Day 3

On day 3 we woke up in Jodhpur ready for another day of forts and palace lunches. The Moguls Raj's like a spot of Polo, which was invented in this part of the world. So guess where Jodhpur riding pants come from?

The Jodhpur fort was the best maintained and is still inhabited by the current royal family.

The water wheel ate the top was turned by camels etc at the top and drew water with a pulley and bucket mechanism from rainwater catchment wells inside the yellow structure below.

These pictures show a turban tying demo, opium processing for parties etc (the guy was really spaced out) and a gold covered pallin? Thing to cut down on walking and an elephant seat.

There were some great weapons of minor destruction. The 3 bladed knife had a spring mechanism that you released after the stab, just t'b sure t'b sure.

After the fort we drove across town for lunch at a wonderful new domed palace that was built during the 1930's by the current Raj's grandfather. Unfortunately I did not get any photo's as my battery died. But the story goes that during a nasty drought the Raj decided to do a major public work to employ starving farmers etc. Well it really was quite a palace. It was designed with about 100 apartments and rooms for guests; these guys like a party!

Trouble is these days they don't get away with taxes etc, so as I explained a lot of them let some or all the property out to hotel groups like the Taj. This one was being run by the Raj as a private hotel, but he has decided to let it out to the Taj group because they just don't have the marketing etc to fill it. We poked around and asked one of the floor room boys to show us a suite and took this photo (the battery came to life for 1 only).

Now this bedroom had a bath room with a solid orange marble bath and matching basin, a changing room and toilet room (that was bigger than many hotel rooms). Off the lounge room was a magnificent 12 setting dinning room with its own kitchen. It is currently all yours for US$500 a night.