On the road again (via very bumpy highways) - Jodhpur to Jaipur

Friday 28th September: Jodhpur to Royal Heritage Haveli, Jaipur

There was an air of excitement this morning and not just because the hotel was half filled with men in uniform! Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be coming to this hotel to attend the Combined Commanders' Conference later in the day, so the place is awash with Airforce, Army, SAS, police as well as a visit from the Air Marshal. Good thing we left early this morning. (No photos of them as I thought I might get shot! DA) 

It would be fair to say that every doorman in every hotel has an impressive moustache of considerable proportions, and this one was no exception!

Interesting mix of cows deer and goats in this paddock.
 This is the desert of northern India but as it is the
 end of the monsoon season it looked green to us.

We spent 10 hours on our journey from Jodhpur to Jaipur, with the majority of that morning on bumpy secondary roads that had many of us wishing for a firmer bra! We were surprised by the amount of bushes (albeit stunted) and greenery as well as the number of people working in fields in an area we were told was desert.

Marble was being mined and transported in one area

Some of the interesting traffic the
bus driver Sunil had to deal
 with: I think it
was recycling rubbish this time.

But by late morning we were on the highway, a much smoother, though not bump free, journey. 

After a quick lunch at the Hotel Ramada Inn, Beawar, we hit the road and made our way to Bagru and Sunrise Printers. 

We were late arriving as we were caught up in a political rally, this one for the university election. Full of colour, music, singing and flags (so many flags), it was quite the sight to behold. Our bus was going nowhere fast; however, we certainly had ringside seats to an amazing spectacle. 

The next generation of
block printers

We were greeted by the owner and his family when we arrived at Sunrise Printers. The business employs age old methods of block printing handed from father to son for over 6 generations.  Some of the wood blocks used for hand printing are well over 200 years old! 

The owner is building a museum to hand printing in his family compound and hopes one day that his son will run the business.
Some of the intricately carved blocks were works of art.
It's a very complex process to get more than one colour and it involves using a sticky substance which the women block on to the fabric to block out the colour. Then they sprinkle wood shavings which stick before the next colour is blocked.

 After seeing the work that was involved in producing the cloth we all felt obliged to purchase some...well quite a lot actually, whilst sipping on masala chai ( spiced tea) provided by the owner's wife.

Tour and shopping completed we continued on our way to Jaipur.

The roads became progressively busier: chaotic, slow moving toll booths; overflowing, pimped up trucks; well over capacity filled buses, with people taking turns of hanging out the side door; motorcycles zipping perilously close to vehicles; cows wandering on and off the freeway at will; the horns, oh my the horns!!! The sounds never stopped. It was quite the journey! 

A friendly truck driver's assistant

We arrived at our hotel, the Royal Heritage Haveli formerly a hunting lodge, around 7 and it was an oasis of peace and beauty. 

A couple of us had a quick swim before we all met on the candle lit terrace for a dinner fit for queens, followed by a well earned sleep in our magnificent rooms. 

your bumped around correspondent

Marianne