Dec. 20 : Jodhpur - Meherangarh Fort

Tuesday, December 20 :: Jodhpur, India :: 0km today / 673km total

Ah, the muezzin prayer. One of my favourite memories of the Middle East is the 5-times-daily solemn, soothing Islamic prayers being sung through loudspeakers in every city. Well, they do it here in India, too, although I'm not sure what the majority Hindus think about it. South Thailand and Malaysia had the prayers as well, but the grating staccato of their languages (to my ears anyways) diminished my appreciation in those countries. I'm not sure if they're singing in Hindi or Arabic here in India, either way, it sounds great.

One thing I've noticed about the Indians is how athletic they are. Bicycles are a common form of transportation here (well, any form of transportation that you can think of is common here) and the average cyclist that I come across is riding at a decent clip. In other countries that had many cyclists (i.e. Vietnam) people rode very, very slowly, but not here. Often locals will speed up and ride with me for a km or so when I overtake them... pretty impressive when you consider they're riding 1-speed clunkers. I always give them the thumbs up and lots of praise at times like this, which seems to make them quite happy. Also, whenever you see an Indian person out for a jog, they're running along very, very quickly. There are no lolligaggers here!

A late start this morning, as my destination, the Meherangarh Fort, only opened at 9 a.m. The Meherangarh Fort dominates Jodhpur, perched on top of a very high mesa in the centre of the city. On the walk over to it I stopped at the famous Omelette Cafe, and yes the omelettes were cheap and fantastic; several travellers were gathered around, chatting, smiling. The Fort wasn't too hard to get to... like the CN Tower in Toronto or Parthenon in Athens, all you have to do is look up (and know which side the entrance is on) to get to it. Again, making my way upwards through narrow, medieval alleyways, I came to the massive, arched outer gate.

The walk up to the Fort from the town below was a perfect way to get a feel for the sheer size of it. Built in the age of gunpowder and cannon (1600s) and used for 300 years, it was never taken by force even though it had been sieged several times. The walls are ridiculously thick and there are little pockmarks where the cannonballs bounced off. The entrance passageways have sharp right turns and spikes on the doors starting 9 feet from the ground... both anti-elephant charge measures. Things you don't see in Western Castles. There was an excellent, free audio tour of the fort... a fantastic 3 hours.

Leaving the fort I opted for a tuk-tuk, being wary of my right ankle and not wanting to push it. Its been a full-on assault of icing, stretching, massage, Ibuprofen, and tensor bandaging. Not much more I can think of doing for it. After a good but oily chicken kerai lunch, I returned to my hotel for more self-ankle-work. Across from my hotel is a huge, clean-looking Indian sweets store, one of thousands that I've seen here in India. I've actually found one type of sweet that I like, and will experiment with others while here - I never really liked Indian sweets in Canada, but I'm wondering if eating only Indian food (as I have been for a week now) changes the palate's dessert cravings - some sort of symbiotic relationship between the curries and the sweets? Or maybe they're just made better here.

I'm not sure what tomorrow will bring... I'll see how I feel in the morning. My ankle does not hurt and there is little to no sign of Tendonitis (I'm no physiotherapist, so its hard for me to objectively self-examine) - but I'm glad I stopped riding as soon as I felt a twinge. I know the 320-km desert crossing will be very difficult, and I'm cautious about attempting it with a questionable ankle.