I keep waking up at 5am but today I'm not bothered as I'm excited to see possibly the best fort in Rajasthan, if not India, Mehrangarh in Jodhpur.
A lazy breakfast later and at 10am Kamal is ready to take us to Mehrangarh, it's already very hot. Mehrangarh dominates the skyline here and the closer you get the more impressive it gets
We toured the fort for 3.5 hours, which is a record for me as I normally get bored after 1.5 or 2 hours. I've come to the conclusion that this will always be one of my favourite places to visit, surpassing perhaps even the Taj Mahal.
The sheer size of the thing is impressive from far or near, but the real beauty, just like that Taj Mahal, can only be seen close up.
I don't think I've read how long the fort took to build but it must have been years and years as the carving in virtually every sandstone wall is exquisite.
The coloured glass work was very beautiful within the dark rooms with the sunlight flooding through the glass.
We hadn't even realised that there wasn't a hawker or seller in sight, no hassle, whatsoever: are we still in India?