It aint just dirty... Its filthy!!

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Greetings from Delhi! This is now destination number 7. We have visited Pushkar, Jaipur and Agra since my last blog i think!

We stayed for 2 nights in Pushkar. Went to an Indian festival which can only be described as similar to Guy Faulks! They had a great big paper mache man who they set alight to. Was interesting to watch as they acted out the story, but we didnt really have a clue what was going on!

From Pushkar we got a bus to Jaipur- the pink city. We stayed here for 3 nights and visited 5 places. Danny enjoyed another fort! The bus journey here was interesting. We had one woman staring at us and sat next to her was a lady who was quite ill with what seemed to be a chest infection. It was ok though because she managed to smoke a joint out the window so was probably as high as a kite! On one of the local buses i sat next to a lady holding a baby. I smiled at her and said the baby was very pretty. It was only after a little while that i realised the baby had 2 thumbs on one hand. Very odd but apparently quite common here!! Freaked me out a little i must say. They cover their babies in black eye make up and save their heads. Makes them look very odd. We have seen quite a few men who have dyed their hair bright orange. Another religious thing to do apparently- they all just want to be gingers!!

Another bus then took us to Agra. This was a good bus and actually had comfortable seats! the "shanti hotel" turned out to be as described....quite shanti! But it was cheap at 300 rupees a night! We enjoyed the Agra fort and Taj Mahal. Went to see it at sunset as getting me out of bed for sunrise was out of the question!! Looks better from a distance i think. Took lots of photos! Will try to put them on there when we find a computer that will let us download them! We met a couple from New Zealand who have just finished traveling to lots of the places we will be heading to, it was nice to have dinner and chat with them about their crazy experiences!

We moved onto Delhi yesterday. It was the first train i have got here and it is a bit better than the bus! Lots of people begging and trying to sell you rubbish though! Out hotel here is just awful. We have looked at about 5 other hotels and they are all the same but more expensive! Seems that Delhi is just pure dirt. There is so much rubbish everywhere. Everything gets thrown out of the window like on the train, bus or even on a rooftop restaurant! All the men wee and spit absolutely everywhere so it stinks. Is it a lack of education or are these people just stupid that they then have to live in this mess they create!! They do it right outside their front doors. I just cant understand the way they act at times. they seem to lack common sense most of the time!

Im not really enjoying the Indian cities as much as the smaller places to be honest. Too many people and annoying rick shaw drivers! I have no patience with them and just try to ignore them now. Danny is much nicer to them! They just dont take no for an answer!!! I am still having a great time though- but India is quite hard work!!

We are heading to Varanasi on a 13 hour sleeper train on Sunday night. Will probably stay there for 3 nights before heading south. We need to investigate where the trains go and where we want to go from there. I am looking forward to heading to the south though!

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Comments

[Becky]

Hi Leah, sounds like you are having an interesting time. You are in good company if they all want to be gingers. Talking of 2 thumbs on that baby\'s hand I met a patient with 2 big toes on each foot and that was weird! Hope you are keeping well after the filthy conditions you saw - sounds vile. We have been to camber sands today it was really warm and we walked for ages with the dogs and kids it was just so warm and sunny - better than the weather in August. Ellie has just announced its 69 days til Xmas - what will you be up to I wonder! Called Grandma the other day she has a cold but was saying your mum had printed all the news you had sent so she was really excited about that. Think I caught her cold down the phone can\'t stop sneezing today. Ellie on half term and James will be in a weeks time. Keep us updated, lots of love bec xxx