Jodhpur, Village Safari and Walking Tour of the Market

12th September 2018

It is very quiet in our hotel and we slept well, up with plenty of time to spare for our morning activity, a visit to some local village houses and craftsmen. The tour takes place in a jeep, and our guide and his driver are at reception to meet us at 9 am as agreed.

The guide explained that whilst it was called a village safari, it was not a trip out to see wild animals, but rather to visit the houses of 3 different castes/tribes to get a feel for the county living experience. The 4WD was a great idea once we realised how bad the roads were.

Jodhpur is located on the edge of the Thar Desert and is the second largest city in Rajasthan, with a population of around 2 million. It is the main supply point for the tribes that live in the surrounding desert. Strategically, Jodhpur is important to India, as Rajasthan borders Pakistan, China and Nepal. It is no surprise there a major military base with a big presence by the army and airforce. Planes are in the air most of the time patrolling the borders.

On our way out of town, we stopped to do our good deed for the day. We have noticed lots of women sitting by the roadside with big piles of grass or similar in front of them, and people stopping to feed the cows. Hindus believe it is good luck to start the day by doing a good deed, and there is none better than feeding the cows. The lady with the pile of food sells it to the passers by who then feed the cows.

Carole improving her luck

Keen to understand why the cows are wandering the street, our guide explained that owners of cows milk them in the morning, then let them loose. They walk around all day getting a feed and come home at 5pm to be milked again.

Similarly, we saw a lot of dogs sitting by the side of the road in shady spots. It seems that they also get fed by well wishers who often bring their leftovers from last nights dinner to feed them.

It took some 40 minutes over some very ordinary "roads" to get to our first stop, but at least we were entertained along the way by the day today life we were exposed to.

A group of religious pilgrims on their way to a temple some 200km away in the desert, many of the travelling on foot.

The building material of choice is stone blocks sourced from local quarries

The people seated and standing around are daily contract workers awaiting job offers from contractors who come here when they need labour

We made way for a herd of sheep and goats

got the evil eye from a cow not impressed with us using the road

Finally, after bouncing around in the back of an open jeep for 40 minutes,we arrived at our first stop, the local potter.

Our guide gave us a quick summary of the importance of pottery to the Indian house, for water storage, cooking, storage of spices and other dried foods etc, before the potter sat down to demonstrate his craft. The potters wheel consisted of a very heavy road stone that was well balanced.

The wheel sits in a spindle fixed to a smaller solid base and rotates freely

The potter started the wheel by hand and then increased the speed using leverage from a stick placed in a hole at the edge of the wheel

Once the wheel was up to speed, he began to shape his first creation. He had placed a large roughly cylindrical piece of clay on the wheel before starting to rotate it, and from this one piece made 3 items in around 20 minutes.

He produced these 3 items as we watched.

The wet items are then normally dried in the sun and fired in a wood fired kiln, of which there are two in the yard of the house.

The dried items are stacked in the kiln on a metal rack above the fire

The top of the kiln is then covered with broken pots to seal it during the firing

Whilst we were there we had a quick look around at their living quarters, and as is normal, several generations lived on this land with a few houses built there. The potter is the son who has taken over the trade, whilst mum and dad now live a more relaxing life.

This house at the road front is occupied by the son and his family (Dad is having a rest under the tree)

This is the water tank that supplies both families and the pottery

The patio of the parents house at the back of the property is where most of the food preparation takes place. In the picture below you can see the simple pots and pans, and the clay water jar on the stand. We saw these everywhere we went, and they keep the water remarkably cool, as there is slight evaporation through the walls of the pot.

The stove is pretty simple

After an interesting stop here we were off along another bumpy dirt road to visit the next house which is occupied by a small minority group known as Bishnoi people. 

A camel herd is spotted along the way so we pulled over to have a look.

The women in the foreground are collecting camel dung for fertilizer

We pass a few more sheep on a rare sealed road that is not chopped up

Our guide told us that the the Bishnoi's are the original environmentalists and for 600 years have been preaching that we must look after nature. They lead a pretty simple life, and do not cut down trees or do anything that will affect the environment. Growing pretty much everything they need, or can trade for what they need, they are very self sufficient.

In the foreground is an old mud hut that is now used for storage, as homes built from stone blocks are  now the norm.

Power poles and fence posts are made of stone

They have an interesting custom for greeting guests who normally had travelled a long way to see them and were generally very tired on arrival. the answer was to offer them some opium to perk them up. They would grind ip the poppy and add some water, then filter it through a rough filtration process and offer it to their guests to drink. Of course it is now illegal, but it seems they still know how to get some supples. They also do not drink water unless it has been filtered through cloth first.

The elder father demonstrates the opium preparation

We are then given a turban tying demonstration (this piece of cloth is 10 m long)

and then it is dress up time

Just as we were about to leave, he wanted to show us his farm, so out we went to look at what he was growing.

The main crop is millet

However, he also grew sesame seeds

Sesame seeds in the pod (in his hand are green lentils)

Green lentils

He also grew bitter gourds

As well as these he grew chillies, pomegranates, lemons etc.

It was time to continue on, so we bid farewell and moved on to our last visit of the morning, to a weaver who specialised in weaving Dhurries.

The temperature is rising and it is starting to get pretty warm, but this establishment offers under cover parking. Our jeep is tucked away in a cool spot whilst we go to see the weaving.

Note the sawn sandstone posts that support the carport.

The weaver is already at his loom to provide the obligatory demonstration. He speaks quite good English, so unlike in the other places we are able to converse directly with him. 

The dhurries are very nice, but we have no need for and more carpets. He took us through the process of weaving these which results in the same pattern being repeated on the back of the rug so you can use both sides. We looked at some of his work and then headed back to the city for lunch.

The countryside here is pretty unforgiving and very dependent on the annual monsoon rains, which this year have been disappointing in the North.

Back in Jodhpur, the traffic is chaotic, but fortunately we found a quiet venue for lunch before we take on the walking tour of the market this afternoon.

Refreshed from lunch we were ready to take on the main market in Jodhpur, the Sardar Market with it's iconic clocktower centrepiece. Our driver dropped us off close to the entrance where it is already chaotic. The market has around 10,000 vendors and is visited by the desert people, and locals, to get their supplies of everything imaginable. The emphasis is on affordability, so most of the goods are not  original, but they are cheap.

Outside the entrance this vendor is selling sweet made from vegetables

Once inside the gate we enter the clocktower square and whilst there is a lot of activity on the edges all seems orderly.

Under this tree is a dentist who will perform any dental procedure for 100 rupees (A$2)

The main market activity is in the never ending maze of narrow streets that extend out from here. The lanes are very narrow and contending with motorbikes, tuk tuk's and other shoppers requires a lot of vigilance.

This tuk tuk is about to turn into one such lane

There is not much you cannot buy at this market.

Lots of fresh vegetable vendors

and fresh spices

There are mini flour mills who will mill your wheat, millet , lentils etc while you wait

Pappadums, pasta etc

Cooking utensils

factory seconds clothing, but you have to dig through the pile to see whats there

Traffic jams are common (one motobike had to reverse out of this to get the traffic moving again)

Our guide in the blue shirt trying to steer us through the mayhem

The ladies from out of town have descended on this shop

Anyone recognise these ?

Anyone for fresh coriander ?

Deep in the backstreets, the red sandstone carved facades of the old merchants houses can be seen

We wandered through the backlanes for and 1.5 hrs always seeing something interesting. The crowd kept building and we decided we had seen enough and headed back to our car, but I have not seen a market on this scale anywhere. The other pleasant surprise was that there was no pressure to buy anything. 

Finally back at the hotel we were ready for a shower and a rest, and the opportunity to be the only guests at the restaurant again tonight.