If Rajasthan meant the ‘abode of the Rajas (kings)’ they certainly had enough of them and a quarrelsome bunch needing no end of forts. The scattering of princely states across what is now called India must have been an administrative nightmare for the British.
And so it was on to Jodhpur – the blue city – where the most fairytale of forts, Mehrangarh, overlooks the city.

Brahmin neighbourhood painted in blue

Mehrangarh fort towers over the city like a Disney castle

Plaque commemorating the sacrifice of man buried alive in foundations for good luck
The practice of widow burning was banned by the British with the famous response by Napier, one of the British rulers:
“Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs”
The interior of the palace and guide was particularly well preserved splendour while the exterior walls still had pock-marks from cannon balls betraying less relaxed history. Over the course of a few hours the weather changed with my first glimpse of monsoon rains.
Black clouds rolled, winds picked up and violent torrential rain started and just kept going. Stuck without umbrella or rain jacket I had to wait it out in the gift shop where the miniature paintings took my eye.
Painted in extreme detail with brush hair from a squirrels tail they can take days or weeks to paint depending on the size. I picked up a typically Rajasthani scene after some well-mannered haggling back and forth.

Miniature painting, sealed and ready for the rain!
As I waited by the exit a piece of strung up tarpaulin was getting more and more bulbous with the weight of water until a member of staff came along with a tall ladder and pushed one side where the whole lot – hundreds of litres of water crashed down and send people scurrying!
On my way back down the winding streets with cascading streams of water these kids were revelling in the novelty of the rains – trying to swim uphill against the water!

Swimming against the stream

Fully flat beds – petrol fumes included!

View of the City Palace across the lake, you can see the ghats on the left

Lake Pichola with the Lake Palace in white at the left