Jodhpur

I don't know how most of you spent your Thanksgiving but I spent mine working during the day and then on an overnight train to Jodhpur. Doug was playing in a cricket tournament that the Maharaja of Jodhpur sponsors for Charity between various embassies and indian teams. So we took the train. Satender had picked up the tickets for us and I didn't realize there was an actual "first class" that was different than the sleeper classes I had been in before. It wasn't a huge difference - two bunks on either side of a cabin - but this cabin had a door, not just a curtain, had slightly longer beds, a secret sink that turned into a table and a little closet. It was cute. I brought a homemade pumpkin pie to celebrate the day and we ended up sharing it with our Canadian rivals who were also on the train. They provided the wine and whisky!

Muna and I had briefly been through Jodhpur on our way to Jaisalmair almost four years ago but had only stopped by the Maharaja's palace for tea or something for like an hour. The weekend ended up being really busy and chaoticly organized. So we got in at like 9am to the hotel and realized that Doug was expected to play in an hour - so really quick breakfast and showers and we were at the stadium. The stadium was big and sorta impressive the but stands were so decayed (see scoreboard picture). The game - played in the shorter and more exciting 20-20 style - was long and not particularly exciting. The US team was killed by the Jodhpur team. And there were no spectators. I had been thinking I might play - hence the practicing with Satender over the past two weeks but I was never informed of their actual practices so it wasn't the best idea for my first game to be in a tournament. We then explored Old Jodhpur - not very interesting market but good people watching - and the fort, which is totally different than all the other forts I've seen in these parts. Much more palace than fort and really well preserved for visitors. Really fancy rooms with crazy decor. Artifacts that had been used by the royal family, even the handheld carraiges from when they visited London. A great audio tour that explained a lot about their lives, the history, and the architecture. And then we stopped by the Maharaja's palace - which is really impressive - to briefly meet the Maharaja.

Oddly, Jodhpur was not what I expected. I thought it would be like Jaisalmair, which is pretty small. Jodhpur is actually quite big and has parts that look like every other smaller city in India - dusty, dirty, busy. We really only had one glimpse of the real older city - called the Blue City for obvious reasons - which was in a rickshaw ride that took us through the old alleys.

On our last day the US played Canada in a consolation game (sad, non-cricket playing teams) and won! I have to say, I avoided cricket for many many years here and just couldn't figure out what the fuss was. When they started playing 20-20 matches, I finally started understanding the game and once you play you can see the appeal. But it's still not a great spectator sport in my opinion.