After our luxurious rest in Udaipur, Jonathan and I moved onward to Jodhpur while Rachana and Ajay returned to Delhi. Alliance Air, our air carrier of convenience, landed in Jodhpur with a thud and a bang. Honestly, this poor 737 had seen many, many better days and was now no more than a simple bus in the sky. All of our flights in Rajasthan had been on this poor plane that made trips daily from Bombay to Delhi via the major ‘burghs of the province. The landing in Jodhpur was like a warning and announcement: “Namaste. Please remember to unfasten your seat belts and run jaldi jaldi off the plane before it breaks apart.”
You realize the moment the plane hits the runway that Jodhpur is close to Pakistan. The runway is lined with camouflaged bunkers hiding jets, equipment, and personnel. Dirt covered machine gun equipped mounds flank the electrified and barbed wired terminal building. On the other side of the building, the airport road was a strange scene of families, animals and garbage. Spirited away in our Ambassador cab, we soon arrived at our lodgings.
By the time we finished at Meherangarh Fort, the though of going onward to Jaisalmer became increasingly less appealing. In fact, we missed our companions. So, after some heated conversations with the travel desk at the hotel (and some negotiations concerning pricing and the travel desk’s overcharging), we secured tickets to Delhi and then onward to Hyderabad with Ajay and his sister. Another Rajasthani fort just didn’t seem as appealing as the food, comfort, and familiarity of Hyderabad.
