14TH Sun. Bera to Jodhpur (Singhvi's Haveli)

After breakfast  we set off for Jodhpur and arrived at our 'hotel' around 2pm.   We were booked into Singhvi's Haveli - a heritage family guest house .  This haveli (old house) was gifted by Maharaja of Jodhpur, Shri Maan Singh ji, to the current family's great grand father Shri Akheraj Sa Singhvi (commander in chief of the Maharaja's army) for his good work in 1778.   It is more than 500 years old. It was built around the same time as the nearby Mehrangarh fort . The family have lived in this house for last 400 years.


Having seen all the photos on their website, and read glowing report (No. 1 on Trip Advisor)  we were really looking forward to our stay here.

In reality we hated the place.   To start with there must have been 20 steps to climb to reach our room - they are very steep and tall (around 12" high each one) with no handrail.    Then from our room to the dining area there was another staircase with 10 equally tall stairs (although there was a handrail on this section).   From there it was probably another 30 stairs to the rooftop terrace ....

Our room was so dark that even with every light on we still had to use a torch to search for items in our cases.   The bathroom window had no glass - just mosquito screens so the streetnoise/dogs baying all night was intolerable.

Entrance

This is the central relaxation lounge on the floor where our room is situated.   

The walls were really discoloured and grimy.   They seemed to be marble veneered with lots of chunks missing.   In an effort to brighten the wall there are some handpainted pictures - with paint drips smears ...

Hanging a few brightly coloured curtains around the terraces simply didn't do it for us.  

We're booked in for 3 nights here so we thought we'd make the most of it and take a walk around the town.     We found the narrow streets claustrophobic and very dirty.   The local people didn't respond to our smiles or 'good mornings'.   Then we were targeted by a guide with the age-old greeting - Hi I was just leaving Singhvi's Haveli as you were arriving - how are you enjoying it?     We told him our views and he said we were in the wrong part of town - we were in the locals market area where they don't really take kindly to visitors so he'd point us in the direction of the 'blue Town' which we'd enjoy more.   We then couldn't shift him.    Along with hissed asides from David ... 'what have you got us into now'?  I managed to dissuade the guide from taking us up to the nearby fort to watch the sunset but telling him my elderly husband had a bad heart and couldn't climb the slope/steps.

Eventually we did lose him .. by that time we were hopelessly lost ourselves but after 4 hours found our way back.

It wasn't all negative, we found a couple of nice shop-owners/artisans who were happy to show us what they were doing.

December 15th to January 15th this year was designated a bad/unlucky time for marriages based on horoscopes and other religious factors so shops selling wedding paraphanalia were gearing up for a busy period from today.   We watched some beautfiful 22ct gold wedding jewellery being crafted.  So painstaking - these pieces are all bespoke

and these guys were hammering designs into necklaces 

Plenty of wedding sari shops were doing great business also

 The 'Blue City' is barely blue these days.    Before we shook off our unofficial guide he told us that many people couldn't afford to repaint properties every year so a blue powder is mixed with water and used to coat some of the walls but this is not permanent - in fact it rubs off on the hands as we tested it.

Anyway on the basis we always try to find things of interest in every town and village we visit here are a few street scenes (omitting the worst of the rubbish strewn gutters)

I find it so sad that nobody is preserving these buildings.   They can never be replicated but have been ravaged by monsoon rains and just left to crumble - so much for the historic city.  

The narrow streets are very congested

It looks as though work has been carried out on this property although the windows aren't in keeping.

We decided to explore what looked like an interesting courtyard and came across this wreck of a car

 David thinks it might be the remains of a 1946 Hillman Minx Convertible

and on a lighter note these two looked very pleased with their winter woollies which I think are made out of grain sacks

Jodhpur boasts the largest textile shop/market in India and we were told by successive wannabe guides who tried to latch onto us that Prince Charles/Camilla and Mick Jagger had been recent visitors to the 8 storey building.    Apparently most of the items sold by the 'White Goods' company originate here and can be bought here  at a fraction of the European shop costs ... we declined all attempts to drag us in so have no idea what the place is like inside.

We decided to tackle the steps to the rooftop terrace again and check out the view at dusk - actually in poor light the town looks much more blue than it does in daylight, and certainly there is a very good view of the Fort

Over an early dinner David asked me I wanted to try to find another hotel and I leapt at the chance.   The first couple we found were ruled out (the one where Liz Hurley got married was around £750 for the two remaining nights) and the second one had no availability for our dates.

We settled on Devi Bhawan which is just outside the main town and had great reviews (yeah, yeah, so did the other one) and then spent the night wondering if it was a case of 'out of the frying pan and into the fire@