Postcard From The Road: Jodhpur, India

Posted on May 7th, 2011

Jodhpur fort at night photograph

I left Jaipur, the capital city of Raghastan, after 4 nights of being there. I got some great night shots of the buildings and temples but have to say the architecture is marvelous on the outside but so boring on the inside. Most places I visited were a let down after I walked inside. There were a lot more sites to see but I just don’t have the time and decided I needed to get moving.

I booked an 11:40am train going south to Jodhpur for 160Rs ($3.58 USD), that was suppose to be a 5hr long stress-free ride. I showed up at the train station 20min early and asked a security guard if he knew which platform I needed to be at and was told the 3^rd one. I make my way across the catwalk and when I get to the bottom of the stairs I see the train pulling out. I quickly run up to a guy on the train and show him my ticket, asking if this was where I needed to be. He said yes yes over and over, while grabbing me to help get me inside.

Wow, Indian train leaving so early, I wonder why? 2 minutes later I find out why, as I was on the wrong train, thanks to the nice man, who I now refer to as “yes yes, quickly quickly” guy (because ass-hole just didn’t seem right as he was just trying to help). Great, now I’m a stowaway, but the train conductor said no problem and that I just needed to get off at the first stop, wait 20min and then get on the next train, which would be my correct train.

The photo is my view on the terrace at night from my hostel. It’s an old fort that is lit up at night. I have one of the best views in town and it only cost me 250Rs ($5.60 USD) per-night. Tomorrow I’m going to see if I can’t actually make it to this fort and hope it’s got something to see on the inside, unlike the ones in Jaipur.

Until then, I’ll be more careful about taking advise from random strangers again.

Postcard From The Road: Jaipur, India

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http://www.jonmccormack.com/blog/ Jon McCormack

Nice Troy! The place i stayed in a month ago had a view like this from a rooftop restaurant – no better way to end a days shooting than a curry, a king fisher, and a view of the fort!
http://www.foggodyssey.com/ Anonymous

lol, mine was butter chicken gravy with 3 nanns and Kingfisher. I ate so much I just stat up there for an extra hour letting it all soak in!
Anonymous

Beautiful shot! Oh, we feel your pain. We did the exact same thing once and ended up on a very slow general class compartment that took a good 10 hours rather than the express 3 hours train we were supposed to be on. Indian trains can be very confusing and nobody seems to know anything when you ask. They always just tell you to get on whenever you ask a question. We eventually got the hang of it. But yes, train travel was always a stressful situation. Have fun traveling India, it is quite an experience.
http://www.foggodyssey.com/ Anonymous

Well if it’s the last time I butch up a train ride, then I own the world… but something tells me it won’t be! lol I got off pretty easy but 10 for 3, ouch!
Anonymous

Oh yes, it was a terrible day. It was supposed to be a quick jaunt, but we got on the wrong line.

. Once we were on there was no going back. The train was going to the same destination, just on a more round about route with way more stops!
We kept stopping at each station for 20 minutes to half and hour. We were definitely not on the tourist route:) Luckily there was another couple that did the same thing so we had people to laugh about it with. We got into the station in the middle of the night and it was chaos. The train was packed, we had to body check people to get off, our fellow travelers were bonking people in the head with their guitar to get out. It was crazy. A very authentic experience to say the least.
http://www.rebeccaandtheworld.com Rebecca

Nice pic – the light looks amazing. It looks like it’s floating!

I am currently in Missouri, USA