We want cake!

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Driving along the highway, probably the smoothest road we've been on yet. On the way to Agra, it's the last night with our driver.

Yesterday, feeling a little tired of curry for breakfast, lunch and dinner Lisa and I decided we wanted cake. We asked our driver to take us to a cafe called Chic Chocolate that sells Black Forest Cake and reccommended by the trusty LP. Instead of taking us to the one we wanted, he set out to find another 'bakery' with cake. After driving down back streets basically uninhabited by foreigners, we arrived at a dark and dirty looking shop. "Here we get cake" our driver says to us. We dubiously enter the shop where the owner has excitedly placed about 5 large birthday cakes on the counter. Lisa and I look at each other and laugh. It's not exactly the type of cake we were expecting. We try to explain to our driver that we want a slice of cake. Seeming like he understands, he gets back into the car to take us to another cake shop. Around a few more back streets and we arrive at another shop that looks very similar to the first one. More birthday cakes! Beautifully iced with white icing and green and red ribbon. We give up on our quest for a slice of cake and decide that while in India, we'll just have to settle for the out of date Cadbury chocolate to satisfy our sweet tooth. We decide to buy some chocolate here instead, feeling a bad that our driver has gone to great lengths to helps us, only for us to be disappointed.

Later that evening, we decide to go for a walk down the road from our hotel to the Water Palace. It's all beautifully lit up and there is a nice boardwalk along the water where locals sit around enjoy the balmy night air. Across the road, attached to a petrol station we notice a large, brightly lit red sign that says "CAFE" Lured by it's somewhat Western appearance, we venture across the 4 lanes of crazy traffic, dodging the motorbikes and rickshaws as we go. We enter the cafe, and with smiles and exclamations of both surprise and delight we discover Coffee Day. Coffee Day looks like a Starbucks inside. Low lying armchairs and coffee tables, with a LCD TV playing the England vs Australia cricket match in Lords Park, London. It has a glass cabinet filled with cakes and muffins and brownies. Delighted to have found a small piece of home here in the middle of Jaipur, capital of Rajasthan we order two lattes and two chocolate brownies, heated and topped with icecream and chocolate sauce. Relaxing in one of the low reclining chairs, we laugh at how this crazy country has blown our expectations once again.

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