Christmas day was celebrated a little differently this year. There were no chrismas trees in sight or any christmas carols playing anywhere and there were no presents waiting eagerly to be unwrapped. Instead we were excited that the hotel had actually switched on their hot water and that the showers' mixer was working so that you could adjust the temperature and not jump around in either freezing cold or scortching hot water. Not having the breakfast included this time only added to our great start to the day as we were directed to the lovely Yogi's guesthouse and rooftop restaurant where the menu, filled with things like porridge and banana and honey made me so happy i could barely contain my excitement. Butter toast and omelette just wasnt doing it for me anymore. Bellies satisfied and groaning appreciatingly from the change in diet, we headed off to do the required sightseeing.

Magnificent Mehrangarh Fort, still run by the descendants of the Maharaja of Jodhpur, has walls soaring overhead from the cliff top as you approach up the steep pathway. On the way up we got invited into a very 'sweet' old mans' house to 'have a look around and at the view' but was instead held hostage until I had my hand hennaed by his 'artist' wife. Cheeky old man! Inside the fort, Dan and I wandered around the palace complex and network of courtyards looking like complete tourists with my newly hennaed hand in the air and juggling audio guides and camera in the other. Being too cool for school we would never normally hire the audio guide, but seeing as it was included in the entrance price, we thought we'd give it a go and glad we did! It was refreshing to know what we were looking at for a change and how else would we have known that on finding out his wife had been involved in scandalous photos in London, the Maharaja had every newspaper with the photo destroyed. It only contained a snapshot of her ankle when she was transferring from her curtained Howdah to her curtained Rolls Royce. Tired from sightseeing we hung up our audio guides, donned a harness and zip lined over the beautiful heritage site at sunset, our christmas prezzies to each other. With the giant red ball of a sun, slipping behind the blue block houses of Jodhpur and the fort mirrored in the moat below us, it was terribly romantic and a fitting way to end Christmas day in this beautiful city. If only I didn't have that harness induced wedgey and this brown scribble on my palm. She was definitely no artist!

Christmas day was ended off back at Yogi's roof top restaurant with a very un-Christmassy, very spicy spaghetti and cheese for me and yet another thali for Dan and of course one large undercover kingfisher shared between us.

All in all a lovely Christmas day, but we both missed our families a lot and kept speculating what they'd all be up to at various times during the day. We also kept playing the 'if I could just have one food right now' game, with me salivating over a Yorkshire pudding with gravy and Dan over a roast, any roast! No chance round these parts I'm afraid, more curry and strangely spicy 'western' food for a while yet.