jodhpur

rajasthan - beyond the registan

2025-02-25

0530

I arrive from Udaipur and crash at Zostel Ratnada until 0800.

morning

We rent a vehicle, head to an artsy cafe for breakfast, and then go to the kund. Breakfast is a vegan omelette, a club sandwich, soy milk hot chocolate, and cappuccino. Near the kund I watch a boy jump into water that looks at least five storeys deep.

From there we continue to the cenotaphs. We get a little lost on the way back to the main road and need help from locals, but the climb rewards us with a great view of the blue city.

afternoon

We go on to Mandore, a beautiful old area full of temples, cenotaphs, fort walls, monkeys, and ruins. Some passages are so tight we have to crawl through them. Lunch is dahi kachori and bhel.

evening

We then head to Mehrangarh Fort. Much of it is closed, but the museum still gives us plenty to see, and from up there we catch the sunset under cloudy skies.

The plan is to have a traditional dinner near Umaid Bhawan, but that falls through. Instead we find a homestay restaurant with a brilliant view of the clock tower and the fort. I end up trying gulab jamun ki sabzi and ker sangri with bajre ki roti for the first time.

Back at Zostel we sleep early because we need to catch a bus to Jaisalmer.

#draft