Day 13 – On road to Jodhpur
To all my readers – Greetings from Jaipur, The Pink City.
Day 13 – Friday, 8th Nov 2013.
It’s 6:15 am, the air is slightly chilly and I am standing in a queue of people waiting to fill hot water in my bucket. Yes, most Dharamshalas don’t have running hot water in your room. There is just one hot faucet in the verandah which provides hot water from 6 am to 8 am. When my turn comes, I touch the water to get a feel of the hotness quotient but to my surprise, the water is not warm, the only plus is that it was not chilled water.
Taking god’s name, I take a quick shower.
It’s 8:30 am and we are sipping some hot chai and munching on some dry fruits. We decide to walk around the old and hilly parts of the town and grab any chance to interact with the locals. The locals were quite friendly and shared their stories with us.
It’s 11 am and we are back at our Dharamshala. We decide to grab an early and filling lunch so that it holds us till we reach Jodhpur in the evening.
We walk down to the jeep stand and await a jeep to take us to Mt. Abu. Our two part journey was from Delwara to Mt. Abu bus stand and from Mt. Abu bus stand to Abu Road railway station. The road down was curvy and hilly and both of us regretted our decision to have a filling lunch. Empty stomachs would have been a much better idea.
It’s 1:30 pm and we arrive at Abu Road railway station.
Abu Road rail station
Our train to Jodhpur arrives at 3:15 pm so we have some time at hand. We sit on the railway bench and play a game of UNO. People gather around us like we are showing them a magic trick.
UNO
It’s 3:15 pm, the train is on time and we board our SL class compartments. The train is relatively full and and Khyati and I take turns to catch up on some sleep. As we are close to approaching Jodhpur, I call up the hotel to check if they offer a pickup. To my surprise, they said yes! The hotel was close to Jodhpur railway station and they said that the hotel person will be there to receive me with my name placard. I felt like a celebrity for a moment.
Train route
We arrive in Jodhpur at 8 pm and the station is extremely crowded. There is no space to breathe and Khyati and I scramble our way out of the train. A middle aged man by the name of Mangu Singh is waiting for us right outside our bogie – S4. It’s a short walk to the hotel and we check in to our room.
For those traveling to Jodhpur, we recommend staying at Govind Hotel. It’s a nice, clean hotel run by a father – son duo and they manage it really well. The hotel has a rooftop restaurant with views of Mehrangarh fort.
painting on the wall
Roof top restaurant
Post dinner, we plan our next day’s itinerary and call it a night around 10:30 pm.
Hope you are enjoying the travel journey so far.
Best wishes,
Paras