6th October - We took an early morning train from Delhi to Agra which to our suprise was very comfortable- but we were on 'chair class'. We were served tea and biscuits followed by an Indian breakfast, all very nicey nice. The train station at both ends was unsuprisingly packed with people sleeping here there and everywhere and we were jumped on by rickshaw drivers in Agra all desperate to take us to our destination for a much inflated price. Nat and I have learnt well since our first arrival in India and we know how to get a good bargain despite still looking like clueless travellers! We've not been loving being on an organised tour anymore, it's nice but we've preferred to go it alone as we've had much better days doing this so far. We found a nice cycle rickshaw guy called 'Lala' who spoke enough english to get us around - 20 rupees by the hour to take us around Agra was a bargain we couldnt resist and you get to see so much more going a little slower on a cyle rickshaw. I still worry about the skinnyness of these guys though but they seem to manage towing us around, this guys teeth were AWFUL though - he must have been in pain they were rotting down to the root... Our first stop - Taj Mahal. In India they charge massively inflated prices for foreign tourists, 750 rupees compared to 20 for Indian tourists for the Taj - cheek! The Taj was well worth it though, unlike most other monuments here it's been so well maintained and it really is like you see in the pictures. It stood serenely at the end of the neat ornamental gardens to the front, perfect symmetrey and bright white marble. Aside from it being so magnificent, what was also memorable was that Nat and I had suddenly become celebrities. We were mobbed from all angles by Indian tourists (of all ages and sexes) wanting to have their picture with two pasty white girls! You could see people who didn't dare ask us taking sneakysneaky pictures of us instead, it was absolutely crazy, but we obliged. I could definitely never be famous however, how annoying. Lala was patiently waiting for us and we proceeded to the Agra Fort and across the Yamuna River to the Baby Taj. We ended up wandering around a wholely local bazaar selling mainly fruit and vegetables and freshly made indian snacks. My best bartering yet is 4 bananas for 10 rupees which is pretty good! We chatted with some locals over a cup of chai and went on home, hitting the rushhour traffic on our way. This was no problem though, we just practised a bit of Hindi with people queuing next to us, which they fouind highly amusing. An all round successful day, we felt like we'd got a very good taste of the real Agra.

7th October - We set off on a local bus to Jaipur today, the 'Pink City'. Testament to the small world it is, also staying here were 2 of the guys from our Africa tour! We did an orientation walk through the old city through a huge stretch of bazaars - hte best we'd seen yet. Just like a supermarket it was sectioned according to what they were selling. Women sat on the side of the street organising their fruit and veg stalls, men mixed up ingredients for Indian sweets in MASSIVE wok type pans, men sold garlands of flowers, locals dyed fabrics in the brightest colours, shops were filled with every spice you could ever wish for. Jaipur already seemed even more colourful than anywhere we'd been yet.

8th October - Nat and I had another authentic tour today and we loved Jaipur. We wandered into the old city and visited the Hawa Mahal (palace of winds) a gorgeous pink palace built to allow ladies of the royal household to look out of the many tiny shuttered windows in order to watch the world go by (they weren't allowed to be seen).The views of the old city from up here were beautiful and we had our own free tour guide in Raj a guy we had met previously. Raj ended up taking us round to all the places we wanted to see in the city. We had lassi at a famous lassi establishment and had Indian sweets. We had some chai with a couple of locals, one of which it ends up his brother lives in HALIFAX, so he gave him a call and i had a nice chat with him - strangely nice to hear a yorkshire accent again! We then went to watch the lastest Bollywood offering at the Raj Mandir cinema - world famous for Bollywood films and visited by many Indian tourists from across the country. The film was all in Hindi with no subtitles but we understood it all due to its typically cheesy, simple plot - basically a cross between 'she's the man' and 'bend it like beckham'. So good though! In true Indian style the experience wasn't complete without the electric cutting out - 4 times! Popcorn was 25 rupees - small bit cheaper than Odeon ja. In the evening we went for dinner with some of our new local friends and had traditional Rajstani Thali (like tapas but with curries) and all for free for a pre birthday treat from Raj - nice! Not long til my birthday now :-)

9th October - A big thanks to Lozzy and Emm for my birthday cards which i've carried safely until this day of opening! That and Nat's pressies made me a little emotional this morning but i was excited to spend my birthday in such a different and special way. We spent the first part of it on a 4 hour local bus to Pushkar. Arriving at the nicest hotel yet in a much more chilled out place in Pushkar, i was a happy bunny. We even had a swimming pool! Pushkar is India's Holy City and Hindu's throughout the country wish to come here to bathe in the scared lake at least once in their lives. For this reason there are a lot of tourists here, but its much smaller than anywhere we've been yet so less hectic. We went on a sunset camel ride this evening along with a couple of others from our group...all was going smoothly and we rode into the desert and watched the sun setting behing the mountains...then our guide decides to make our camel ('Chris') run...the ground however was a little uneven, so Chris took a bit of a tumble, chucking us off his back along the way! The fall itself wasn't too painful, it was more the fact Nat and I had fallen into a load of prickly shrubland and the prickles (just like in Africa) stick to you like a b****. They were stuck ALL OVER us and it took the camel guides about half an hour to get them all off. The ones attached to my skin weren't the most comfortable. But yeah, I fell off a camel on my birthday. That's a story to tell. We finally got back and I was thankful to get off the camel by the end. We headed to a gorgeous rooftop restaurant where the group were waiting for us (think our group leader thought we had died or something) and we all sat on cushions off little tables - all very authentic, just how i liked it. They had got me a cake and everyone sang happy birthday in their own languages - german, french, spanish, swedish. So all round an amazing birthday, one i will remember forever without a doubt!