hello everyone!

well at the end of the last blog we had just arrived and settled in udiapur. the following day we spent in udiapur also. got up early and headed to a little cafe called 'sunrise' that was through someones back yard and up about 5 different staircases; felt like we were sat on top of the city when we got up there! werent high enough to be above the noise of inidia though - it seems practically impossible to find peace in this country! had a cracking breakfast though (beans on toast - yipee!) but the coffee was another fake indian coffee which is never what you want, especially when you are waking up to all that noise! anyway...!

after breakfast we headed to city palace - aparantly a must see attraction but we paced through it - we have seen so many really good museums, forts and palaces and this one really was the poor relation. it definitely felt like a missuse of time when we have so much we want to see and do in each of the places we touch down in. we did some shopping afterwards in the bazaar - charlotte has bought lots of handmade books - will be posting them home in the next couple of days as cant carry them all! we bought a couple ready made and then stumbled across a father-son run shop where they make up the books individually for you; sat and chose through the patchwork covers and then chose the papaer to put inside and the ribbon to tie them; watched him make the boks up then and he even wrote charlotte a message in hindi in the front. was a pretty special experience. :)

had a bit of an issue with the credit cardsd in the afternoon - still unable to get cash out the atms we found an exhange bureau to give cash from credit card - which seemed to go well until an hour after receieving the cash, the (very harassed) shop owner tracked us down on his scooter and begged us to come back to the shop with him as our payment hadnt cleared. again our backs were immediately up, thinking we were about to become part of another scam (we have been so paranoid about this the whole time but so far this attitude has kept us out of too much trouble!) but the poor guy was genuine - he had handed over the equivalent of 5 months salary for one of his shop workers to us and receievd no payment! anyway - got hold of the banks and all is up and running again - banks are happy, we are happy, shop keeper very happy! :)

in the afternoon, our driver took us to a little village just on the otherside of the lake called shilpagram. it was set up by ghandi to show visitors what it is like in the countryside in different areas of india and families from all over inida come to the village on a rotation system to perform their arts and crafts which they are paid for. the whole thing felt very staged and a bit unnecessary for us as we have been to a lot of the countryside in rajasthan but it seemed a very good project and we donated by purchasing a few unnescessary gifts from some of them (charlotte's glass 'zoo in a box' perhaps being the most questionable - still it has provide serious chuckles every time we get them out so must be worth something!)

festival time in india on this day (again!) so lots of dancing, music, fireworks, parades, shouting and singing. the noise, particulaly down the little streets had been ongoing all day! somehwat harassed, we decided to take a rickshaw round the opther side of the lake for dinenr at the trident hilton, poshing it up!!! cannot describe quite how wonderful it felt to be sat in a spacious, practicaly silent bar and sip on a cocktail! the food on the beffet was good - we were particulaly excited to see salads and charlotte was elated to see puddings! the banana crumble has plastered smiles on our faces!

the following morning we were up early, had breakfats in a great little place, cafe eddleweis, which did the most fantasic, REAL filter coffee! and good buns - so we invested in one for our journey! which was a good job becasue we didnt get to the next destination until 3pm. feeling tired and charlotte a bit homesick (not fussy on which home!) today. arrived in pushkar at 3pm and the hotel we were given is an absolute HOLE! not impressed at all - the grease marks on the wall behind the bed where a million people have put their heads before us was especially groce!

headed to a place called little italy at the end of our hotel road; peace resides heer in this little garden restaurant and the pizza (although you would not rave about at home at all) was a little touch of heaven - felt like hom eating pizza! althoguh it was harveys first ever veggie pizza - no meat, eggs, alcohol or kising in pushkar!

walked into the town and were immediately accosted by 'religious poeple' giving us flowers and asking us to come down to the lake to put them in. charlotte took immediate dislike and distrust towards the men so she waited at the top of the ghats with the shoes while harvey bravely headed down as he didnt want to seem insulting towards the local people's beliefs. it turns out the only insult going on is the one to actual religious people. the man performing harveys 'ceremony' asked him to count how many really close family and friends he had and then demanded at least 5 quid a head to ensuer furture happiness and safety in life! he continued to refuse, despite their pushiness as he told them from the beginning that he wouldnt be donating and that he believes religion is not dependent upon your financial contribution towards it.

had a browse round the market stalls and charlotte has invested in a couple more oompa loompa pants. went to a cafe called rainbow - very cool and chilled out - the food here is quite diverse so which there was an option we chose mexican and israeli food! it was very good.

back at the hotel in the evening, we were so grateful for the empty duvet cases we brought as we slept inside them - no way we were touching the sheets! and we had to request a move in the middle of the night; we were lying there, feeling geenrally uncomfortable anyway and itching previous mosquito bites when we realised the itchiness was not just from them - the bed was crawling in bugs - all different shapes, sizes and colours! we were moved but barely slept after this - it kinda has you on edge!

very glad to get up the next mornign and leave the hotel. you will be impressed to hear that we left the hotel at 6am and walked for an hour and a half, trekking up a mountian to see the sunrise. was well worth it, the views from up here were great and the monkesy were pretty cool too! apart from one who bard his teeth at charlotte so she ran down the mountain in her socks away from it. and harvey stood there laughign! (only socks on for charlotte because shoes rubbing - big blisters! )

we had a wonderful breakfast at baba cafe - nutella and banana pancake was to die for! did some more shopping and then headed back to the hotel and collected swim stuff. our hotel has a pool but there was no way we were swimming in it! so we headed to jagat palace hotel and snuck in for a swim in there really awesome pool! felt amazing! :) back to baba cafe for lunch (harvey drove the cycle rickahw abnd the driver sat in the back with me! the locals thought this was hilarious!) and had a 'hello to the queen' for desert - utterly amazing! headed off to jaipur after this; found we had warmed to the chilled out vibe of the town by the time we had left but certainly not to the hotel!

arrived in jaipur, capital of rajasthan last night and immediately requested a hotel change - we were not putting up with rubbish again after last night! sometimes we question the backpacker credibility in this but then remind oursleves that we have paid a lot for this trip so intend on getting our moneys worth!! hotel we are in now is better. had a great meal last night at 'copper chimney'. we got a cycle rickshaw back to the hotle by this old man who was o sweet - it took him ages to get us home and we felt so guilty - harvey was particually taken by him (and the old man by harveys big arms - a constant souce of fascination to people here - 'are you a wrestler' has been asked many a time!!!) and we tipped him heavily to cover the cost of his rickshaw rental (a whole 1.50 sterling)- it was nothign to us but if you could have seen the man's face - he was made up.

off out for dinner with our guide now so will fill in on today a bit later,

love to all xxxxxxxxx