February 29

Today was a busy day for us, even though we had not planned for one. We readied and went up to the rooftop for breakfast. I ordered a lemon and honey pancake but got a banana and honey pancake. (This was okay because it was good.) Jeff had a masala omelette on toast. We split a pot of lemon, honey, ginger tea. Then we set out on a walkabout with only a couple of places in mind.

First, we went to the stepwell, called Stepwell Square, that is fairly close to our homestay. It seemed to be deceptively steeper, and I honestly, I had more trouble with this one than many others. Anyway, the place had people climbing all up and down the steps. Jeff went down some of the way. There was actually quite a bit of water in the bottom, enough that it had a noticeable school of fish swimming around. One man was lower a bucket repetitively in the water and wetting the lower steps… don't know why. Questions?? We walked on, arrived at a big wall sized map of Jodhpur City – around 1.5 million people. This is the first such map we have seen – it is nice for tourists to use and get a feel of scale to different sites. We moved on, finding a stall to get the last of our shopping supplies.

Next we trekked out of the old city through another gate, but not impressive, so we struck out here. We went past an older open air soccer stadium to get to our next destination. Traffic is less horn happy here, and a different busy – faster speeds. We found slower less traveled roads. Then we came to a planned, laid out area. This is the Sardar Government Museum of Jodhpur, with an entrance placard describing the place. The museum is named after one of the last Maharajas to rule this area; and was established 1908, with it's formal opening in 1936. Also the placard states – 'the museum displays an eclectic range of artifacts and historical items that celebrate the culture of Rajasthan.' And that sums it up very well. There were ranges of miniature paintings, stone carvings of gods – like Hampi but smaller scale, marble carvings & marble inlays, ivory sculptures – including pipe heads, mother of pearl decorated objects, metal sculptures, armaments, and a room of model scale military planes and such… just to name some items, by all means not an exhaustive list. We meandered about for an hour or so. I thoroughly enjoyed it! I guess it has been awhile since I have been to a museum.

Now we walked some more going to the real last place we wanted to go today. But Google failed to deliver us to the right area for the entrance, so we hired a tuk-tuk. That entrance was literally 180 degrees around the huge complex from where we were. But this was okay, I was enjoying the drive. The driver had his little girl sitting in his lap up front. She was probably 3-4 years old, cute as a button and enjoying the venture. We passed a horse drawn guilded coach, and she was watching with wonder. I leaned out – after I made sure traffic was clear – and took a quick picture. It turned out so I showed it to her and her eyes beamed. That was fun.

Anyway, we arrived at Umaid Bhawan Palace/Museum. Jeff bought our tickets and we entered the grounds. This place was once the home of the Jodhpur royal family. It is a five star hotel (run by Taj Hotel) and a museum. The Palace was built from 1928-1943, and is one of the largest private residences in the world, having 347 rooms; and sits on 26 acres of gardens (the grandson of the last Maharaja supposedly still resides here). Now our entrance fee just gets us into the museum and only allows us on a very, tiny percentage of the grounds.

We entered into a large gallery-type room, actually like a small scale grand train station. It has a very open design with a large curved ceiling starting two stories up. The ends of the room have grand murals in that arched curve – very striking. The style is Art Deco! We love Art Deco designs and have seen many places all around the world. This was a pleasant surprise to us. Displayed in the museum were items from this residence of the Maharaja. There was royal tableware, alcohol servers, furniture pieces, some cool blown glass – that Jeff really liked, and other things. Then we migrated through small rooms around the grand room. There was a room full of all assortments of clocks. Another room displayed a throne with paintings done by a Polish artist, and being restored by Polish Conservatories. Anyway, we finished by going out of the museum and to a garage of some old but very well kept cars. The Maharajas used these cars – Rolls Royces, Cadillacs, a Roadmaster, plus others, including a newer Mercedes. Now we had completed what our ticket allowed. I wish I could have gone on a tour inside the hotel – that would have been next level I bet!

From here we walk to a Non-veg restaurant, called Barbeque On Table (BOT). We were the only customers, maybe it was due to it being around three pm. We ordered a Greek Salad (red, yellow, & green bell peppers; tomatoes; cucumbers; red onions; and cubed chicken); Crispy Fried Chicken, which were bite sized pieces with a dry (not greasy) light batter; and Mutton Shish Kebabs (spicy) with a green dipping sauce of yogurt and fresh cilantro. It was a great meal with the dishes coming out at staggered intervals, and we were plated each item by the waiter (we have had this some in India, but it still comes as a surprise when it is done). After we finished, we needed to walk back to work off some of that food.

We arrived back at our place and relaxed/cooled off, then went up to see sunset. Tomorrow we will be leaving to our new home for five nights… but going by train! Yeah for me!!👍