Indian Update

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Hello everybody,

this is my first blog while i've been away so lots of things to say but little time.

We arrived in Delhi on the 2nd March and got a taxi to the hotel, I can't tell you hw manic the roads were. It seems to be a three lane road, with no lanes, where horn is king. All you have to do is press the horn for the entire journey and you will be fine , unless someone else presses the horn and then it will be a close call, which is the majority of the time.

Unfortunately the taxi driver didn't know the location of our hotel and this travel agent said he would take us there. We accepted and this later proved to be a big mistake. He made us go back t his travel shop and spend over 2 hours discuss varies trips which we did not want, we finally caved and brought a trip to Jaipur, Agra and Varanasi. We were worried that none of the previous would actually be do-able.

After a sleepless night we hit the streets of delhi on a guided tour which included plentiful supply of information on Ghandi, followed by a visit to the Red Fort. Unfortunately the driver kept on taking us to various shops to buy gifts for our girlfriends or families (which of course he gains commision) but with a new determination we reject any offers not matter how persistant they were.

Delhi is a caotic place many people lying, sleeping in the rubbish with the cows and the many stray dogs. We were offered a variety of drugs and money exchanges. We have learnt that the best rule of thumb is to ignore everyone, which is a shame because some people are geniunly interested in the English.

On the 5th March we made our way to Jaipur, driven by the guide who took us on our tour before. He remindes us constantly that he is very poor and his daughter is dying and that they are trying to find some treatment. this i'm very suspicious of he is a good guide and does take us to the majority of places we want to go to, including the massive Amber Fort where the sun was absolutely beaming down on us and the water palace.

Today after a good nights sleep, we went around Jaipur with the highlight being the city palace which is all painted pink. Jaipur is not as busy as Delhi and we also don't get bugged as much. We walked quite a lot mainly due to the fact that we kept getting lost but we kept going left and we got somewhere in the end, still ignoring people where ever we go.

Overall, the weather has been very hot, there are lots of dodgey people and I've had a bit of Delhi belly. But I've enjoyed every bit!

Tomorrow we head to Agra stopping at the monkey temple on the way, and on the followig morning at sunrise we are going to visit the Taj Mahal!

Hopefully I will update this again soon, and that you are all well.

Till next time, Namaste.

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