Our train has barely begun to brake into the station when I hear the familiar sound of sandalled feet slapping on the ground followed by the excited cries of vendors passing baskets. Those who got off are now ambling towards the exit while the rest of us gather at the train’s doorways for a tussle with the passengers attempting to board. It’s 13 years since I first encountered the quirks of Indian railways and it feels like coming home. I’ve arrived in Jodhpur from Jaipur to embark upon a desert train adventure to Jaisalmer in the west of Rajasthan, not far from the Pakistan border, but I’ve got some time to kill before my connection, so set off to explore the blue-walled city.
On my last visit to Jodhpur, I bought pouches of pepper, rocks of quartz-like salt and sat around the medieval-style haveli courtyard at Khaas Bagh hotel eating silky mutton laal maans curry, smoking cinnamon beedi cigarettes and seeing
