31 Degrees and 50% Humidity!!! Help me, I'm melting!!!!!!!!

Well, since last I wrote, we have done nothing that we planned to do!!! But I guess that is what being in India is about?? Yesterday morning, we moved out of the 'damp' Homestay over to a much drier one!!! (our third Homestay since we arrived here four days ago!)
I can't remember how the rest of the day evolved but I vaguely remember spending most of the afternoon at the Travel Agents trying to get an idea on how to spend the next five weeks in Kerala!! Then we actually made it it to the Theatre to watch some Kathakalli!!
It was amazing: traditional Keralan dance/story telling. The first hour was watching the actors (no women on stage!!!) apply their make up, each character has a specific style (reminded me of Comedia Del Arte) and then we were given examples of the different facial expressions/eye movements that mean different things as well as the hand gestures, followed by a short performance of a few scenes from a famous play with a very long name and a very, very, very, very long story!!! (No not the Mahabarata!!)

 

Basically there is the Evil Man who wants to marry the princess, even though she is already married to the Five Princes who incidentally are in exhile!!!! He doesn't seem bothered and tries to seduce her, then tries to 'violate' her, then she runs off and tells her husband (well one of them) who is obviously most displeased and hatches a plan to trick the Evil Man into meeting the Princess in her bedroom and when the Evil Man turns up all excited to see the Princess, he is confronted by the Prince (well one of them) who kills him. Very, very, very slowly! The End!

After dinner - not just ours but the Mosquitoes who had enjoyed feeding off us all night! We went back to our new room, quite pleased that we had managed a good deal and the room was still as dry as it had been before.
Claudine put her ear plugs in, (don't ask) and we both went to sleep, or at least I started to when all of a sudden I could hear a slight rustling on the floor near my back pack. My heart picked up speed as I thought I heard another strange noise, then I screamed and kicked my legs out as I thought I felt something land on my feet.
So much for the ear plugs!!! Claudine was out of her bed and the light was on and we both stood staring at each other as I quietly mumbled: " I thought I felt something on the bed, but it must have been a dream, but can we leave the light on anyway?" We didn't and settled back to sleep, but I was on high alert by this point and could't even close my eyes, my heart was beating so fast I could hear the blood rushing around my head. Then I heard the rustling again and called out to Claudine that I thought it was back.
She switched the light on, again and looked across the room then screamed as she pointed to a great big mouse (or possibly a rat) run across our bags and back into the bathroom!!
Being the true ladies that we are, we both jumped up and down on our respective beds and screamed, but no one came to our rescue!!! So I firmly shut the bathroom door, used my spare sheet to block up the gap under the door and we finally fell asleep with the light on!!
This morning we moved to another Homestay ....
Having checked into our new room and inspected for rodents, damp and Mosquitoes we then ended up spending the whole day over at the travel agents, melting into the chairs there as it was so hot no one could move!!! But we have finally made up our itinerary for the rest of our trip!
Ok the more hard core travellers out there would be screaming at us, saying that this is India and we should just see where we end up, live in the moment blah,blah,blah.....
Whatever! We have tried that but so far it has led close to mental break downs and exhaustion. So, tomorrow we spend the day on the Back waters, then in two days time we are off to a Resort North of here for cookery lessons, yoga and Ayuverdic treatments. From then I hope to be re charged and ready for the next few weeks ...
So until next time, I am off to the Homestay and pray we don't have to move again!!!

I have jiggled my widget!

Ok now I have your attention, I just wanted to let you know that in response to those of you complaining that your comments are not coming up, I have tried to mess around with my settings in the hope that will make a difference. So feel free to give it a go now?!

Apart from that, there's nothing much to say about today, except that it has been raining on and off and our room is so damp that when I woke up this morning, my hair was so frizzy I actually looked like Ronald McDonald!!!

Suffice it to say, we have found somewhere else to stay for the next few days, whilst we plan our time in Kerala. So more to follow on that front.

It has to be said that it is a pleasure to be somewhere where there isn't the constant sound of car horns being blasted or too much cow pat on the street!! (saw my first Keralan cow today!!). It is also great not to be freezing cold as I was in Darjeeling, but it is so hot and humid here, that I feel the need to take a shower even when I am just crossing the road from our hotel to buy a bottle of water!!

Oh and talking about showers ... last night Claudine discovered a cockroach in ours!! I was surprised and extremely impressed with her calmness when she came across it and therefore I felt I had to try to act just as calm and collected as she was. I smiled and nodded at her while we agreed to keep the bathroom door firmly shut for the night and then I calmly walked over to my bed, climbed under my sheet and wretched as quietly as possible!!

I have been promising photos throughout various stages of this blog, but at the moment it seems to be taking forever to upload the pictures. So if anyone has any ideas to help, please free ...

Tomorrow we are moving to our third Homestay in this town!!! Then we are off to 'Jew Town' (no that is not being anti-semetic it is what the area is called!) to see the Old Synagogue there and tomorrow eve we hope to  meet up with some people when we go to see some classic Keralan dancing. So until then, I am off to find some extra strong hair gel!!!

I want my mummy!!

I will never use the phrase 'Things can't get much worse than this" that's just asking for trouble!!! Since my last blog, I have arrived in Kerala, though only just! 

Thursday evening I had an early night assisted by my new friend Night Nurse and went to sleep feeling positive that now I had things under control and was starting to feel a bit better. I was quite excited about getting to Kerala as this was going to be the more spiritual part of my journey.

I managed to sleep through til 4am when my stomach decided it obviously wasn't getting enough attention! On returning from the loo and wondering if this would ever end, (I personally think having an enema is more fun!!), I lay in bed with my head hanging over the side under which I had strategically placed a bucket - just in case! Thank fully it wasn't needed, but by the time we had to get up and finish packing the following morning, I could just about face half a scrambled egg and some ginger tea for breakfast! But there was no backing out now, we had a flight booked to Kerala and we bloody well weren't going to miss it, even if it involved us investing in a bag of Pampers?!

So I took a travel sickness tablet and Suresh drove us to the airport, don't think the tablet really  kicked in til about five minutes before the end of our one hour journey. Then once inside we had to wait for the check in desk to open, because apparently it was too early to turn up two hours before a flight in India!? When finally through we boarded our plane to Dehli!! For those of you that have a rough idea on the layout of this country you won't be blamed for presuming that we were put on the wrong plane, seeing as Dehli is further North than  Udaipur, where as Kerala is down south. But 'this is India' so we just have to 'go with the flow'.

On arrival at Dehli airport we found out that our next flight down to Kerala was going to be delayed by two hours!! I practically crawled into the chemists and begged him to help me out. He was very calm, as I am sure he must see hundreds of tourists a week flying around with stomach problems. He issued me with the statutory anti-biotics that we can only get via prescription in the UK and a tin of protein biscuits and I made my way over to one of the couches, took my medicine and lay down to go to sleep for an hour.

All I can say is, although I didn't manage to sleep, I think I have now overcome my fear of using public toilets!!

Meanwhile, Claudine had got chatting to a Swedish couple sitting nearby and it turned out that the wife was a doctor.  I was over there like a shot!! Too late, Claude had already relinquished the relevant information and is now worried about cross infection should we even share a packet of biscuits! I looked at the doctor as she explained that what either of us could be a number of things, but it will get cleared up, the main thing was to try to eat and drink lots of fluids. That was the last straw for me, I burst out crying, explaining that I had lost my appetite and even water made me feel sick and so I was never going to be cured (ever the drama queen) I told her that if it hadn't cleared up within the next 24 hours I was going to have to go back to the UK but I didn't want my bowels to get the best of me!! The two Swedes looked at me with such pity as I wiped my nose and then I said: 'I just want my mum'. The response from everyone at the table was: "I know, I understand".

Finally I managed to get some vegetable soup down my throat and followed everyone through on to the plane. By this point my head was pounding and I wanted to sleep through the next three hours. But Claudine, bless her, was intent on making me drink more rehydration sachets and eat some food, whilst feeling pretty ropey herself.

The lunch arrived, we peeled back the foil covers, looked down at our food, then in unison we turned to each other and burst out laughing hysterically. More curry!!!! (well I suppose that is to be expected on an Air India flight?!?!)

I could only manage a few grains of rice, while Claude managed most of hers - she has an amazing appetite no matter what. Then the hand gel came out, but she must have squeezed the bottle too hard because a lump of it suddenly flew out of the container and landed splat on the chest of the Indian man sitting next to her! Claudine's immediate reaction was to apologise profusely and try to wipe it off for him. This was a total stranger!! Not only did she end up making the stain worse, (he looked like he had been lactating) but I think she may have overstepped a few Boundaries as far as Indian customs are concerned.

We finally got to Kerala!!

It was raining!!!

We booked a pre-paid taxi to the hotel we had made a reservation with in Fort Cochi - another hours drive - and tried to relax in the car. My head was still killing me and Claude had bad stomach cramps and both were just looking forward to getting to the hotel that had been highly recommended by The Rough Guide and sleeping in til the late hours of today.

As expected, the taxi driver got lost!!! He kept stopping to ask directions and at one point someone got in their car to lead us in the right direction - they got lost too!!! It took us two and a half hours to get to the hotel and when we did it was a bit of a .... flea pit. (and that's me using polite language). We had to ask for bed linen and towels, there was no loo paper (thanks again Melanie, Sara and Jess for confiscating my 'extra supply' back in London) and breakfast was not included!!! When I had made the booking originally the woman had assured me everything was included in the price.

Finally we managed to crawl into our rather uncomfortable twin beds at around 2 30am, both agreeing that we would find somewhere else the following morning.

I passed out and fell into a deep sleep only to be woken up about an hour later by Claudine shouting and jumping out of bed because she said there was a rodent walking over her belly!!

I searched the room, but could find no evidence and managed to calm her down again then went to sleep ...

Early this morning, Claude had found another hotel for us to move to and we were out!!!

I have to say, I was very close to flying back home this morning, the last few days have been a bit too much of the India Experience. And if it wasn't for the fact that I am starting to feel better today, then this would have been my last blog entry ...

We found a really lovely cafe for lunch, where they served FRESH FISH!! Red Snapper that when ordered the waiter biked over to the local fish market to get. I was so looking forward to having fish and steamed veg!!

We sat and waited in anticipation and then waiter turned up with our lunch and placed it on the table in front of us, smiled and walked back to the kitchen. I took one look at my plate then turned to Claude in horror - they had left the head and tail on!!! I immediately started wretching!! (pathetic I know) and rushed the plate back to the waiter, asking if they could cut off the head and tail. He smiled and nodded, then a couple of minutes later returned with the plate and yes he had cut the aforementioned body parts off, but bloody left them on the plate!! I managed to flick them off onto the saucer next to me and Claude hastily put it on the table behind out of sight! Talk about taking things literally!

Then this evening we found another restaurant for dinner. I decided to stick with pasta, as there would be no heads or tails to deal with!! Claude ordered Chicken Shish, demanding it be cooked thoroughly. The waiter seemed confused but disappeared into the kitchen.

The food arrived, it looked very appealing. Mine was perfect, but as Claude bit into one of her chicken cubes and swallowed, the blood drained from her face as she cut into another piece put it on her side plate and showed it to me explaining that she thought it was still a bit raw. I have to admit there was a bit of it that did seem under cooked, so she called the waiter back over and expressed her worries and asked if he could have it cooked a bit more. The waiter nodded and picked up the side plate with the lonesome bit of chicken on it and started to make his way towards the kitchen, we both had to call out to him and explain that she meant the whole kebab!?!?

So on that note I am signing of for today, my dinner is still inside me, which can only be a good sign. And I shall return to the new hotel that Claudine found for us this morning, which incidentally we realise is riddled with damp so will be moving again tomorrow!! That is providing the morsel of chicken that Claude ate doesn't give her food poisoning!!!

Strike Back 2 - Project Immodium!

"Cert 18 - The following Blog contains scenes that some readers may find offensive and could be upsetting for small children".

Ok where to start? I guess as the talented Maria Von Trapp would say, "Let's start at the very beginning, it's a very good place to start". Hmmm, so I will pick up where I last left off; the internet cafe in lovely peaceful Pushka ...

Claude and I had finished our blogging and were trying to find somewhere 'safe' to have lunch. We popped into one place, but it looked awful, so we mozzied on out and bumped into a group of Israeli tourists who recommended another place further up the road, they were deep into explaining how nice it was there but they had already lost me at the words 'falafel pitta'.

The restaurant was a flea pit, but by this point I had to have falafel so we found another cute looking cafe round the corner with a lovely garden. We took out seats and looked through the menu. Claude decided to stick with veggies whilst I went for my hearts desire! It had been so long since I had eaten something fresh like salad and all I could think about was the crispy lettuce, the succulent tomatoes and the mouth watering cucumber that would be served with it. Which is very unusual for me as I generally tend to go for things that are either deep fried, or covered in sugar - or chocolate - and generally pumped full of E numbers!

The service took ages and while we waited I found myself overcome with tiredness. I could just about stay awake for the food by trying to concentrate on Claudine giving me the well deserved lecture on how dangerous it was to eat salad out in India, but my stomach was already starting to gurgle a bit.

Now many of you fellow IBS sufferers will know that this can be common place and 'just' a bit of discomfort for a while, so I chose to ignore it.

The food finally arrived; my fallafel was as hard as rock but the salad was so fresh and delicious as was the humous. Unfortunately Claudine's meal as she herself put it "tasted like vomit". So we left soon after and walked straight back to the hotel.

Suddenly, whilst standing outside our hotel room as Claudine fumbled around with  lock I felt a rather distressing sensation in my stomach and it was then I knew that I was in trouble!!!

We managed to get in, just in time as sprinted (world speed) to the loo and slammed the door behind me. I screamed out to Claudine to "turn the TV up loudly" as I felt as if the world had just exploded out of me.

That was it ... from then on my temperature flew up, I lay on the bed as I went from sweating buckets, to shivering so much even my goose bumps had goose bumps. Poor Claude was suffering from heat exhaustion as I demanded the fans be turned off and I climbed under blankets and clothes ... then a few minutes later I would throw all the bed clothes off me and demand the fans be put on full blast!!!

Claudine was a true 'Florence Nightingale' (though also a bit 'Nurse Ratchetty' at times too) as she fed my Immodium, Dehydrating salts and Cyprofloxin. But I was beside myself and to make things worse ... there was nothing decent to watch on TV!!!! (anyone who knows us Epstein's knows we are TV addicts and therefore how devastating that situation would be!).

Claude went off for dinner downstairs with an American girl we had met earlier in the day, whilst I lay in bed feeling sorry for myself. I couldn't stop drinking, nothing seemed to be able to quench my thirst, I could have drunk the River Ganges dry - but then that would probably have left me in a worse situation than I already was!?

Finally I fell asleep, dreaming about my mum's chicken soup and a large glass of hot ribena!! When suddenly I awoke with a huge cramp in my stomach, I ran as quietly as I could to the bathroom, trying not to wake Claude up in the other bed, I skidded across the tiles on the bathroom floor and landed on the loo, again just in time. But all of a sudden I realised I needed to be sick!!! What was I to do? There was no way I was gonna stick my head down that toilet after knowing what had just been flushed down it. I spied the bucket for washing clothes not too far away and managed to stay on the loo whilst reaching out for the bucket and grabbing it. (my physio always said I was quite flexible considering how unfit I am!). The next ten minutes were quite pathetic really. But suffice it to say I went back to bed a whole stone lighter!!!

As I climbed into bed, I heard Claudine mutter, "Are you alright". I told her I was surpised she hadn't heard the commotion going on in the bathroom to which she pointed out that she sleeps with ear plugs in, then she told me she would try to sleep without them for fear I may stop breathing during the night and she needed to hear me exhaling!!

The following day we were meant to go to Jodhpur, but when I woke, I knew there was no way I would last even an hour in the car let alone 4!! And so it was decided, or rather I reluctantly agreed to let Claude call for a doctor.

The Doctor arrived with Suresh (our driver) and both the manager and one of the waiters from the hotel?!? The doctor felt my arm then my forehead and asked me details about my vomit and pooh!! Before answering I looked up to see Suresh, the manager and the waiter all standing at the end of my bed, just staring at me!! I was so embarassed and hoped their English wasn't that good!

Then the Doctor started to reach for his stethoscope around his neck and my immediate thought was that there was no way I was lifting my top in front of everyone! Luckily, his hand by passed the stethoscope and reached into his shirt pocket where he pulled out a pen and started writing out a prescription.

He looked at me very seriously and explained that it is probably just a bacteria in my gut that I have, however, it isn't generally accompanied with a temperature, so taking that in mind, if the temperature hadn't gone within 24 hours I was to go to hospital and get checked for malaria!! (at this point the blood drained from my very flushed face). He then lay out an assortment of pills and explained how and when to use them, luckily Claudine was taking note because all I could hear was Malaria, Malaria, Malaria ...

Once my audience had finally left I looked at my friend and panicked, we started looking through our guide books for descriptions of the various kinds of malaria readily available in India and then we looked at the stack of pills on the bed. I begged Claudine to phone my Uncle Geoff in the UK (remember he's the doctor in the family) and double check with him. He sounded half asleep when he answered the phone - of course he was I mean it was 5 O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING!!! (oops). Anyways, he reassured us all would be ok and just to take what ever had been given to me.

One thing you should know is that the pills out here are not coated!!! So as soon as they go on the tongue they start dissolving - it was disgusting. And no sooner had I taken all of them that I rushed to the bathroom and puked them all up in the sink, I was sick so many times at that point that I could practically hear my stomach screaming"get it out, get it out!!!!". We spoke to the doctor who suggested leaving a specific pill out as that was a side effect?!?!?!?!

The rest of the day was pretty boring really, I went to sleep, got up went to the loo, started to walk out, turned back and threw up then went to bed, went to sleep and so it continued - bit like Ground Hog day.

The following morning I felt so much better!! And I got out of bed with a huge smile on my face. But as soon as my feet hit the floor my stomach churned and I rushed to the loo. Whilst sitting there I could hear my friend calling out to me from her bed. 'I may have a slight emergency'! And that was it, that morning both Claude and I were alternatively running to the loo. It was a bit like a relay race; I would run out and smile at her, then she would go in, then she would run out and smile at me etc ... etc ... In fact it even became quite competitive as we started on descriptions of what was going on, (don't worry I will spare you those details), I mean what where we turning into?!?! Men!

Finally after a few rounds of Immodium we were both sufficiently bunged up enough to get in the car and drive to Jodhpur.

The hotel was amazing, the best so far. A huge room with cement arches inside. The restaurant was stunning and we had a full 360 degree view of the city, lit up at night. Though I don't think the waiter was very impressed with us when all we ordered for dinner was a pot of tea and scrambled eggs on toast!! (bloody Britishes).

Our one day in Jodhpur was ok, it could have or in fact should have been better if it wasn't for the fact that I still felt really ropey. We saw a palace, we saw a museum and a fort ... got photos to put up at a later date. And in between I just slept in the car!

Then yesterday we drove to Udaipur. We arrived about 7 and just crawled into bed. I was going to order Chicken noodle soup for comfort, but Claudine threw me such a look and said 'Chicken' (which meant food poisoning) so I settled for mushroom soup then settled down to sleep.

Today we went around Udaipur, the two of us still feeling constantly sick and still with not very well in our stomachs generally. But we managed to take in the sights of the floating palace, the huge Jian Mosque, The City Palace and of course Mac Donalds!! Which we both felt was safer than going to a curry restaurant!!!

Tomorrow we are off to Kerala (down south), where we hope to recuperate!!! So until then ... oops gotta go ....

I remember why I never climbed Masada!!!!

Bloody Hell!!! I mean BERRR ... LUDEEEEE .... HELLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! 320 steps!!! And I did it!! My legs may not be my best friends at the moment but I bloody did it!!! Got to the top, nearly passed out my heart was beating so hard, I thought it was going to burst out of my chest (just like that scene in Alien!!) Claudine was great, she just marched up had a quick look at the sun setting and said: "Right let's go down before it gets too dark!" Whilst I lay sprawled out on the chair, sweat pouring profusely out of every pore in my body, practically catatonic from exhaustion!

I was allowed a couple of minutes to recuperate and managed to take a couple of photos, the scene was stunning!! 

Then we made our way back down by torch light. The pair of us must have looked so pathetic, both slightly nervous as the terrain was quite rough for the first half hour and my legs were still shaking from the walk up.

As we carefully made our way back down, slipping every now and then, (sometimes it pays to have a large bottom, excellent cushioning!!!) I kept getting berated by my travel companion for not walking down sideways as apparently it is safer?? When suddenly out of the blue there was this strange noise and I shone my torch back behind us to see a rather large Monkey, running down the steps at full throttle!! We were both frozen to the spot, my brain kept shouting at me to "get that over ripe banana out of your bag!!! Now!" then luckily Mr Monkey lept off the steps and disappeared amongst the bushes!!

We carried on painstakingly making our way down the steps and boulders, as I commented how agile the monkeys were, must be their aposable big toes that help them grip. When suddenly a group of tourists came running past us, laughing and chatting, not the least bit scared about the journey down.
I think it took us about an hour to get back down in one piece. A major challenge for me and Pam, if you are reading this, you would have been well impressed!!! (Pam is my physio that I have to visit regularly to ease the pain of my active life getting in and out of my car!)

Today is chill out day ... our driver Suresh has the day off, so we are just taking a leisurely stroll through the market and visiting the Brahmen temple. Stunning, but unfortunately I was not allowed to take any piccies!!

I would like to go back to the hotel this afternoon and relax by the pool, but I have to say that this time I am in agreement with Claudine, the water is so green and murky I am not sure that Cholera is the only thing that we could catch in there!!

Tomorrow we move on to Puskar for a few days then onto Johdpur!! Bet you can't guess what I plan to buy over there!!!!!!

3 Days on but still here!!

Ok I know I disappeared for a few days, but it has not been easy to find access to the internet (despite what many of you told me before I left!!). So I will try to remember most things that have happened since last I wrote. I know I am teased by many for having the memory of an elephant, but believe me, in this heat, I think my brain may have melted a bit!!

Here goes ... TUES 15th we finally left Varanasi!!! Having got through the embarassment of signing out of our hotel AGAIN, we made it to the train station in plenty of time and met a couple of Russian ladies  - Irene and Lena - sharing with us. (One spoke English, the other understood English but could speak French - which Claudine is fluent in and they both spoke Russian - which Claudine can speak too!!) So, I let Claudine practise her language skills whilst I lay back and listened to my music and read my book.

This particular train journey was so much better than the last, (less crowded and no 'gaseous noises' or gobbing up) our dinner comprised of a packet of Oreo Cookies and a mango juice as there was no food served, (well apart from 4am when someone walked down the aisles shouting out 'Chai, Chai!!') Unfortunately it took me a while to fall asleep and when I fnally did, the light was flicked on at about 1am as the 'cabin boy' showed another man to his bed above Claudine and then continued to have a long and loud conversation with the ticket inspector, with no regard for the rest of us sleeping there. That was until we shouted out in unison: 'Shut Up!!' which seems to be a universal term!

Finally we arrived in Agra!! Our driver Suresh was there to meet us - the train was an hour late!!! And he drove us to our hotel.

Our first place to visit that day was of course ... The Taj Mahal!!! It is absolutely stunning!!! So pleased I didn't miss the opportunity to see one of the Seven Man-Made Wonders of The World. (my sis on the other hand, when she was a travelling student of photography, never made it to Agra whilst over in this sub-continent, her reason being that all the tourists go there, so why should she?!?) It did make me laugh as we constantly heard the various American tourists trying to suss out which bench Princess Diana was photographed sitting on, and obviously needing to have the 'Diana shot'; sat alone on the bench staring straight ahead?!!

Whilst being taken around by a guide, we bumped into Irene and Lena! They joined us on our tour. Which the guide was quite happy about as it meant more of a tip for him - he had already told us how much money he had earned the day before!!

The Taj took 22 years to build and over 20,000 men to build it!! Shah Jahan had it built to enshrine the body of his favourite wife (he had three) Mumtaz Mahal -  who died giving birth to their 14th child!!! Only six of these children survived (four boys and two girls) - and as happens in a lot of these historical stories, one of the sons grew up wanting it all to himself, so cut off the heads of his brothers and threw them in the river then sent his father over to the Agra Fort where he was imprisoned for the rest of his life and later buried next to Mumtaz. What a nice family man! 

As we got to towards the end of our tour, the guide insisted that we go and have a look at a factory where cloths and carpets were made -  we humoured him out of interest and it was amazing how his attitude turned slightly hostile when we left without purchasing anything.

FINALLY!  It has taken us just over two weeks and a few over priced purchases, to suss out that the guides get commission for everything we buy in their recommended shops!

The following day we left Agra and stopped off at Fatehpur Sikri which was the former capital before the king moved to Agra. Where, we bumped into Lena and Irene again!!

The Royal palace was amazing, the designs engraved into the walls showed Christian, Islamic and Hindu symbols to symbolise the three wives that the Raj was married to.

After spending a few hours here Suresh drove us off to our hotel in Jaipur, The Laxmi Palace. Despite it's name, I have to say the Laxmi Palace couldn't be more of a mysnoma?!?! But the beds were comfy and at least there was an anti mosquito device in the room. (Claudine is worried she may catch Malaria).

We arrived late in the day and just chilled out in the hotel before going out for dinner (no Macdonalds, so it was Curry night again?!) And when we woke yesterday, Suresh took us to meet our guide in the City. (Jaipur is known as The Pink City, due to the buildings all painted a salmon pink for the visit of Prince Albert during Victoria's reign).

We saw the Hawa Mahal - the most recognisable landmark (Palace of the winds as it is known). Which is more or less a facade for the ladies of the court to stand behind and watch the royal processions etc ... without themselves being seen. Cause we all know what temptresses us females are?!?!

During our tour of the palace and the mosque we bumped into Victoria, an Argentinian girl we had met in Varanasi!!! It's true that India is such a large country yet small enough to keep bumping into people again and again and again ...

I have to say, everything started to merge together after a while, so will try to write more on these sights at a later date, as there is only one computer where I am sat and a queue of people waiting to use it.

The long and short was that two days in Jaipur was enough, so much haggling and people asking us for money, was enough to drive me slightly insane - though some would say I was driven there a long time ago!!!

This morning we left Jaipur around 10 and were driven over to Pushkah, were we are staying at a slightly better hotel, with an extremely inviting swimming pool - though Claudine is worried she may catch Cholera from it?

In about half an hour we are being picked up and taken to one of the Temples at a hill nearby. Well I say a hill, but apparently there are 320 steps to climb and I am starting to wonder if this is such a good idea!!! Claude is keen, she reckons we need to exercise, where as I reckon I need a large Vodka and Tonic!!! So fingers crossed, wish me luck and hope to be able to write more soon ...

Silly Britishess!

On Sunday, Maneesh - our tour guide - took us to the sights of Varanasi. His driving skills are up there with the best of them - in India!!! As he pointed out to us, in order to drive out here, you need three things: 'Good Horn, Good Brakes and Good Luck!' (And in my case, a good sick bag! I am hoping that by the end of my trip I will stop getting travel sick everytime I get into the back of a car?!?!)

First stop was the place where Buddah visited and gave his first sermon. The temple was beautiful. Then we went to a Jain Temple to compare the two religions. Jainism has it's roots in Hinduism. In fact it can be described as a religion that prescribes a path of non-violence towards all living beings. And to practice self-effort to move the soul towards divine consciousness and liberation. According to Maneesh, SOUL stands for 'Subject of Universal life'. And because the Jains don't believe in killing ANY living thing, they don't wash themselves or brush their teeth, so as not to kill any bacteria living on the body. Nor do they cut or shave their heads, instead each hair is pulled out one at a time!! And should they shed a tear from the pain, then they have to fast. As for their eating practices, they have one day that they only eat and one day that they only drink. As the Jain student pointed out to us, there is one way to tell the difference between Jain and Buddhist monks, he claims that Buddhist monks are 'fatties' because they eat more. Personally I think the easiest way to tell the difference is the mere fact that Buddhist monks wear orange or white robes and Jain's wear their birthday suits!!! I have to admit it was very hard to stop looking away as the student showed us plenty of photos of him and his family posing with their naked Jain Guru!! 

We were then taken into the silk district, where all the silk is woven. Obviously we ended up buying here! 

That evening we went to visit the Ghats. There are 365 of them in total and no we only visited a couple - come on, you know I don't walk very far!! Each one is named after a city in India. And it is here that every evening a Hindu service takes place, to bless the living. 

That is, each Ghat bar two and from these you can see the funeral pyres being lit and floated out onto The River Ganges; where the Hindu's believe is the fast trip up to heaven. Apparently, there are over 300 funerals a day!! 

The ceremonies were amazing to watch and at 5am yesterday morning we were taken out on a boat trip along the River as the sun rose. 

That in itself was mesmerizing and something quite calm and serene about the whole place. (I guess I kind of ruined the atmosphere when I pointed out to Claude that all the bubbly white stuff floating on the waters surface was probably sub-cutaneous fat and kind of reminded me of cooking chicken soup).

Oh and apart from in the river, there were cows everywhere. Mustn't forget the sacred cows!

We were back at the hotel for breakfast by 10am and working out what to do with our last few hours in Varanasi before catching the dreaded 12 hour train journey to Agra. 

It was a agreed that we needed to relax for a bit, so both went of for an Ayurvedic massage. By all accounts this wasn't the most relaxing massage I have had and felt like I was being battered and bruised, but, by the time we left, I felt amazing. All my aches and pains from lugging my rucksack around had vanished!! And I was now ready to get on that train ...

Our car picked us up at 5 15 and we made it to the train station in plenty of time - with 45 minutes to spare, plus obviously a little extra as everything runs late in India! After saying goodbye to Maneesh we went down to the platform where a train was waiting. But surely this couldn't be our train, we are after all in India, so it couldn't be early??? 

I walked over to a group of tourists and asked if they were off to Agra too. The lady said they weren't but their guide could help us. The guide looked at the train number on our ticket then turned and pointed to the train which was now leaving the station and said "That is your train".

Instantly, the colour drained from our faces as we started exclaiming that it couldn't be, that our train wasn't due for another half hour at least.

The Guide tried to flag the train down, with each carriage that passed he called out something in Hindi to an official standing in the doorways and gestured pulling the brake. But to no avail. Before I knew it, there was a whole group of Indian men with us screaming at the train whilst urging us to run down the platform and catch it!!!

I tried, but there is only so much speed I could pick up with a huge ruck sack on my back, I turned to Claudine and screamed "Run, we have to run". Poor Claudine was fixed to the spot, she couldn't move, her ruck sack is practically as big as her and she had already hurt her back whilst trying to carry it earlier on. We were doomed!!

I turned around to see that we were now surrounded by the obligatory starey eyed Indian men, leading at us. One came up and asked to see the ticket. I showed it to him, he looked at the ticket, smiled and looked back at me and said: "Today is the 14th, your ticket is booked for the 15th!" 

BLOODY HELL!!! I stood and looked at Claude, sweat pouring from every pore in my body, my hair so frizzed from the heat and humidity that I would have problems getting through doorways. I thought to myself that this is it, this is when she is really going to lose it ... but she just looked back up at me and burst out laughing!!! In fact we both laughed, hysterically all the way out of the station where we called Maneesh and waited for him to come and pick us up, whilst another group of Indian men surrounded us and said nothing, but just stared!

Luckily, everything was sorted out and we got our room back at the hotel.  And so now, I am preparing myself yet again, to get on a 12 hour train ride to Agra ... we get in at 6am tomorrow morn then it is straight off to see the Taj Mahal - she had better be worth it!!!

Agra, here we come ....