Phew! Pretty interesting. I read through that one finally. Quite funny too. So you guys were playing in my own backyard. And I did not even get a hint of it. No wonder when I reached this time, people came up to me and said there these two crazy guys in black and white motorcycles and strange "hard" clothing and did all kinds of strange things... I heard something to the tune of one of you trying to ask a Dromedary for a night out and the Dromedary not agreeing seeing your antics!

That "Place" near Jodhpur that you went to visit after parking your bikes is the Royal Cenotaphs. There are two such Cenotaphs Places near Jaisalmer as well. There is slight difference in architecture but mainly in the construction material of the two places, Pokhran and Jaisalmer. But I will not bore you with architecture lessons... let us have the rest.

Thank you

Ha ha! DK! Thank you!

I am glad we could keep you glued

You are bluffing right


And by the way we will be more than happy to learn more about that place kenda..., seriously!
Heres what we observed and learnt from the locals....
- The Jaiselmeri cenotaph obviously should\would be made up of the the Jaiselmeri golden stone!
- This one was more like dark ignatiuos stones!
- The place had a HUGE pond next to it (obviously dried up now)
- The structure is built higher than the Pokhran Killa... (as amatter of respect according to the locals)

All cenotaphs are built on a raised ground for a question of respect and evident visibility. So you pay respect to the past and the dead from a distance. The ones at Pokhran are made from a darker shade of red sandstone. These ones as like the ones in Jaisalmer date from the 16th century. These ones look good. But I find the ones at Jaisalmer more worth a study. I have lots of photographs to this effect.

Ah! Thanks! Next time we are around we will surely ping you! and honestly we were quite keen on pinging somone local while in Jodhpur and Udaipur...

PS: We do intend to cover the rest of Rajasthan sometime this year.... From Alwar > Jaipur > (May be jodhpur again) Ajmer, pushkar! So we will definitely ping you! After all we will get a free guide and if we are lucky a free ride too

http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/best-travel-blogger-contest/11398-padharo-mhaaro-desh-rajasthan-9.html

this is where i left off and i thought i got some time on hand and would like to complete the thread. I think the thread has been going slow for quite some time.
So Pokhran was where we were and just after the 2 hour lunch break we started to ride and just about a km away we saw this beautiful structure, well thats what we thought it is but later on to realize its a place where the wifes of royal prince/king willfully partook "sati",hence this is rightly termed as Royal Cenotaphs. Some kms on the otherside we could see the Kings Palace/Fort. The most amazing part is that as a mark of respect the Royal Cenotaphs are a bit higher than the Kings palace/fort.
Although we had a thought of visiting the fort, time was not permitting us to, so after clicking some pictures we rode to Jaisalmer.

Something interesting to know: Locals say that you are not supposed to count the pillars on the Cenotaphs, else you die unnaturally, a story that he knows off was that there were these tourist who had come from Delhi and although they were warned they still counted the pillers, and this family died just outside on the same raiway track, next to which we had parked our bikes. (train ran over them).
I didnt waste anytime and did not bother to count them too.
This is some for you"ll to count






we did not spend a lot of time there, only because our bikes with luggage was parked a bit far away from where we were.
Ride to Jodhpur was eventful for Satyen as he had some nut missing from the RTR, i was riding a butter smooth road with the best tool a tourer could have ZMA and i was pretty much happy with everything, the weather was beautiful, the roads were excellent, bike is riding at 100kmph and in sometime i was alone for a long time without realising that there must have been a problem with Satyen somewhere...i stopped after not seeing him in my rvm for half an hour or lets put it as 50 kms ahead of him.
i stopped and took my time to chat up with my mom and then shruti and had my water, loo and smoke break...searched for the roadside stray peacocks and waited and waited till i saw the sun setting and while i did that i also saw the white RTR and Satyen coming, i was relieved, i had almost decided to trace back satyen thought something nasty must have happened. glad to see him complaining again about some loose nuts and how the RTR viberates the soul out of ones body
We decided that we should not loose track of each other and we need not ride like a crazy. so slowly and steadily we road to reach Jodhpur....
Jodhpur as we thought was not like Jaisalmer, more like a small mumbai...crowded and a lot of hussle-bussle everywhere...the place was well lit, bit disappointed as we were looking at the possibility of a heritage town....asked few locals a place to stay and an autorickshaw driver recommended hotels in Ghantaghar. (clocktower)
So it was Laxmi Niwas decided for us and we crashed to sleep...
Laxmi niwas: taken during the day (next day)






After a good sleep, the next morning we woke up to see what are the options for breakfast...from the owner of Laxmi niwas we got to know about Omlett Man...this person has been making omletts for the last 40 years and has been recommended by Lonely planet.
All excited we left in hunt for this shop, and there it was just 5 minutes away from Laxmi Niwas



The omlet that we had first only to realize that my mom makes better


The sly laugh on the fellow who made a fool of us...look closely this guy is recommended by some japanese travel guide book......


The actual omlett man opens his shop at 10 am and is there till 10 pm at his shop, he makes over 1000 omletts a day.
we spend some time taking to him and try to understand some techniques of making omletts....well today i am a good omlette maker at home...and Sunday morning breakfast is always on me....
Satyen has some good photos to share...

From there on we moved to the Jodhpur fort...
i will post the photos and log sometime during the day

The story continues...

Anup waiting to be made a maamu.... and I was busy setting up the camera mode and all and playing with batteries...
Some pictures....

The duplicate Omelet man:


Notice the gate ... the pillar has a clear board which reads the Omelet store... I wonder why me and Anup couldnt catch it!!


And looks likes Anup intentionally didnt mention this, but we were all set to leave to see the fort. We were actually wondering why someone would say that this Omelet is world famous and all.. and the Omelet man being this kid!!! and we were yapping about this and then came a squeaky voice of a tourist (a full too foreigner) sheepishly letting us know that we were duped and the original Omelet man was yet to open his store!

So we wasted around some time... chatting with them and fixing Anups handle bar ends... and finally the real McCoy arrives! By then we were sure that we could squeeze in another Masala omelet! and let me reassure you it was worth it..... I mean it was really like the detergent ads where you are given to compare two brands of soap one brand A and the other the soap created by God himself, Brand B! <Ameen Sayaani voice begins> jisme hain zyaada jhaag, aur paani main kam gale, haato ko koi haani na de... Brand B <Voice clip ends> Duh what am I saying....!

But seriously it was super worth it... and then we realised how much skill can you get by making 1000eggs a day for last decade or so! Fantabulous... Much recommended stuff!

The Original Omelet man: and ofcourse the out of focus Omelet:


The real McCoy and his Junior McCoy who is now all set to take on the mantle! and two Pojhers!



Time to leave to see this:


There are two ways to reach Mehrangarh fort...
One a quick 5 minute walk from the busy market...
Two a 15 minute long ride!

We both being lazy... chose the bike route!

We learnt a bit of Jodhpur history which revolves around the Rathore Clan. Founded Jodhpur in 1459 by Rao Jodha, the chief of the Rathore clan and hence the name Jodhpur... It was previously known as Marwar. It was here where the marwaaris got the exclaimed fame as being pro traders in the world of commerce!

The Road to Mehrangarh






Finally Mehrangarh!


Notice some nice Bullets and Royal Enfields parked their laddened with thier luggage on it!

Thats one massive structure.... Imagine building this without the modern day equipments!


There are multiple gates in the Mehrangarh, (like most forts, and especially the ones where the royal family would also reside)


Do I need to say anything more.... Welcome to the Blue City:



Another gate... notice how steep it gets.... this is done to slow down barging elephants!


But I guess that wasnt good enough to slow down Anup


Imagine this picture with some people with burning arrows and hot oil sitting near tthe windows... to welcome the enemy!


A look back at the blue city:


Notice how the gate is cleverly camouflaged behind the wall


There are two reasons for such a construction...
1) The gate gets camouflaged from far
2) The enemy elephants etc would have to slow down and come one at a time to break such a gate... wait ... more to come!

Performing for money... but seriously nice to hear them play in that environment...


Now notice the sharp 90% turn ...

Also notice how the gate has nice spikes to batter the elephant heads... the 90% bend ensures that the Elephants can barge in with speed...and are scared seeing the spikes, and or get injured trying to batter them!



By now you might have realised why the history books ha no mention of any capture of the Mehrangarh fort !

The night before, my girl friend did say that I am a bit thick headed... wait till she hears about the fortification walls thickness.. We were told that the fortifications at some places are 6-7 meters thick!

Time to go crazy with the cameras~



Notice the art work on the walls and windows!





A cannon shot by a sony!


The place where the prince was crowned after a long ceremony...


Anup tried sitting on it considering he was thinking of himself very higly after finding the Anoop mahal in jaisalmer!
But this uncle scared him...


Some random pics... This is from a Howdah:

Another one:



Now that Anup made up his mind of not sitting on the throne...The uncle now having a nice puff of hookah/sheesha


Caught Unaware:



Abstract ones:


Notice the Artwork on the grip of the sword!!!!! I was simply blown away by that! - Blown away by a sword (duh! Oxymoron)



Well not really... notice the first sword has a small pistol!


The history of Rajputs suggests that they always thought that the use of Gun powder and guns to kill someone was treacherous... and true valour comes in hand to hand, man to man combat.... they were resistant to the idea of using the guns, but slowly started understanding the need to upgrade their arsenal! The above pic also shows the various type (read influences) in the words that they used!

Wear gear: Its a good idea, even this man agreed... there is a story to it... but will leave it for you to find out!


Another sword with awesome work on it!


My room



A view from the top:


Umaid Bhavan Palace... Half Hotel, half Museum

Also the place where the king invited us for celebrating the new years eve... but we politely declined.. because it was too far...



Blue!



The Mahals in the fort..





If you thought jaisalmer competed with the sky blue... check this out!


Finally after covering the whole tour... Anup happy to see a glass full of beer!


Almost as if he will dip in it and swim in it!

oops! Not a Genie in the bottle, but just Gin in the beer!


Next up: Jaswant Thada which is a few meters away to the left of the Mehrangarh fort. Like Ken da already said this is also a royal cenotaph

Made up of white marble to commemorate Maharaja Jaswant Singh.


At the gate we spotted these two squirrels and couldn't stop ourselves from clicking this pic:





]

I dont know what this was, but caught it on camera... seemed like a community bath\wash place


Umaid Bhavan again...


Abstract ones:



No one around, but still waiting for sunshine!


Actually, there was a man sitting on the stool, a pretty rude chap... didnt want to be clicked, and I assured that he wont even be visible in the pic... but he harshly replied that he's been clicking pictures for a good 15 years now...

Time to head home and decide on WHAT to do for the New years...

Now we had decided we wont attend the New Years bash @ Umaid Bhavan, dont you agree that wearing all bike gears and all would make us look funny!... So we said that its too far and we are tired and so couldnt come till there.... Then Taj came up and threw a party @Mehrangarh... which like I said is 5 minutes walk or 15 minutes ride, depending upon your laziness.... but we didnt want to go there either...

lol- None of that was true... so we were lost wondering what the hell do we do to celebrate the new year! We went to the room and planned up about which were the parties were we could drop in... but fate had something else meant for us...

Our hotel owner had a small party arranged at his place.... Now we were sure that we ARE NOT staying ther... for the simple reason that he was playing the same music from 4 PM till 5:30 PM...
Our problem was that stag entries to almost everywhere super pricey....

Disappointed, I thought let me pack up some stuff and all... and Anup sat in the lobby..... there we met ludivine! Anup started using his HR skills to figure out what her plans were for the new year... and the conversation grew longer and longer... rest assured she didnt understand what Anup said, and we didnt understand what she said She didnt knew a lot of English, and I knew only a couple of french words.... but we had a fun conversation....all this while we were kinda thinking of asking her out to the bash so that atleast we get a cheaper entry there! .... then she said the magic word..... that she is here with a friend...!
Suddenly our dejected faces began glowing like 100 watt bulb


And then she went in and got her friend... Claudio..! A male friend... back to ground zero.... we were two stags again!

Jokes apart, Claudio and Ludivine were probably the nicest people that we have met for some time! We had a long discussion from diverse topics like why Mumbai should be called Mumbai till motrocycling!
For records, Claudio would be back next year to cover India on a bike!

We even showed each other some pictures.... and some of the pics that Claudio had were super fantastic ones! His pictures were simple... no landscape or anything, but lively people.... the real emotions on street... children playing, cows, the families, the womenfolk and what not!

So now we had to play the role of a host and take them out for a dinner...
Luckily we knew where to head....

So we took our bikes, and we went for dinner....
Had some nice food, which was apparently le too spicy for Ludivine

Then we had some pan... and ludivine could just not get it down her throat :P but Claudio was like one seasoned fair skinned Indian~!

With nothing to do, we decided to head to the fort for a couple of minutes.... the night view of the fort was awesome... however they didnt allow us to go too close as there was a vvip party going on there....

We came back to the hotel, and headed to our terrace where the party was on!



Some nice fireworks too!


The party was fun! We really had a good time... and apart from the hotel guys we were the only Indians there...


Anup, Ludi, Me, Claudio!

There were interesting personalities, one of the being Peiree.. who is a French national but calls himself an Indian because he is perpetually in India.... he stays in India for almost 8 months of a year! When he gets bored, he takes a bus and comes to Jodhpur to the same hotel!

We partied hard, had a lot of fun... Ludi tried teaching us salsa... but we ended up teaching her bhangra! The finally exchanged email IDs and numbers and then again went in the hotel lobby to talk talk and talk....
At times you really dont need to know a language to be able to talk!
This was one such moment!

Next morning.... Udaipur... Here's a teaser pic

*made the first page a bit more light by moving posts to another page and give proper links*

Do drop in your comments!

Excllent Satyen.. im enjoying!.. keep it up..

sorry folks i shall update and complete this thread soon, i think we must be out of this competition but still would complete it and give you all a good reading experience.
Got really tied up at work with a lot happening on the personal front too..i hope all understand

Ditto here man! really jacked!
BTW Can you (or mods) help in editing the first page and post some of the images and content in the second or third page...

A lot of my friends with low bandwidth complained that the page didnt load up and hence the rating option was acting funny!

^^ help MG or someone to reduce the size of the photos

Excellent write up , pictures complement as well. thoroughly enjoyed.

cheers.

Awesome man.

With that, you are one of the front runner of the travel blogger contest

Wish I could take part though

Thanks Aman, Rakhsup and all


Well technically we are out of the contest cause we havent even finished the last chapter! (though it doesnt have much to be written) but chuck it, never wrote it for the contest!

Guru was supposed to ride to Rajasthan and then he had another plan... if you are interested (and not scared of spooky places) then ride along... we might soon do a Rajasthan (The other half) episode sometime later this year!

Edit: Err nevermind, I think you mean taking a part in the contest! nevertheless you are always more than invited for the ride!

Continued from here

The next morning was super fun as well, tired of partying all night and here we are: we get to do something that most bikers would love to! Ride!

We met up with Claudio and Ludi again, wished them a nice journey ahead and got some wishes as well, exchanged email address and all and then finally I gave away my India road map to Claudio, to help him with his bike trip! Hopefully we will meet sometime next year and ride along with him atleast for some distance! Anup also gave awaya his priced bottle opener to Ludi and we wished each other good bye!

Jodhpur to Udaipur was an adventurous ride, we were bang on the correct road, until some locals suggested us a shorter route used by government busses. Tip: DO NOT BLINDLY TRUST PEOPLE WHO SMOKE POT! Especially when they are smoking pot!



Another Old man, showing us how its done and offering us a puff.... we Politely declined...



The distance was indeed shorter but the road was a crazy one…. Riding through bad (and really bad) roads, passing through a lot of new unknown villages…. The site around started changing, everything around slowly changed from sand to proper rocks (hint, guess where we were)
We went on and on with the riding and then we realised my map could have been handy… but nevertheless Anup had his own map, which comes with a a small 200 pager book to know How to read the map! A lil bit of map reading and a lil bit of GPS reading and we were back on track…



We rode on roads like this 'exploring' the villages of Rajasthan!


We stopped near Shrinathji to have some tea and snacks and there too we were treated as celebrities…Since there are a couple of sights outside Udaipur, we ensured we see them while we ride itself … which was a good choice cause the lake and all were belittled by the sights that we had already seen!

Finally we reached Udaipur, asked some cops about places to stay and settled down in a cheap neat hotel. We had a nice nap and a quick shower, to catch up with all the sleep that we had lost.
Finally went to the Udaipur Palace to see the light and sound show there… Anup should have some pics of these.

My only pic before the Battery died!


Roamed around the market and got some stuff from here as this was our last stop of the revised plan…We even went to see the vintage cars hotel and went there for dinner, but like the cars even the waiters there were vintage showpieces and slow! So after 25 odd minutes of waiting we decided to move to another place. Finally some food and saw something neat there… just like the advertisement that we see in Mumbai at all small stalls that “Idli tastes better with a pepsi” we saw a ad that “Hyderabadi biryani tastes better with a Kingfisher beer”
Lol That was so super funny! We are in North of India, where someone is promoting a South Indian companies beer promoting a Hyderabadi biryani to people coming from Mumbai…. Wow that’s national integrity then and there!

Nest morning one bun warming awesome ride to Mumbai (about 850KMs) We just hope we could wake up in time…..