Jodpur

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Jodhpur -- [11/2/2003] Arrived after dark at the Ajit Bhawan hotel. Another variation on Heritage hotels - lovely setting - gardens behind a large lodge, with bungalows spread out among trees teeming with parrots and other birdlife. The rooms were individually decorated in 'Indian kitsch' - rough wood carvings, paintings and keys that weighed 2 lb each with unwieldy old locks to match. Dinner was a Buffet 350R [one of the most expensive we'd find, but well worth it] - decent but spicing very toned down -even the 'chillie chicken'. One waiter, overly concerned for our western palates, tried to stop me taking a side dish of mango pickle, saying we wouldn't like it! After yet another tiring day, we relaxed in the open air, and enjoyed traditional music, dancing and puppet shows

A little experience in India [11/3/2003] -- B said to meet at 9 and all 6 of us were ready then, as usual, but the local guide didn't arrive till 9:30. He told us it didn't matter that he was late since nothing opened till 10! In addition, Prince Charles here today, so the fort was closed In fact, market opens by 8 and we later realized the guide had other reasons for diverting us. He kept trying to suggest other stops when we said we wanted more time in market. This was the most blatant example of a persistent problem - guides get a kickback when they take groups to certain shops; usually, the guides are low key about this, especially when we tell them we're not interested, but this guy persisted, and kept us from what we really did want to do which was to wander in the open market bazaar-- perhaps to buy, but mainly to watch and explore. A further complication is that each store usually does interest one of the group, but we just don't have time to do them all and still see sights. Even after one stop, guide had wanted to stop at painting school for "just 10 min " demonstration. He finally acquiesced when we insisted we needed to get underway. Luckily we did -- we were told it would take 5 hrs on good road in heavy traffic to get back to Agra, but only the heavy traffic forecast turned out to be true -- the road was much worse, and it took much longer, dropping an exhausted set of travelers in Agra well after dark.