On the road to Jodhpur - Tuesday, January 22

 If a blog entry could have a magazine-cover opening page, this one would be a National Geographic cover, with the Murrahs' day the featured article. We left our lovely retreat in Udaipur at 9 and received our warm honeyed tea welcome at our Jodhpur hotel in cacophonous Old Town at 5. In-between, we spent a short time on a nice federal highway, a lot of time on State roads (generally 1 lane wide, it seems), and most of the time on Others. Given the variety of people, animals, and objects that share the road, this is often very photogenic.  Occasionally the road surface looks like fairly fresh asphalt. More often there are stretches of deep potholes.

I seem to have created my own challenge: recognizing I love capturing the "authentic India," our wonderful driver slows down every time there's a woman with a bundle on her head or a herd of goats approaches the road. The result: 486 photos. I've gotten rid of the hundred worst. The themes are consistent: Women Working (carrying things, washing clothes, cooking, working in construction!), Women in Colorful Saris, Children (it's a school day, so that was harder), Animals, Markets, and Congestion.

What directed our route choice was our mid-day focus: the extraordinary Jain temple with its forest of carved white marble pillars built over 600 years ago. Getting to it required crossing a range of hills with looping roads that made me long for Dramamine. But when we got there, we understood why it was a priority on our itinerary.

The route wound through dozens of small villages and towns. This area is deserty, but still a good agriculture area. Everything seems dusty and will have to wait for the June rains to clean it off. But people have figured ways to get water for farming, and we saw great beautiful fields of yellow-flowered mustard, plots where sugar cane had been cut and was bundled for market, and green plots  we couldn't identify. Where there was construction in the villages we usually saw a number of neighbors, including women, gathered together to do the job. Small HIndu temples dotted the route.

Tonight's hotel provides a 180-degree contrast to last night's. Jodhpur is a town of 1 million and I think most of them were shopping at the street market on our way. Lanes in this old part are very narrow. I think I'll hear honking in my head for weeks after I get home, as that is the main communication system  on the roads. I'll stop being critical of immigrants driving urban US taxis when they honk; it is THE way to communicate here; how could I expect them to change? Many vehicles don't even have turn signals, and trucks often have a sign on the back saying PLEASE HONK or some variation.

This hotel is just 3 years old, with a spa built into the home of the former Ras, his guest house serving as the restaurant, and a new small hotel (c. 37 rooms) added on the opposite side of a lovely open garden. The view: the hilltop fort I'll write more about tomorrow. A big room, a huge bathroom, gracious and well-trained staff. An unexpected Extra: a mosque borders the property, and yesterday the imam decided to perform not only all the important calls to prayer but also a lengthy sermon in the evening, all broadcast our way at full volume. This is definitely a HIndu province, but there's a Muslim community right behind the hotel. Added to this, we could hear an operatic voice singing for quite awhile, then what sounded like nightclub music. A hint of what to expect: The hotel provides earplugs as part of their turndown service! This could help with the added urban distractions of airplanes landing and trains tooting...but I needed no help crashing. Note: It's now 6:06 a.m. and the expected 5:45 a.m. chant began and 5:51 and continues...actually a surprising choral harmony!

While Kenneth took a recovery nap, I headed to the spa for a nice massage. A fine feature: when you're facing down with your head on the "donut," the view is a bowl of perfectly arranged fresh rose petals! We chose to stay inside this haven and enjoy a lovely Indian dinner (they succeeded in keeping most of the dishes from being too spicy for us). The charming young server encouraged us to sit at a table outside, with a perfect view of the lighted fort above us. He brought a brazier with hot coals and wrapped us in quilts. And just as we placed our order, the lights on the fort went out.

Back by 10-something, I went straight to bed, and slept about 4 hours, a nice improvement. Maybe I need another massage tomorrow! Weather forecast: the same, high in low 70s, low in low 50s.

Before leaving Fateh Garh, I left a little of Mother to fertilize a new treat, providing this lovely view:

Now for some on-the-road photos:

This is a major highway!  But then there isn't a huge amount of traffic.

One stretch had a major brick-making operation going. Here, they're drying the bricks. Our guide explained the careful construction of this pyramid, with combustible material between layers of bricks.

 Guide and driver were delighted to find this operation to show us. Called a persian well, with a design dating back hundreds of years, the animals' work results in water going into a canal to support agriculture nearby.

Typical of the view in front of the car oftentimes

HORN PLEASE

Black-face monkeys gather on one bend of the pass through the hills. Lots of babies - and they were expert at clinging to their mothers' chests when the moms were running.

In the parking lot of the Jain temple this man told our guide he had brought his wife here to celebrate her birthday, and she would like him to take her picture with me!!! And then I asked for one of the three of us.

This fellow guards shoes while you're in the temple. (40 rupees each - c. 35¢)

This enormous temple will get a proper write-up...later. For now, try to imagine it! Here are 2 exterior shots, followed by a few interior details.

The highest part

Looking up at The Chandelier. Wish I could make this 3D for you! 

1200 columns (I think) - no 2 exactly alike

Our Udaipur guide drove up with us (3+ hours, gave us the tour, then took a bus back!) Here's he's explaining an important legend of a snake returning a favor.

The temple sits in a rural area, in the middle of a big green "garden" 

Our planner recommended we eat Jain food for lunch, as there are no other restaurants nearby. Fortunately, we packed peanut butter crackers and granola bars.  The lunch was a deal - c. 75¢ each. But we could only eat rice and naan; everything else seared our mouths. And they poured water from a pitcher, so we knew to stay away from that. One girl down the line even Purelled her metal platter before they put food on it!

Cooking the naan

On the road again. I sat in the back seat, so many of the shots include the driver's little prayer object, dashboard center. (Of course they'll be more interesting if you double-click on each and make it full-size.)

Doing the laundry

Grinding mustard seeds in a small shop 

Standard conveyance - crammmmmmmed

One of many mustard fields today

Carrying a bed!!

Our driver stopped at a friend's dhurrie shop...the 1 uncomfortable moment of the day

 Coming into town, some new peddlers.

And new signs and kinds of buildings, including a few very nice ones

Our room

In the spa

 Sorry if there are duplicates or problems here. The imam has started his chanting and I'm going to try to get 45 minutes snooze before gearing up for the day!