Hello!!

Its been a while since I have been online. We are now back in Delhi and fly into Nepal tomorrow. We have had many an adventure since my last entry.

Since our first stop in Delhi we have been travelling around north india (more specifically the golden triangle, with an extension) by train. Our first stop was to Jaipur, southwest of Delhi. We stayed there for 4 days, in hotel outside of Jairpur, not far from the Amber Fort. At night we got great views of the fort all lit up.

Jaipur is more hilly than Delhi. Its also a lot smaller. The concept of crazy driving remains the same, but with a few more animals thrown in. There are pigs, camels, dogs, donkeys, horses, cows, goats and Elephants, not to mention the people wondering the streets!

Since Jairpur we have been using the Autorickshaws to get around, as they are much cheaper than taxi's and are good fun to travel in! The drivers of them are also friendly and wil tell you were you should go and see. However, do have to be careful not to be scammed as we were (again!) in Jaipur. They like to take you to their friends work places were they sell things like jewellry and textiles. IT comes in the form that you get a tour of the factory in which it is all made before they take you into the shop. some of the textile things we were shown though were lovely and it was interesting to see how everything was made. Something we take for granted that it is already done by the time it reaches the uk, when its all ready and packaged. The factory where we saw some workers making a table cloth really showed the labour involved, time and effort these people put in to produce what we pick up in department stores, monsoon or the like.

Ranthambhore national park was the next stop. We went on a safari tour in the morning after arrival. A very early start at 6am pick up in a jeep like van thing. Was great though, as we got to see some Indian countryside and lots of wildlife in the national park. saw a tiger, of which I have a photo of it walking away....so really just a tigers butt! There were loads of deer, antelope, peacocks, birds and one tiger. There are just 38 tigers in the 350km reserve, I think because they have problems with the locals poaching even though they are protected. It ws really nice to be out of the city and away from so many people just for a day or two.

The trains have been an experience. We worked out the Metro whilst in Delhi and I was quite impressed with it. It was very efficient, more trains than the london underground sometimes and clean! Based on this I thought the trains would be just as good! How wrong I was! They were not that bad but they were all bit old, rickety and dirty, and quite slow IO thought. We did at least have auir con. The third train journey from ranthambhore to Agra was a total c*** up! We had prior to the journey checked our seat number and coach number, but when on the train there were indian people already there who were just not going to budge. The train conductor person had a totally different set of seats on his list from what we were given, and only two seats, so there were three of us sharing the two seats.It wasnt too cramped though as they are bed like seats as they trains were sleeper trains.

We had a indians couple opposite us. They took us the whole three seats oposite us, despite there being another person on the end of their set of seats, for whom they did not move up for. We budged up and let him sit with us...teach them a few manners! Oh and the man was horrible. He burped and openly farted for most of the journey, kept giving us dark looks and made his wife feed him! Some of the rich people here are so greedy, its really horrible top see. I dont know if it is a cultural thing, but its hard to accept that people will live like that when there is so much poverty. Take Agra train station for example, there were loads of orphaned children, most with some form of disability such as cleft lip, missing limbs or they have limbs but they cant use them so they crawl along the platform on their bums. They have little in the way of clothing and no food or water. They take what opportunity they can get, so when a train comes along, as it is pulling out of the station they pull themselves on as the doorways dont have doors and sit in the steps of the door for the rest of the journey until they get some food or money from someone. Many Indians just jump on the train as it is pulling out of the station and hang on the outside of it until there is room on the train. It is bizarre!

We met a lovely Indian Guy in Agra. He is a rickshaw driver and didnt try to pull any funny stunts or cons on us. He told us about his family and agra and the good places to go and see, so we hired him for an afternoon to take us around. If only we could get autorickshaws in England....they are fun

Did the whole Taj Mahal thing...actually is a very nice place to visit. That was also an early start. Got up at 5 for that to go and see it at sunrise and so there were less people. Well thats about all for me to write atm. Sorry its not more, but little fingers cant type no more.

Tomorrow we are heading to Nepal. We are staying in Kathmandu for couple of days, then head to another little town before starting a 6 day trek in the anopura region of the himalyas..am looking forward to it. Hope to update soon.