Jodhpur - November 25th

Despite our bad experience with the bus to Udaipur we are taking a bus out of Udaipur as well.  This is not because we couldn’t book a train, but because no train goes from Udaipur to our next destination, Jodhpur.  However this time getting to the bus proved to be easier, because we organised the ticket through our hotel, so they knew exactly where to drop us.  Unlike our other bus there were also a few other tourists waiting when we arrived which made us feel a lot better.

The departure itself was actually quite punctual, we pulled off at 07:30 on the dot.  However there were the usual stops to pick up people as we left the city, but still it wasn’t that full as we left Udaipur.  The first 2 hours of the journey were back up the same road we had come down the previous trip, but in the daylight we seemed to make a lot better time than we previously had.  However we had to turn off the main road to cut across country to another main road, and that is when the road ran out.  It was pretty bumpy, although not the worst bus journey I’ve ever had.  This section, although maybe only 60-70km took almost 2 ½ hours.  Finally we reached the other main road, and again proceeded at a decent pace, except now I was suffering from another occurrence of Delhi belly and I was counting down the kilometres to Jodhpur.  Amazingly this bus arrived dead on time at 14:00 in Jodhpur.

When we go to Jodhpur we were treated to the sight of the tuk-tuk drivers actually fighting over who gets to pick up the tourists from the bus.  It was a bit scary, but then out of the blue appears a guy with Dorota’s name on the back of a business card from the hotel we had booked.  They had sent a tuk-tuk driver to pick us up, and I don’t think we were ever so grateful.

Between the drive, and the lack of sleep due to our illnesses last night, we were so tired we just crashed in the hotel when we arrived.  We even stayed in for dinner that evening, although it has to be said that alone was doing one of the things to do in Jodhpur, looking up at the fort from a hotel rooftop restaurant.