is there poodle in my noodle

This morning, we hauled up the white flag and saluted it from the comfort of a hotel room next to Jodhpur airport. One week of touring the “less intense” northern Indian cities – an adventure, we thought, we would easily take in our stride – had truly kicked our asses.

Admittedly, we made some tactical errors on our journey. It’s hilarious to look back at how we rolled our eyes at the organised tour groups getting picked up from fancy hotels in air-conditioned buses and taken to the tourist-friendly attractions. Away from angry barking canines, huge piles of dog crap, hoardes of motorbikes, menacing beggars, and stinking filth that litters every street. The seemingly deaf tuktuk drivers who never take ‘no’ for an answer. The random ‘helpful’ guy who follows you everywhere until you really lose your shit patience. The way you are persued relentlessly as if you have a flashing dollar sign on your head. “Hello sir, where are you from?”; an oft-repeated precursor to a long-winded conversation culminating in a hard sale.

Our last accommodation in Jodhpur, another hostel that came with bonus cockroaches, a noisy water pump outside our windowless room, a hole in the wall providing unwanted insight into our neighbour’s bathroom habits, and a flooded bathroom, was really the final straw. Somehow, this salubrious and ritzy lodging earned a promising 9.8 rating on Booking.com. We checked out a day early, and this morning, we got a taxi straight to the quietest and cleanest street we could find in the entire city.

Tough as the last week has been, I wouldn’t change it. Plunging into a country like India, with its extremes and hardships, needs to be sampled from every perspective. We are not ashamed to admit that today, we have reached peak-ordeal, and personally, I feel quite anxious and slightly traumatised. But that’s ok – this is India, and this is what you sign up for. The next few weeks will be relative luxury; climbing and surfing down south.

A real highlight of our trip to Jodhpur was yesterday’s visit to the 15th Century fort, sitting proud on the hilltop overlooking the city. If these walls could talk…. the tales they could tell! It was, without doubt, the most fascinating audio tour I’ve done. Stories of warring factions, inter-familial marriages and revenge battles, stampeding weaponised elephants, and the subsequent dissolution of the ruling clans during the era of independence.

Jem was also particularly excited to visit the filming location for The Dark Knight Rises, just behind the fort…. where Christian Bale climbs from the pit of despair to freedom.

To surmise, visiting Rajisthan’s urban areas in the way we have – staying in the densely-packed historic old towns and on a budget – has been a slog. There is a world-weary thousand-yard stare in the eyes of every Western traveller we have met who has undertaken the same challenge. To make this pleasant would mean staying in expensive upmarket hotels and paying for endless private transfers to the forts, palaces, and temples. But what would be the point of that, really? Glad we’ve done it in the way we did – as a once in a lifetime experience.

Next stop, Hampi. We are psyched.