Sorry for the delay, we've been to busy enjoying ourselves to keep this updated, as you will read...

Day 4 - 4th November 2010 (Jaipur)

It was very difficult getting up this morning and we ended up snoozing the alarm.We were the last ones down for breakfast, meaning that it was slim pickings!We had aloo paratha again, but this time with vegetable curry (curry for breakfast we hear you say... it worked and was very yummy!).When we got back to the room Jen fell asleep sprawled across the bed (losing those 5½ hours is taking its toll).As we were both pretty tired we just chilled and weren't ready to explore until around midday.

Venturing out into the streets of Jaipur we found a rickshaw driver that would take us to Amber Fort.On the way we saw our first camels and elephants (very smelly) and drove past the Jai Mahal (Lake Palace), which was beautiful.

When we arrived at Amber Fort the first thing we noticed was the stunning garden, on what we later found out was an artificial lake.We then found ourselves a guide named Raju (the elephant rides up were too expensive), who took us the long way round to the fort so that we could see some of the temples in the old part of the town (along with the usual stop at a "friend's "shop for us to buy something... so we bought 2 postcards and a soft drink!). A few times we were a bit worried about where Raju was taking us as some of the temples were really quiet or closed to mass tours, but everything worked out, as the temples he took us to were amazing and so worth it!

When we got to the top, Raju left us and we bought tickets (we ended up paying too much for these as Krish forgot the ISIC cards which would have given us discount!).We spent the next 3 hours exploring the fort, getting lost a few times along the way!The views from the fort were spectacular and we took so many pictures.

After the fort we headed back to the hotel and chilled for a bit.We then had some dinner (you guessed it, we had curry again) and decided to go for a wander though the bazaars.We thought it would be a good idea to walk, but 10/15 minutes later we realised that it was further than we thought(and not a very nice walk) so got a rickshaw the rest of the way.

The main city streets around the bazaars were all lit up like it was Christmas (or Diwali in LeicesterJ).One half of the street was closed off to traffic and there were so many people!We went into a few shops where Jen bought an Indian top, a sari and 2 pairs of Indian trousers (Aladdin style - just like she wanted!).

We then got a rickshaw back to the hotel (no thoughts of walking this time) and didn't go to bed until 1am as we stupidly started watching a film! Another late alarm was set so that we wouldn't miss breakfast...

Day 5 - 5th November 2010 (Diwali in Jaipur)

HAPPY DIWALI !! J

This morning we went to the Tourist Information Centre which was the other side of town.We hadn't been here before and it was full of really posh shops, selling Plasma TVs to brands such as Levi and Nike.The Tourist Information Centre couldn't help us so we didn't stay here long.

We then got a rickshaw to Jantar Mantar.This area holds some of the oldest Astrological instruments in the world, built around the 1720s.At the heart of the area is a spectacular sundial, it was built so big and accurate it can tell the time to the nearest 2 seconds.We paid for a guide for this and it was well worth it as he was able to explain how each instrument worked.

In the same area was the Hawa Mahal which we were able to walk to, but on the way we got sidetracked at a nice shop.The shop keepers were quite friendly and didn't pile on the pressure, which was a welcome change to the usual custom.We bought a few things that we are going to send home in a package once we get to Udaipur (Krish got a very Indian shirt and Jen bought some scarves and a skirt).

The Hawa Mahal, nicknamed the Palace of the Winds due to there being a welcome breeze when you get to the top, is probably the most recognisable building in Jaipur due to its distinctive architecture and pink colour.It is 5 stories tall and overlooks one of the main roads, so we got some really cool photos of the bustling street and the rooftops of the city.

After we finished at the Hawa Mahal it was too late to check out any other attractions so we walked along some of the nearby local shop fronts to have a look at all the local products they were selling.We saw shops selling steel plates, pots and pans, religious statues, safes and tailors using foot operated machines, it was really interesting to look at.We found a shop selling some cool things to send home and bought a plug adaptor too as Jen managed to blow the fuse on one of our travel plugs using the hairdryer! J

By this point it was starting to get late and a little bit dark.It was at this time that we decided to go back to the hotel as, if the fireworks we saw on the previous couple of nights were anything to go by, it was going to get pretty crazy in a bit.We can imagine that the fire and ambulance service will be pretty busy tonight...

As we ate dinner (surprisingly we didn't have curry and opted for chips, spaghettiand chow mein), we watched all of the Diwali fireworks from the safety of the hotel rooftop.We were enjoying sitting outside as there was a really good atmosphere so to extend our time on the roof we 'had to' order dessert (we had Gulab Jambu and chai)!

After the excitement of the fireworks it was time to go to bed but we ended up staying up late again watching Dark Knight (stupid HBO channel showing good films till late!).It was also quite hard to sleep as the fireworks went on all night!

Day 6 - 6th November (Indian New Year in Jaipur)

After breakfast, the first thing we did was go to the Birla Lakshmi Narayan Temple to get our blessings for the Indian New Year.Again, this was another stunning temple, made from marble, with some lovely stained glass windows.

We then tried to go to the museum at the Albert Hall but this was closed as it was a national holiday.It was a very nice building although it was covered with a crazy amount of pigeons (and we aren't fans of pigeons!).

As the Albert Hall was closed we went straight to the City Palace, where Rajasthan royalty still resides.It was a very cool building, full of history.There were lots of paintings, textiles and weapons to see.It was very well looked after for any standards but especially for Indian standards.

The only sight left on the student composite ticket that we bought at Jantar Mantar (we remembered the ISIC cards this time!) was Naharargh Fort (aka Tiger Fort).We hailed a rickshaw and asked to go to the fort. At the beginning of the journey we had a worrying feeling that we were going in the wrong direction, so we asked the driver again and showed him our ticket.He checked in his book and realised that he got mixed up, he thought we wanted to go to the monkey temple (good job we were paying attention and double checked).So we turned around and headed to the place we actually wanted to go to.There road there was very long and extremely bumpy (it hurt a lot!) but it was worth it as the view from the fort was breathtaking, you could see across the whole of Jaipur!The fort itself was actually run down quite a bit and was a bit seedy (it was full of graffiti of "boys name" loves "girls name and there were lots of monkeys stealing food from the cafe)!The original plan was to stay and watch the sunset from the restaurant they have there but it didn't feel like the kind of place we would want to be in after dark so we headed back (the rickshaw driver who took us up there kindly waited for us and took us back.).

For dinner we went to the rooftop restaurant at The Hotel Pearl Palace (thanks Katy for recommending).Immediately you could tell that it was a Lonely Planet Guide top tip as it was very busy and full of backpacker style tourists from countries all over the world.It probably deserves it though as from what we saw it was nice and clean and the food was excellent (we dared to try some paneer, it was yummy and we didn't get any stomach problems either!).

After we finished dinner we had to try and get back to our hotel, which unfortunately was on the other side of the city (and there was the added complication of the main city roads being closed due to the festival).The first driver refused to take us for this reason, and the second tried to charge us 350inr for using the smaller back roads (we knew this was too much as it only cost us 50inr to go from the hotel to the temple that morning which was a similar, if not further, distance).Jen managed to get it down to 200inr by actually walking away and asking someone else how much they would charge JWe eventually went with the second guy, who was a mental driver and had a really quick rickshaw, it was the scariest ride we had had so far... we still managed to get back in one piece though!

When we got back it was another late night as we ended up watching "2012".We've suddenly realised that we've actually watched a similar amount of films this week to what we have watched this whole year!

Day 7 - 7th November (Jaipur to Jodhpur)

We checked out of our hotel and were feeling a bit sad as we've been having such a great time in Jaipur, but we had to remind ourselves that this trip is all about seeing the whole world, not just one city!

We arrived at the train station half an hour early for our train to Jodhpur, only to find that it had been delayed by 1hr 40mins.It was a long wait and Krish's ass fell asleep on the uncomfortable chairs.On the plus side; it gave us some time to catch up on our journal/blog.

After what turned out to be a 2 hour delay we found ourselves in an AC 3 tier class carriage, luckily there was no-one else sat in the same area so we had somewhere to keep the bags.As the train set off we realised that we were finally on our way from the Pink City to the Blue City...The train journey was again uneventful but we managed to play our first lot of cards (probably the first of many!) and Jen read a bit of one of the books on her Kindle.

As the train was delayed our arrival into Jodhpur ended up being in the dark so we would have to wait until the morning to see the blueness.As we have grown accustomed to, we were approached by a rickshaw driver at the station, literally as we were stepping off the train. His price seemed reasonable so we jumped in and it only took 5 minutes around the tight winding streets of Jodhpur to get to "The Blue House Guest House".

When we arrived at the hotel we were greeted by Manish (a very nice man) who gave us a tour before showing us to our room.There are many levels of the hotel and we are lucky enough to have bagged one of the rooms on the top floor with fort views (and we could see a lot of blue so we couldn't wait until the morning to see the rest of the city). As it was dinner time we went straight to the rooftop restaurant (there's a theme here and we want to try and keep it going), which had a secondary level that has 360 degree views of the city.We decided to make use of this view by getting up early the next morning to catch the sunrise so had an early night... (plus there was no tv so HBO movies couldn't distract us!).

Day 8 - 8th November (Jodhpur)

It was an early start as we had stupidly set our alarm so that we could see the sunrise.Manish told us that this would happen around 6.30am, so there we were in our PJs on the rooftop waiting...Around an hour later we got our first glimpse of the sun, it turns out that it's so dusty/hazy in Jodhpur that you can't actually see the sunrise! LOn the plus side we did get to the see fort and all of the blue that Jodhpur is so famous for.

After a rest/nap we went to get some breakfast.We were sad that that they didn't have parantha on the breakfast menu so we had Nutella on toast instead, our first taste of chocolate since our stash from Ma and Mum ran out!

Luckily we caught Manish on the way out (actually it wasn't luck, we needed to book a car for the next day anyway), as he said we could have a car/driver for the day to show us the sights of Jodhpur for only 500inr.We thought this was a bargain as the guidebook suggested that it would maybe cost more, and we only had the one day so it was worth it.

The first stop was Umaid Bhawan Palace & Musuem.This place was pretty impressive as it is made out of sandstone and is mortarless, and is kept in immaculate condition (although it has to be as the current Maharaja still lives in part of the building and the rest has been converted into a grand hotel).We particularly liked the galleries as many of the portraits made it feel like a shrine to 2pac... J

After this we stopped at a pricey textile shop where we probably shouldn't have bought anything, but we did as they had some really nice stuff, so we now have some wall hangings for our house when we find one!

Next we went to Mandore Gardens where there were some nice gardens and some old temples, oh, and shed load of monkeys!We got a funny video of one monkey lying like a star on it's front, being groomed by 2/3 others.

Our final stop was the huge fort, Mehrangargh.We took the audioguide as the book recommended, it was well worth it and it was very well done.On top of that the views were spectacular, we could see across the whole of the blue city.It took so long to get around the fort that we ran out of time to see the Jaswant Thada, a white marble memorial.

Ramu, our driver, took us back to the hostel, but he forgot to take us to the clock tower and markets so we made our own way there later.We had a nice wander round and managed to buy some more stuff including a nice silk bed cover which we managed to buy for a little over half of the original asking price, our battering skills are improving!

For dinner we went to a restaurant that was owned by the same family that ran the hostel we were staying in.The food was amazing and very cheap, but unfortunately we can't remember the name of it!

Afterwards we made our way back to the hostel, we packed up and got an early night as it was going to be an early morning, the driver was going to pick us up at 8am...

Day 9 - 9th November (Jodhpur to Udaipur via Ranakpur)

We were a bit late in setting off as it took ages for our 9 slices of Nutella on toast to come.We didn't end up leaving till after 8.30am.

Our dirver's name was Anesh and he was ex-army.This was the sum total of information we got out of him , but we were glad we had him and the car as we had acquired a fair amount of stuff over the previous days to send home.

It took us around 6 hours to get to Udaipur as we stopped at Ranakpur on the way.We visited Chaumukha Mandir, one of the biggest and most important Jain temples in the whole of India.It is made from milk-white marble and has 1444 pillars, of which no 2 are the same.The journey was quite nice as we saw a lot of rural India and some small towns.

After arriving at the city of Udaipur it took quite a while to find our hotel.Anesh, as nice as he was, kept asking for directions to 'Lal Bhat' instead of 'Lal Ghat' which was the area that we were staying in!!!

Finally we got to our hotel, the Jagat Niwas Palace Hotel.We didn't get a chance to view any of the better rooms or suites as we had planned as everything was fully booked.It was probably a good thing actually as our room was pretty nice (with a lake view) and we would have spent money unnecessarily.The hotel itself was really nice, the food was great and the location was prime.We did feel let down by the staff as we found that their manner was not as nice and friendly as the staff from the previous hotels we had stayed in.

We made the most of our very large window seat as we ended up sleeping on it, it was a really cool place to sleep! J

Day 10 - 10th November (Udaipur)

In the morning we were rudely awakened by the pigeons outside our window.There must have been around 5 of them sleeping there overnight and they had decided that since they were awake, we should be....After having peanut butter on toast for breakfast (we think it should have been named the other way around 'peanut butter with a little bit of toast'), we headed in the direction of the City Palace...

The City Palace was very nice although it was far too busy to enjoy (it was Gujarati holidays so there were lots of them holidaying in Udaipur).At one point we actually got pushed around to get out of some of the courtyards.To be honest after seeing so many palaces and forts it all begins to look the same.This wasn't one of the better kept sites so in the end we just tried to get through as quick as possible.It was also the first time we started to feel uncomfortably hot and sticky.We decided to cool off in the shade of the bar/restaurant, which was a very nice place where we could escape the frantic bustle of the palace.

From the palace complex we got a boat for a lake 'safari'.There was not much wildlife spotting but it was a good place to get a view of the palaces on the lakes and to see the grandeur of the City Palace on the shore.

For the rest of the afternoon we just chilled.We went for a walk around the shops and picked up the clothes from a local tailor shop which we had ordered the previous day.The tailor shop was a family run business run by two brothers, Hemant and Manish.We bought 2 dresses (one for travelling and one to send home), 2 tops and a pair of trousers (all for travelling), all made to measure for less than £20, what a bargain!

The rest of the time we chilled until dinner time.At dinner we ate on the rooftop.It was a really nice table with spectacular views across the lake, very romantic.Dinner was not as good as the previous night but we make up for it by having chocolate pancakes for dessert JIn between courses we played around with the camera and took some really cool photos.

We slept on the window seat again, and as we had a tv, our old faithful HBO was on in the background...

Day 11 - 11th November (Udaipur to Ranthambhore)

Again, we were woken up by the dirty pigeons and we had to quickly pack up our bags for a stupidly early checkout of 10am!The hotel did however let us leave our bags with them.

After checkout we took our package to send home to the Post Office.Apparently it weighed the best part of 10kg.Actually we believed it after seeing no money in the wallet again!We ended up sending via courier through some dodgy shop off the street.Maybe it was us being cynical, but we should wait until the package gets home before making up our minds!

We had some time to kill before we had to catch our train, so we chilled in the hotel restaurant. We had some food and drinks in one of the window seats and spent ages watching, what we thought was, birds of prey.They were swooping, diving and gliding right outside the window, we think there was a nest really close by, we managed to get some pictures and a video.

We caught our train to Sawai Madhopur without any hick-ups.We were travelling first class again, but this time we had the pleasure of sharing a cabin with Mr and Mrs Sharma, an Indian couple who were living/working in Kuwait.They were in India visiting family, and we had a really good time talking to them about food, India and family etc.It was so good to find ourselves with such nice, laid back people.They were so kind that they even offered us some of their packed dinner they had brought along.We had some parantha with dry potato curry complete with pickles, it was delicious!It was a night train to Delhi in which we were getting off half way though.We did sleep a bit but it was hard to relax knowing we had to wake up at 1am to get off the train.We managed to get up on time and we snuck out of the cabin to avoid waking up Mr and Mrs Sharma.

Sawai Madhopur is the closest train station to Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve.The station itself was probably the worst we had seen in India, it was the middle of the night and the platform was full of people sleeping on the floor, benches, where ever there was space.Luckily we had someone picking us up as it is not somewhere you would want to hang around long for.

We were staying at a hotel called 'Tiger Safari Resort' which we were a bit apprehensive about as after we booked it (after looking at the Lonely Planet book), we stupidly looked at trip advisor and the place had far from good reviews LThe place itself was actually ok, not as bad as the reviews/experiences other people had.The guy checking us in was quite funny, he was asleep on the couch in the reception as we arrived and one of the other 'boys' had to pull the cover off him and take the pillow from underneath him to wake him up.It was around 2am when we got to sleep...

Day 12 - 12th November (Tiger Safaris)

Our wake-up call was at 5.30am, aka silly o'clock in the morning!We had some chai and biscuits as a snack before getting on an open top canter to head off to the National Park.This was the first of our 2 safaris of the day.

The safari was pretty rubbish as we didn't see any of the tigers that lived in the park and we got absolutely drenched as the heavens decided to open.We did see some other cool animals but none no-where near as cool as tigers.

The second safari was a bit more exciting as we saw paw prints and heard a warning call from one of the other animals.It was a bit more fun but we still didn't get to see any tigers.Apparently there was one about 30m away from us, but as it is winter there was too much green for us to see anything.Chances of seeing a tiger were allegedly 30-40% whereas in the summer it's pretty much guaranteed! JAgain we saw some other animals including some crocs and the view from the lake in the park was out of this world!

As there is nothing else to do in the area we just spent the evening in the hotel and got chatting with one of the managers, Rahul. We found out that he's actually from Navsari in Gujarat, which is the same area as Krish's family.He was really nice and said that we should give him a call when we go there so that we can say hi.The food they served was fantastic, up there with the best.

Day 13 - 13th November (Ranthambhore to Agra)

Today was the day we travelled to Agra and since we couldn't get on any more safaris we slept in.We woke up late, had some tasty breakfast and headed out to try and find a cash point.It was baking hot and quite sticky, and the only cash point we could find that was working was back at the train station a few km away!By this point we were too hot and tired to walk back so we took the lazy option and got a rickshaw back.

We did some more chilling and watched some cricket while we waited for the train.The train to Agra was pretty boring and it felt like the longest train journey ever!We also got stuck in the same cabin as some train workers who decided to talk quite loudly all night.We did however have a lovely dinner as we sneakily packed some of the lunch we ordered, parantha and jeera aloo (dry potato), thanks Mr and Mrs Sharma for the idea, it was so good.

When we arrived in Agra we were greeted by, what seemed like, some reasonable rickshaw drivers.They quoted an over-inflated price (like they all do) but we were too tired to barter hard so we just got in, and one guy left to catch the next lot of arrivals.Straight away the driver tried to sell us his services for a tour the next day, but we declined which he wasn't happy about.It turned out he was a b*****d, we think that because we didn't hire him for the next day he decided he didn't want to take us all of the way to our hotel and dropped us 'around the corner'.He said that he couldn't go any further because of the restrictions around the Taj Mahal but it turned out that our hotel was outside of the restrictions and could be accessed from another direction.On top of this he also hit/clipped someone on the street on the way, they got in a big argument, we thought it was about to kick off but fortunately someone saw that we were tourists and let the driver be on his way.Oh, and we forgot that he b*****d tried to short change us and asked for a 50inr tip, the cheek!

The hotel we stayed at was the Taj Plaza Hotel, which was really nice and walking distance to the Taj.

So... this is what we have typed up so far, the rest has been written in our journal, so hopefully we'll get a chance to update fairly soon (complete with some more pics!!).

Love Jen and Krish x