Jaipur

Our first experince of Indian trains was great - we got to the Delhi Station in plenty of time so we could work everything out- unfortunately our train wasn't on the departures board so I got in the very long queue for the tourist info while max asked about for some advice. Turns out we were at the complete wrong station so we had to hot foot it to the other side of Delhi in a tuk tuk!!!! we made the train with about a minute to spare!! What idiots!!!

The train journey it self was cool, we had comfy seats and we bought a Chai from the chai seller and generally just chilled out. we arrived in Jaipur in the dark so we coudl nt see the pinkness but our guest house- Krishna Palace- was lovely and clean and guess what HOT WATER!!!! brilliant!!!!

We thought Jaipur woudl be easier to walk around than Delhi as it is smaller, we set off to the main sights on foot but soon realised this was not to be and we jumped in a tuk tuk after walking down a very smelly dirty street which ld to a fly over. The traffic in Jaipur is even crazier than Delhi!!

We did a walking tour around the sights from the Lonely Planet- we managed to get ourselves a bit lost on the way - but once back on track we climbed a huge minaret with views of the city- ISWARI MINAR SWARGA SAL- this was where Iswari Singh's 21 wives and concubines committed suicide upon his death and we went inside an Observatory which was full of huge buildings and structures meauring the sun, horoscopes, planets etc it was relly cool but may as well have been written in a foreign language for me as the plaques explaining it all in English were pretty sciencey!!! Arfa would have loved it!!

We had an early dinner at a veggie restaurant called LMB which was rammed full of Indian families- a promising sign!!! Food was delicious and we tried some rajasthani specials including a really yummy potatoe dish!

We started our competition on 25/02/2011 - the card game shithead- so far the total stands at Durbs 4 max 1 whoop whoop. I am being taught chess and I have so far lost both games!

On our second and final day in Jaipur we went to visit NAHARGARH which is a lovely old fort up in the hills overlooking Jaipur we had to trek 2km up a zig zagging path to get to it (our calves ached a bit the next day) but it was worth it. Just about getting used to the stares now although I still dont like it when young boys try to brush past me!!

We left Jaipur for Agra on a very very early train so that we could get to Agra in time for Max to suss out where he was going to watch blues vs Arsenal. Unfortunately the hotel didnt have the right channel but they did have a good internet connection so he was able to stream it and watch his team win!!! Birmingham are the winners of the Carling Cup!! brill (I had gotten confused and thought it was the semi final for some reason- I was very ill with Delhi Belly/ Jaipur Jinx whatever you want to cll it so i blame that on my dimness!!)

So we are now in Agra and tommorow (I need another days rest after being ill) we will go and check out the Taj Mahal- watch this space!!!)

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