Aparté: night street adventures
4am, Udaipur, the sun is not up yet. No street lights in the back alleys, a good part of the city is still in the shadows. Would India finally be at rest? You might believe it… until you turn over a corner and you witness crowds of women dressed in orange and red sarees, either sat on the ground in the temples, either placing offerings in the streets. India never sleeps! I asked a waiter about it later on: out of memory, we were right at the beginning of a 7-day festival following Holi, celebrated by women only [NLDR: I cannot recall the name of the festival – I’ve tried googling “main Hindu festivals after Holi”, and it appears that at least 4 major festivals take place at the same time. Indians have 9 festivals over the 7 days of the week, as a local saying goes…]
I have never mentioned street dogs here, but you will find them everywhere in Indian cities. At day, they are mostly inoffensive and drag their frail bodies around in the shades of the buildings. Until the night comes or a territory war is declared. You hear them howling in the city night, they gather in packs and are much closer to their wolf cousins than to the chubby home pug. Dimitri and I were gently strolling around one day, when a group of six dogs barged into the narrow path, all fangs out. Two more came running, chasing after a miserable looking beta dog, which was expelled from the empty land it was resting at. Our survival mode kicked in: Dimitri thought about climbing the fence opposite the fight, I considered running back to where we came from. Luckily, the lone dog was completely overpowered and it did not last long before it run away. It took us some minutes to calm our heartbeats, though… Little be said that we were not the most confident persons in the world, when we had to walk through Udaipur to catch our bus in the early morning. We tried to avoid the dark alleys with packs. We could not avoid them all though, and when three dogs jumped at us and our bags at 4am, we did our best not to panic… They quickly realized that we had no food and let us go – pfiuuu…
In the rainbow family, give me the Blue!
A quick bus ride drove us from Udaipur to Jodhpur, further West in the Rajasthan state. After Jaipur the Pink, Udaipur the White, let me introduce you to… *drum rolls* Jodhpur the Blue!
Right at the middle of Rajasthan, Jodhpur was founded in the XVth century, as the capital of the Kingdom of Marwar. Early April is the beginning of the hot season: 40 degrees Celsius, 20% humidity rate, venturing outside between 11:30am and 3pm means dying of heat for us.
Our ancestors’ remediation? Painting the city in those beautiful, smoothing indigo shades. The color blue does not catch the heat as much as other colors, and acts as well as insect repellant [NLDR: my mum cleverly made the link with the Touareg, the “men in blue”]. It is super effective: this patio was for instance a few degrees colder than all the surrounding streets.
Thanks to these stunning colors, Jodhpur is featured all over Instagram. Our young city guide, Deepak (bluecitybydeepak), was well aware and specialized himself in ad-hoc private shooting sessions with tourists. Our first (unintentional) Instagram tour! Of course, I did not know how to pose. Behold: our beau-ti-ful selves in blue!
Result of the experience: being an Instagram model requires far too much work and dedication for us!… We are better off putting back our hats on and exploring the majestic Mehrangarh fort, which dominates the city from its hill.
Deciding against spending money on the zipline installed around the fort, we got lost instead in the royal gardens and enjoyed the peacefulness, alone in the green. Nature we craved – nature we were served, with the Rao Jodha Desert Rock Park.
Encounters in the Blue City
We had been travelling in India for a month, it was time to think about what to bring back home. Spices were an obvious choice. We were recommended an “authentic shop”, by a random guy who stopped us “because [he] cared about nice foreigners like us” – yeah, suuuure. A bit of Internet search later, and we discovered MV Spices. MV Spices is the life work of Mohan Lal Verhomal, who built up from scratch a shop specialized in spices and managed to get their quality recognized internationally, helped by his wife and seven daughters. When he passed away, the males of the family magically popped in, deeming the wife and daughters unable to hold a business (because, you know, female). These strong women fought back, and kept their ground, despite all threats and a missed acid attack attempt. An upcoming documentary is in the making: the Spice Girls of Rajasthan. Support women worlwide by supporting their business!
We consider ourselves extremely lucky to meet great individuals on the road – whether they be locals or travellers. Shout out to our fellow travellers Aimé, Yohann, Lauren, Gian, Mario and many other! 😘
As a conclusion: woman in traditional outfit painted on the Blue City walls.
The next article will relate our stay in a village in the Thar desert, pampered by our hosts and surrounded by the wildlife. Stay tuned!
Breathe In The World 
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