The old part of Jaipur was painted pink (more a terracotta colour) over 100 years ago for the visit of a prince, and ever since it’s remained that way. We arrived here yesterday from Pushkar where we had an early morning start for a desert camel trek at sunrise.

I’ve never sat on a camel before and it’s not quite like sitting on a horse (getting on and off is a gyroscopic experience too), but Tony (my camel) and Johnny (Sam’s camel) didn’t seem to bothered that we were novices.

It was the second time we have had to break out of a hotel in the early hours before any staff had awoken (due to us forgetting to tell anyone of our plans) but it was worth it and we took three hours to venture out into the surrounding areas and up and down sand dunes before returning to meet Mr Singh and get on our way to Jaipur,

Our hotel in Jaipur took us a little by surprise. AFter doing a few passes of the road we eventually found the place, set back and quiet compared to the noise outside. We had requested our tour agent try and get us into the nicest hotels he could for our money, and despite not being a five star we’ve got marble, arches, a three piece suite and matching four poster bed so we’re not complaining too much.

AFter dumping our stuff we met our next guide who took us to the City Palace, the residence of the royal family and king of Rajastan. A personal friend of the current Windsors & Co., the collections and parallels are inetresting.

Included in the museums and grounds are two vast pure silver urns (used to carry water from the Ganges to Britain for the coronation of Edward VII) that are as high as me and huge carpets the size of houses (so big they no longer can be displayed on the floor).

After a good exploration of the palace, we visited the royal astronomical instruments. The initial reaction to these megaliths is that they were probably built in the 1980’s as some kind of modern art park, but in reality they are over 250 years old and are an incredibley accurate and sophisticated set of marble devices, including the largest (and therefore most accurate sundial in the world) which stands about seven or eight elephants high.

In the evening we came back via a hand-carpet factory before going out for a traditional Rajastani evening. There were all the awkward hallmarks of being a westerner including having to wear a turban (badly) and struggle to eat while sitting on the floor (pins and needles). Sam got henna-ed up on both hands and feet which meant she was walking around like a zombie until this morning when the whole lot could be peeled off.

This morning was a trip over to the Amber Fort (the previous residence of the kings, but abandoned for 250 years) where we took a swift elephant ride (this time in a proper padded saddle box) up to the top of the hill and had a couple of hours of exploration.

This afternoon has been quieter. With another nice pool at the hotel, we’ve taken time to recover from the heat and early starts. Tommorow, Agra.

So things are going much better than we expected. Delhi usually starts travellers off on a torrent of horror stories, but we’ve found a guide and we’re very happy.

We stayed for the last two nights near Connaught Place, central New Delhi and had the great luxury of an air con room (Lucy!). In the morning we were met by our driver (Mr Singh) and our (opinionated) guide.

First stop was Lakshminarayan Temple, a modern Hindu shrine, painted in traditional yellows and oranges and beautifully decorated in marbles. We found this was a reoccuring theme around the city. The next stop was India’s largest mosque which again was sandstone and marble construction. It’s hard to express how impressive this building is but in the 37 degree heat of Delhi in the morning and with a pale yellow sky the whole thing is stunning.

Next up was a drive past the Red Fort and bustling Chadni Chowk (like Delhi’s Oxford Street) before heading to Humyans Tomb. This incredibley impressive (awesome in the true sense of the word) was the inspiration for the later built Taj Mahal. Being ‘off-season’, we have had most of these attractions to ourselves. Next were the cremation sites of the major players in India’s history, starting with Ghandi and Nerhu in a beautiful green park. After a drive up to the very colonial presidential palace (past all the shining white ‘Ambassador’ cars which are still diplomatic vehicles) and quick view of India Gate and the administrative district we took lunch before getting back on with the tour.

In the afternoon we visited Qutub Minar, a massive hindi-muslim co-operation in the form of a huge tower that is nearly 1000 years old and set in amongst various other ruins from the time of the Afgan occupation. Finally we were taken around the obligatory Indian export bazaar, but after taking the free drinks and deciding there was nothing we wanted, we ended back at the hotel.

This morning was an early start for the six hour drive out to Pushkar. This holy town is home to the largest camel fair in the world (5000 camels descend upon the towjn in November to be traded) as well as the only Hindu temple in the world dedicated to Lord Brahma. Our hotel has more than exceeded expecations we have a pool, and whatsmore, it’s a pool with a bar in it (shame the town is dry and vegetarian due to the religious significance).

We took an afternoon walk around the holy lake edge and recieved a ritual (expensive) blessing from a holy man. We were warned about this in Lonely Planet, but they really don’t give you much option to refuse. After a little bit of shopping we’re now back at the hotel and contending with power blackouts every five minutes.

This is not a bother to me as the food here (in India) is exquisite and it’s dinner time. I really am loving it all.

It’s taken the best part of two days including another 6 hour journey on the top of a bus, a (wet) border crossing, another four hour bus journey to Gorukpur and then a 20 hour ‘sleeper’ train journey to New Delhi getting here at 5pm today.

We start a tour of ‘the golden triangle’ tomorrow – Delhi, Pushka, Jaipur and Agra before coming back to Delhi. This time around looks like it will be a little more settled than my first visit three weeks ago, although we had some problems with the train tickets yesterday; things seem to be going a little smoother now.

Onwards…

Because Sam was not feeling up to scratch yesterday, I went off around noon to visit the Peace Pagoda (1100m) and Damside on foot. The walk is a few km, and I accidently acquirred a guide very quickly who took me to the top and back down, fending off cows, leeches and snakes en route. By the time I got back down to the bottom I chose the more relaxing boat trip across Phewa Tal to Lakeside where we are staying. By this time Sam had recovered so we went to watch “Into Thin Air” while food was served.

This morning was our last proper one in Pokhara, so we spent it in style, paragliding over Sarangkot and the town. An absolutely fantastic experience, I managed to get some very decent photos (which will be uploaded soon, hopefully).

Following in the same “extreme sports” vein, we took a taxi to the local bat caves and after hiring another guide, found that the whole thing was unlit, uneven, and untouched. The Rough Guide says you can climb out through a small opening if you feel adventurous enough, and so we did. Covered in dust and bat droppings, we moved onto the next destination – the Gourkha (Gurkha) museum. An impressive collection of uniforms and stories kept us busy for another couple of hours before heading back to lakeside via a Tibetan monastary and Devi’s Falls.

Named after a tourist who fell to her death there in 1992, Devi’s falls drops 100m underground and all you can see from the surface is a thin canyon carved in the soft rock. While trying to retrive the body a large number of caves were found underneath and a shrine has been established. The whole thing floods during monsoon which is about 2 weeks away, so we were here at the right time.

Because of a technical problem with Royal Nepal Airlines we have had to take the bus then train to Delhi where we are taking a brief tour of North India. With temperatures around 47/48 degrees celcius, this may be an interesting week…

Yesterday was a lazy day. Pokhara is laid back, clean and quiet and we had planned to have a late start then go off for a row around Phewa Tal, Nepal’s second largest lake; but we ended up spending most of the day trying to arrange the week we have in India, so the lake has been put on hold.

This morning we got up at 4am to watch sunrise in Sangakot, but when we got up we discovered firstly that our taxi driver hadn’t turned up, and secondly that the weather was bad so there wouldn’t be much view of the Annapurnas anyway. We went back to sleep for a few hours. Unfortunately in another bad twist of fate, Sam appears to have acquired some bug overnight (it happens from time to time due to westerner’s non-resistances) and so we’re waiting to see whether our original plans for today go ahead.

Today can only get better…

After a six hour roof-rack drive (on the top of a bus with the luggage – it’s the only way to travel) we arrived in Pokhara this morning. The past four days have been spent at Hotel Parkside at the Royal Chitwan National Park after a final farewell to the other VSNers (the orphange folks Sam works with including a slap up pizza meal at Roadhouse in Kathmandu).

A total change of scene from Thamel, Chitwan is safari land and several degrees hotter. Tropical rainforest, elephants, rhinos, bengal tigers etc etc

We (Jen, Sam and myself) met up with Kiwis: Kiri, Dave and Sharon for the six hour bus journey through the mountains. The schedule was pretty jam-packed for a four day trip and in the afternoon we immediately went off on a tour of the local village and elephant patrol houses. After substantial amounts of food in the thatched resteraunt platform of the hotel were jeeped to a ‘cultural evening’ put on by the locals. Despite my initial reservations about these types of events it was very impressive and the compere certainly made the “presentation of the presentation” very presentable.

The next day was an early rise for an early morning dugout canoe trip down river and a jungle safari on foot. Unfortunately we didn’t spot much apart from small or stationary things like bugs and beehives, but it gave us an opportunity to dazzle the guides with a mid-safari human pyramid display.

After more food (and of course, with seconds) we all got onboard elephants for a higher and more unstable safari where we finally managed to spot some larger wildlife including our first rhino. We got back just in time to order some cocktails and watch the sun go down over the river.

The next morning was a slightly later start, but we made our way over to the elephant breeding centre and spent an hour or so trying to feed cookies to the baby elephants. We were then jeeped over the river to sit on the bank for a couple of hours until the highlight of the four days for me, elephant washing and bathing. These huge animals are incredibley gentle and are more than happy to wash you too. Really good fun. In the evening we took a jeep safari to the 20,000 lakes for sunset where we saw deer, rhinos and macack monkeys, but alas no tigers or leopards.

Despite not being lucky enough to spot one of the rarer animnals, the whole time was really entertaining and the staff at Parkside were particularly good making the whole thing very relaxing and smooth and we (very) attentive.

We’ve now arrived in Pokhara, another popular destination and starting point for trekking in the Annapurnas. The views are spectacular. We also ran into a few more VSN guys who spotted Sam, Jen and myself on the front page of a nepali language paper this morning, bathing the elephants in Chitwan. Apparently the story is to do with tourism being on the up. We have already demanded a reduced celebrity rate at the hotel and are trying to sell signed copies.