Hi All

Last time we wrote to you from Agra. The next day we travelled 8.5 hours to Rathembhore Tiger Safari Park and stayed for two nights. Whilst on route we saw a different side to India a contrast to city life in Delhi and Agra. Indias countryside is spectacular for so many reasons...it is tranquil and peaceful and the people are humble and hardworking. We noticed that the men were sitting in groups most of the time whilst the women were in the fields carrying heavy goods and doing manual work!!

Whilst on route we passed a small village that was renound in India for prostitution. To our amazement there wer young girls no more than 14 years of age sitting on wire beds outside shacks beckoning passing cars to come to them! Our driver told us these girls were sold to men (pimps) who used them for this service and the family gainned money from this. We were both quite disturbed as it seemed a million miles from the holy people we had met.

On arriving in Rathembhore we enjoyed a game of cards with the locals and sat in the beautiful gardens surrounding us for hours just chatting and laughing with both other travellers and the locals. The next morning were we up at 5:45 it was sooo cold we had to have blankets wrapped around us whilst on the open top 4 x4 on the way to the National Park for a safari trek. The scenery was spectaular with an abundance of parrots, peacocks, vultures, monkeys, deer, blue bull....etc we even saw a leopard!! whcih apparantly is a luck thing...however he ran mighty quick away from the jeep!! We did not manage to see any tigers but had a fab day anyway. That evening we went out for dinner with other travellers from England and New Zealand, they gave us loads of tips that have come in handy.

We both have to say that the food is fab!! We are eating as the locals do and have not had any western food since we arrived!!! Dhal Fry is a fav along with Aloo Sag and Gobi...we have tried so many dishes in different parts each one great in its own way!!! Al had a banana sweet pancake yesterday in Pushkar that was sooo nice!!!

We left Rathembhore the next day and travelled 5 hours to the Holy City Pushkar .....We loved it. This was the best place we have been to yet. It was so peaceful (no alcohol, smoking or meat was prohibited but we still had fab time) our hotel was really nice set in traditional Indian Gardens...(Master Paradise) there was no pushy locals (apart from a few priests!!! or so they said) and we could happily browse the bazaar (sooo many bargins we should have brought empty suitcase!!!). Paul was fascinated by the moneys about 60 roam freely by the holy lake in Pushkar and happily walk beside you and swing around the place. Paul hannd fed a few, Al watched!! (Ha).....The day we arrived in Pushkar we went on a camel safari in the desert and watched the sun set. It was a really hippy/romantic place and we'd advise anyone to take a trip there!!

At present we arrived in Jaipur today only a 3 hour trip. We went on an elephant ride to Amber Fort but were not happy with the way that the elephant's were treated. The mahout (guy in charge of elephant) kept hitting our elephant on the head with an iron bar, it was so cruel you could hear the crack of the lash!!! We got off and refused to tip the guy....never ever again. It was only afterwards when we read our lonely planet guide did we discover this is an issue the government are trying to tackel as the elephants are very badly treated near the fort!!

We said goodbye to our driver Happy today he has gone back to Delhi so we are on our own until we get plane to Mumbai on wednesday!! Our phones still are not working so we cannot text or call anyone (AL says happy birthday to Michelle and Vicky...sorry emails have not been sending from here!! )

Still unable to download our pics but we hope to do this soon.

Continue to leave messages and we will try to reply as soon as we can.

Love Al and Paul xxxxx