big, afterall it was just the two us. We made our way to our driver and saw a small well worn taxi that looked as if it had seen many traffic wars on the streets of Mumbai, tapped on his window and he motioned for us to load our bags in the front seat. As karen opened the door in the car park and started loading our bags, another taxi squeezed by and slowly took the open car door with him, hyper extending the door… karen stood there in horror looking at me and looking at the driver (😂). He casually told her to push it back and slam it shut 😳. Took a little effort but the door shut and we were off… held together by duct tape and a prayer!

Driving in Mumbai, was a lively experience, the honking cars, mopeds & jitney cabs all moving together with the lane lines as a suggestion for order. 😅 Pulling into the gates and up the winding drive to the Taj the gravity of our uber choice hit us 😬 we were surrounded by luxury cars. We didn’t realize that we had booked a 5star luxury hotel, it was the price of an average nice hotel in the US. To say that our uber stuck out like a sore thumb was an understatement, the porters did not open our doors or help us with our bags. Im sure they were thinking “surely this car has made a wrong turn” 😂

The Taj exceeded our expectations. It was beautiful and the service exceptional! ive never seen so many fresh flowers they treated us like royalty (once we went inside and checked in😅)

That afternoon the jet lag hit us like a ton of bricks, we decided to lean into it and enjoy our hotel and get acclimated to the time zone before our flight to Jabalpur in the morning. We were slightly bummed we didn’t get out to explore Mumbai but our time was limited and our jetlag strong!

The next day we landed in Jabalpur and Karens friend Monika(the bride) met us at the airport. The next 24 hours were a blur of Mehndi (henna tattoos) and colorful rituals, lots of music and celebrations with Monika and Mohit’s family welcoming us as one of their own. The pictures below start with the ritual of married women blessing Monika with herbs oil and spices, Dancing with the groom when he arrived and then the Mehndi (henna tattoos on hands) ritual for the guests while singing and taking pics with the bride and groom. That evening event was the Engagement party and it was nuts! The pictures tell a much better story then i ever could!

Tomorrow the wedding!