On Monday evening January 27th, we arrived in the city of Jodhpur. As evening rolled around,we decided to venture into the Jodhpur market which is widely recognized as an insanely crowded and chaotic place...even by India standards. The markets are divided into sectors defined by the goods which are sold. Leather products, silk products, fruits and vegetables, jewelry and so on.
There are no sidewalks and no defined places for pedestrians to navigate. The cars, motorcycles, trucks, tuc tucs and animals criss-cross without any pattern leaving no ability to predict which way the next vehicle will turn. One must utilize all senses in order to enjoy the market while walking safely. While Mom and Dad have been fortunate to travel many places, we have never seen an open air market quite as crazy as this.
We say all this to say that watching Mabret and Roman walk this market was a highlight of the trip. We watched them closely and witnessed them employ so many lessons that were learned during this trip. From the way that they remained calm and relaxed keeping eyes peeled to the way that they balanced challenging the motorcycles just enough to make sure that we did not spend the night pinned against the wall watching traffic while making certain they didn't get run over, they moved about with the ease of well seasoned adventurers. They made us very proud.
The markets. These pictures cannot really do justice to the scene but use your imagination.
After several hours of navigating, we jumped into a tuc tuc for a ride out of the markets. Below, Roman and Mabret was the chaos through the back of the tuc tuc.
An admission from the RTW Adventure Family. After 3 months on the road, 7 countries, and more than 20,000 miles, we broke down for some comfort from home...
And it tasted sooooooo good.
Peace out!
