Day 12: Jodhpur. Out and About.

Potters, farmers and rug-makers are our delights for today as we head out on a tour of some of the rural villages surrounding Jodhpur. We are collected at 8:00am by a series 1 Land Rover from 1952 and a Willys Jeep from 1957 (I wonder who wrote that bit!) and head off to witness a different way of life.

First is a pottery village. The guy throwing the pots is skilled to say the least, using a wheel that is in fact a hand powered, 100kg round slab of sandstone, spinning on a wooden pivot! From this primitive arrangement he produces a range of shapes and sizes of clay pots in a short time. There are around 60 families in the village, according to our guide, and about 50% of them are potters, handing the skill down through the generations.

Secondly we visit a farmhouse where around nine people live in four small buildings. The lady of the house was busy pounding cow dung with her hands (nice) to use as flooring or fuel. Neither of which seem particularly appealing options to us but in actual fact the cow dung floor (that we’re walking on) is pretty impressive. Cow dung aside, they have a few animals (buffalo and cows) and grow Millet, Lentils, Sour Gum for the cattle and various other produce. Recent times have been tough due to drought. A good monsoon season would contain four or five rains of around four hours. Last year saw only two rains of an hour apiece. The harvest was down 75% but on the whole the people were in high spirits and all seemed well. The farmer demonstrated the use of opium in a drink and we were all so brave that we refused to try it.

Phil finally manages to blend in with the locals.

Our third stop was a carpet weaving family that creates mainly cotton mats in a variety of sizes and colours. All is done by hand with a smallish sized mat taking up to two months to complete. They definitely should think about automating that process!

Last stop before heading toward town was a Sheppard family with a flock of approximately 40 goats and numerous children. Not one of the most successful of stops, we’re not actually shown anything, just offloaded into the family home while the guide waits to answer any of our questions. Hmmm. We leave quite promptly.

For the cynics who have been here before, it is only the next and final stop that is overtly commercial! On our way back to Jodhpur town we are taken to a ‘small factory’ for textiles! In here we are shown pretty much the same stuff we have seen in Jaipur and Jodhpur. While our Canadian companions manage to appease the sales team by buying a bedspread and some cushion covers, we amuse ourselves by explaining to the salesman that we’ve paid significantly less than he is asking for identical products in Jodhpur market a couple of days before. We escape without buying anything and return to Ratan Villas for a shower, lunch and a lazy and relaxed Sunday afternoon.

Having gone through so much poverty on route from Ranthambore to Jodhpur, it was so pleasing today to see villages that were clean, healthy and self-sufficient.

Tomorrow we’re on the move again.