mussoorie

Mussoorie, the third town I've visited in the northern state of Uttranchal, sits at an elevation of 2000 metres above sea level, and is a popular holiday destination for well to do Indians during the heat of the summer. It was established by the British in 1823 as a holiday retreat, and their imprint is very evident in the local architecture and public buildings. It takes an hour and a half to slowly climb the zigzagging road up here. Once you reach the top the air feels fresh, crisp, clean, and invigorating.

Mussoorie is an affluent place, and there's very little evidence of poverty. The town's 300 hotels do good business, and tourism seems to provide well enough for the 29 000 residents who live up here. Judging by the steepness of the lanes and pathways I assume that brake pad salesmen are amongst the wealthiest individuals in this hill top society.

The views are sublime. The brown, wrinkled Himalayan hills stretch all around (in winter they're snow capped) and make for mesmerising viewing. Closer by the lower hills are covered in healthy dark green pine trees and other vegetation.

I've been here for two days now, staying at the Hotel Broadway, an elegant green and white house with a glass windowed gallery on the first floor. It was built back in the 1880s, and my room (decorated around the same time I think - but still very charming) looks out across the hills. An uninterrupted view. Hotel Broadway is tucked away in a quiet corner of the town, and has proved a very relaxing place to stay.

Most of the time I've been out walking, either up and down through the pedestrian streets of the town, or along the roads which stretch out into the surrounding hills where I can seek out magnificent views and vistas. Yesterday I walked up Gun Hill to the highest point in Mussoorie (2500 metres). I had a cup of tea at the top and tried to disguise my irritation when I realised there was a cable car I could have come up in rather than slowly puffing and wheezing my way up the steep footpath. And later, whilst wandering, I stumbled on the homes of the Tibetan community here.

On the food front: I've tried rasmalai (dumplings made from cottage or riccotta cheese soaked in sweetened, thickened milk delicately flavored with cardamom and served chilled), and also some more varied types of parantha (bread) for my breakfast. Mussoorie can cater for all tastes: there are Punjabi restaurants, South Indian restaurants, Bengali sweet shops, Tibetan cafes, and a Dominos Pizza parlour. There are also a couple of bars up here where you can buy cool bottles of Kingfisher Beer. I've taken advantage of this.

But all good things must come to an end, and with a heavy heart I will move on tomorrow morning to my next destination: Shimla. It's going to take at least 12 hours to get across to what was the summer capital of the British Raj, and I'm quietly not confident the journey will be smooth, but the effort will be worth it I'm sure.

more rishikesh

Being in Haridwar and Rishikesh over the last four or five days has had a restorative effect on my energy and attitude, even if I seem to have been suffering with my old enemy hay fever since arrival. Especially relaxing has been Rishikesh. The calm streets and lack of hassle from street sellers, combined with the beautiful valley location, can't help but make you feel better. My visit has come at an opportune moment as I was beginning to get a bit frazzled by the intensity (and the growing heat) of India and some of the areas I've visited so far. A little battery re-charge has been happily welcomed and appreciated.

I haven't really been up to much in the last day or two (there's not much to get up to) but have managed a bit of a wander around the locality. Rishikesh divides into several small areas (I am staying in Lakshman Jhula on the northern edge of town) and yesterday I walked south to the Swarg Ashram part of town. Swarg Ashram is where the real spiritual action is in Rishikesh, and contains a higher ratio of Indians to idealistic Westerners than Lakshman Jhula. I wandered round the yoga centres, ashrams, and ghats and stopped for a cup of tea in one of the cafes for a break and to watch the world go by. It was very pleasant. Some of the ashrams looked very serene environments. I imagine they would be very tranquil places to retreat to.

I've spent most of my time here quietly reading A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (I finished The Case of the Buried Clock a while back). The book is very short so I've actually finished it already. A very interesting read although I thought Burgess struggled a bit to bring the story to a satisfactory conclusion. I've also been reflecting a little on what I plan to do when I return home and my 'travelling phase' finally ends. I think I'm getting my head round things, but I won't bore you with the details right now.

Tomorrow I leave for Mussoorie which is slightly further north into the foothills of the Himalaya. It shouldn't take too long getting up there although it will take two buses to reach. I hope without basis that the transfer from the first bus to the second will be painless, smooth, and not too prolonged. Mussoorie should be even cooler than here, perhaps even cooler than the UK from what I've been hearing.

rishikesh

If I keep eating Indian sweets at the same rate as I am now I'm going to come back to the UK as big as a mandir. It's hard not to when there's such a variety on offer and they all look so appetising. Laddu is becoming a particular favourite.

I went to the cinema in Haridwar yesterday to see a Bollywood film: 'Shakalaka Boom Boom.' I enjoyed the film, which is set in New York (a New York where everyone is Indian including the entire NYPD) and stars Bobby Deol, Upen Patel, Celina Jaitley and Kangana Ranaut. I managed to follow the plot most of the way through, and had bits and pieces explained to me by the people sitting around me as it went on, although it did get a little complicated at the end. The film is about the rivalry between two successful singer/composers called A.J. and Reggie and their competition to be number one in the cut-throat music industry. Hopefully it will be the first of many Bollywood films I go to see. One of the characters in the film was played by Dalip Tahil who was briefly in Eastenders a few years back (as character Dan Ferreira). I didn't like him in Eastenders, although frankly he didn't have much to work with, but he did do a good job in this film. I thought it funny that in the first film I go and see he should pop up. The atmosphere in the dirt floored cinema was great, but it could have done with air conditioning.

This was actually my second attempt to go to the cinema: last week I tried to go and see 'Namaste London' in Delhi but was refused admission to my seat because I had a camera. I'm glad I've got up and running now cinema-wise.

I've sent out some postcards to my family this morning. I've been finding it difficult to find any worth putting in the post, but have just about managed to buy some half decent ones. I'm not overly confident they'll arrive judging by the way the postmaster at the post office chucked them on his desk earlier today, but here's hoping and let it not be said that I didn't try.

I've left Haridwar now and moved on to nearby Rishikesh. I arrived this morning at 11am. A bus was leaving Haridwar station as I walked in and it only took an hour to get up here. It's in a prettier location than Haridwar (a lush tree lined valley through which runs the Ganges), but - rather than being a holiday spot for Indian tourists - it's full of Europeans/Americans with dreadlocks, acoustic guitars, and roll up cigarettes (types generally prone to annoy me). Rishikesh is often called the yoga capital of the world and is where The Beatles famously came in the 1960s to stay with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Even though ultimately things didn't work out (in fact they turned r-r-rather sour) they were later followed by Mike Love of The Beach Boys, Donovan, more recently by Kate Winslet, and now most recently by me. In contrast to the late George Harrison, I'm going to steer clear of the ashrams and chanting and plan to spend my time admiring the view and watching the river flow by in the valley below.

My Mum might like to note that I haven't forgotten to take a single anti-malaria tablet since I arrived in India. I've made it a target to get all the way to 26 July without forgetting a single one. Keep also meaning to record that I had my haircut (in Bikaner) a couple of weeks ago including a head massage and the total bill was only 25p. The lad did a good job too.

more delhi and onwards north

I've used some quite varied forms of public transport since 26 March. I've been on buses, trains, in taxis, on the back of a motorcycle, around town in cycle-rickshaws, and through city streets in more than my fair share of auto-richshaws (or tuk tuks as they are known). On Thursday I added a ride in an HM Ambassador to the list. The HM Ambassador is an Indian manufactured vehicle based on the design of the 1948 Morris Oxford. Despite the British origin, the Ambassador is one of the transport emblems of India and until recently was even used as the official car of the Prime Minister and India's political glitterati. Ambassador's are mostly used as tourist carriers and government cars, are generally white, although some in Delhi are yellow and black, and have bouncy soft bench seats in both the front and the back. The one I rode in was gas powered. Check them out: http://www.hmambassador.com/

I travelled in a white Ambassador from the centre of Delhi out to Qutb Minar, a 73 metre high tower begun in 1193. It has a 15 metre diameter at the base tapering to just two and a half metres at the top. It looks like a big red chimney. After Qutb Minar I went on to Purana Qila (the Old Fort) and Humayan's Tomb (which predates the Taj Mahal and shares many of the same design features). I still have two more sights in Delhi I want to visit: Jama Masjid (the largest Mosque in India) and Raj Ghat (where Mahatma Gandhi was cremated), but I'll slot these in on my third and final visit to the capital in about three weeks time.

I arrived in Haridwar last night after a five hour train journey up from Delhi which for some reason I found a rather uncomfortable experience. I'm staying at the Krishna Guesthouse, and find myself a few hundred metres from the Ganges. It's a little bit cooler up here and there seems to be less hassle to endure from drivers and sellers which I find a great relief. This morning I had vada samba (Indian doughnuts) and tea for breakfast. My first time and I thought them very tasty. The street front chef who served them to me got quite exasperated whilst trying to teach me how to pronounce their name. The situation wasn't helped by his altering pronunciations...

Chef: wada!

Me: vada?

Chef: (louder) no, yada!!

Me: wada??

Chef: (louder) v-a-d-a!!!

Me: yada???

Chef: (louder) WADA!!!!

Me: vada????

Chef: (given up) ok, now you pay.

bikaner and back to delhi

Following on from my previous blog entry: I've left Jaisalmer, moved on to Bikaner, had a look round, and have now moved on from there by night train to Delhi. I'm in Delhi right now. Back where I started three and a half weeks ago.

I went to Bikaner primarily to visit the Karni Mata Temple which is also known as the Temple of Rats. It's a rather macabre place inhabited as the name suggests by hundreds and hundreds of rats. According to legend Karni Mata asked Yama (God of Death) to restore to life the son of a grieving storyteller. Yama refused and in revenge Karni Mata reincarnated all dead storytellers as rats, depriving Yama of human souls. Karni Mata Temple is a memorial to all this, and the rats are highly revered. Many Indians make pilgrimage to Deshnok the village where it is located. It's certainly different.

Visiting didn't prove as straightforward as I had hoped. Karni Mata is 30km outside of Bikaner and to get there you must catch a bus from an area called Goga Gate. Goga Gate was too far to walk from my hotel, and more importantly I didn't have a clue how to get there, so I decided to take a Tuk Tuk. We got about three quarters of the way when the driver pulled up and said he wasn't going any further. I'd had my nose in my Lonely Planet and asked him why on earth not? He pointed ahead of us. I looked up. Massive and fearsome plums of smoke billowed from what must of been enormous flames straight ahead of us. The stretch of town in front of us seemed to be an inferno, and people were fleeing the area. It was quite frightening and naturally I didn't want to go any further. 'Is there another way round to the bus station?' I asked him. 'Er, that is the bus station,' he replied.

I had no option but to give up for the day and went instead to see the sandstone Junagarh Fort (on the opposite side of town). When I arrived I was told it was compulsory that I tour the Fort with a free guide. The guide I had misheard when I said my name 'Charlie' and spent the tour referring to me as 'Jelly.' It got hard at some stages to keep my face straight.

The following day I did make it to Karni Mata. I took off my shoes and stepped into the domain of the rats. I'd imagined a floor seething with millions of rats (like a scene in an Indiana Jones film) but it wasn't quite that full on. Having said that though there were a lot of rats, and they were all pretty much immobilised by the hot weather except for a few feeding from large silver bowls of food that had been laid out for them. I didn't stay too long (not because I didn't like it but because the place was quite small) and waited for the bus back in a sweet shop opposite the temple. I made the wait an opportunity for an Indian sweet taste tester session.

Ultimately I didn't have a lot of time for Bikaner itself, particularly the poor quality roads and the congestion, but they do have a beautiful Fort/Palace - I'm happy to give them that. Whilst in town I stayed at the Hotel Deluxe. To my surprise my dingy room had a black and white television set, and on the first of my two evenings in town I relaxed and watched a re-run of the film 'Dick Tracy' starring Warren Beatty, Al Pacino, and Madonna plus half of the film 'Beethoven.'

I slept like a log on the train ride from Bikaner to Delhi last night and can't tell you how much I appreciated the cool air which flowed in from the open windows (my room in at the Hotel Deluxe was oppressively hot). I left Bikaner at 7.40pm on Tuesday evening and arrived at Old Delhi train station at about 8am on Wednesday morning. Not much of note happened during the evening except for one incident - a man approached me and asked me for my autograph. I was, of course, happy to oblige. After all, I wouldn't be where I am if it wasn't for all my fans.

My return to Delhi means I've concluded the first segment of my trip and now it is time to begin the second, which is to head north of Delhi and explore parts of Uttranchal, Himachel Pradesh, and the Punjab. On Wednesday I'm catching the train up to Haridwar which was recommended to me by my friend and former work colleague Celine. I'm very much looking forward to getting out of this extreme heat for a while and catching my first glimpse of the Ganges. This is the part of the trip I'm looking forward to the most because I'll be going towards the edge of the Himalayas and into a more hilly/mountainous environment which really is my favourite kind of location.

Check out the picture of me riding on top a camel in my photos section - that's another one off the checklist and a photo to prove it. The camel was called Bublo and he was pretty comfortable to ride on although when he got up off the ground it was kind of frightening - if you're not careful you could get tossed in the air like a pancake.

jaisalmer

Day 20. Jaisalmer. I'm still getting to grips with the idea of eating with my hands (or to be precise with my right hand) in India. As you may know the knife and fork is not part of traditional Indian culture. My friend's Dad has summed up the philosophy of this succinctly saying: 'eating with a knife and fork is like speaking through an interpreter.' I don't mind eating with my hands but I make such a hopeless mess each time I try. I've begun to wonder which is more culturally insensitive: asking for a knife and fork or throwing curry and rice all over the table, floors, walls, and sometimes even the staff of the restaurant. I'm going to keep trying for the moment. Perhaps it is an art which can be crafted.

It was another interesting bus journey getting here. I'm almost finding the journeys more interesting than the destinations at the moment. On the bus I sat next to Vini (Vinita) a detached female social worker and HIV counsellor working across the Punjab, Rajasthan, and Gujarat. We had a good chat and I was able to ask her lots of questions about her job and quite a bit about how people with HIV and AIDS are treated in India (she felt that they receive adequate medical treatment but are mostly treated as outcasts by society). Vini is one of the first women I've been able to talk with at length, and she held very progressive views on social issues. During the bus journey we overtook about fifty army trucks carrying tanks. I joked they must be on the way to attack Pakistan and got laughs back which were a bit too hearty for my liking.

In many ways being in Jaisalmer is like being in a fairytale. The old Fort rises out of the desert and contains most of the city. Jaisalmer is set just back from the Pakistan border, and sometimes it may not rain here for up to seven years at a time. There has been a castle here for almost a 1000 years, and it stands as one of the world's oldest 'living' forts. The people of Jaisalmer also have the South East Asian disease of mangling the English in their signs and advertising: amongst others I've seen a photography shop offering 'mammary cards' and a chilled beer shop advertising the sale of 'child beer.' Sadly the beautiful and romantic buildings are not being conserved with the care that they should be, and there has been a lot of pulling about of the brick and original features to incorporate Internet cafes, restaurants, and hotels. There are also more serious problems created by the inadequate and overworked drainage system which is causing the foundations of the Fort to gradually collapse. Jaisalmer has been placed on the World Monuments Watch list of the 100 most endangered sights of historical importance in the world. Since arrival I've spent a fair bit of time inside Jaisalmer Fort including visiting the Maharaja Palace and the wonderful but small complex of Jain Temples, and I've also been inside the Laxminath Hindu Temple. Outside the Fort I've been down to the Gadi Sagar, a lake just outside the city walls, and the Havelis - three sandstone houses built by wealthy Jaisalmer merchants in times of prosperity. I've been hanging out a bit with an English girl called Gemma (from Bristol) who I met back in Jodhpur. This afternoon I'm venturing out into the desert to ride a camel and to watch the sunset over the sand dunes.

I've been staying at the Mehrangarh Hotel which is just outside the Fort. It has good points and bad points. I'm sharing my room with an enormous but unsociable gecko.

I've been reviewing my budget this morning and am pleased to find that I've stuck with ease to my 10 pounds a day target. In fact I've been underspending a bit. I'm having no bother withdrawing money at ATM machines and have slowly acquired an idea of how much rupees are worth and what fair prices are for most things.

I've just finished reading Our Man in Havana and have moved on to reading The Case of the Buried Clock by Erle Stanley Gardner. You may well have heard of the main character in the book: Perry Mason. Recently I was helping my grandmother to clean out a cupboard in her spare bedroom and we found the old yellowed book at the bottom of a cardboard box. Like the rest of the useless crap Grandma had stored up she couldn't remember owning it and had no use for it either and so asked me if I wanted it to read. I thought I'd give it a go and have been really enjoying the detective tale so far. It was printed back in 1958 and inside the cover is written in pencil 'Mr St Bezant, 45 Melbourne Road, Ipswich.'

My next stop (and my last in Rajasthan) is Bikaner. I leave tomorrow morning at 6am and will make the seven hour journey by bus.

jodhpur

I arrived at the Pushkar bus station at 7am on Monday morning. The old white bus which waited for me didn't look like it was going to make it from the parking bay out onto the road let alone all the way to Jodhpur. Sceptically I boarded and squeezed myself into one of the seats near the back and braced myself. I had no need, it turned out to be a colourful and enjoyable ride. The bus was full with people dressed in wonderful, bright and distinctive Rajasthani colours, a few getting on and off every time we hit a new village or small town. About 20 minutes in a woman got on via the emergency exit at the rear and with the help of a child (her daughter I assume) loaded 10 live goats into the back of the bus. One of the goats sidled up to me and ended up resting its head on my knee. With animals on board, I was now part of the perfect stereotyped Asian bus journey. Thankfully the goats got off after about half an hour (and before the one by my knee bit me) and were replaced by a mother, her toddler, and the smallest baby I think I've ever seen in my life. The baby fell asleep on the mother and the toddler fell asleep on me, and on we rode to Jodhpur. The countryside we drove or - more accurately - bounced through was largely yellow dirt and sand with hills on the horizon. It looked like a tough environment to live in. At times we left the single lane tarmac road and proceeded along sandy dirt track to get in and out of various villages which I found very exciting. To my surprise we arrived on schedule at 12pm and I made my way without complications to the Sarvar Guesthouse. It's proved a good place to stay. They haven't been entirely competent in regard to my room but they have been faultless in their friendliness and kindness. That being said my room is like a bloody furnace, even with the ceiling fan on full blast.

Jodhpur has really impressed me. I thought it would be a paler version of Jaipur (Jaipur and Diet Jaipur?) but I much prefer it here now that I have arrived. Almost all the buildings in the old city are painted blue (done originally to signify the caste of the residents but also thought to help repel insects) and are towered over by yet another of the gigantic Rajput fort/palaces: Mehrangarh Fort. I've visited most of the main sights here over the last couple of days: the Jaswant Thada (the White Temple), Mehrangarh Fort, Mandore Gardens, and the Umaid Bhawan Palace (sometimes also known as Chittar Palace) which has been the home since the 1940s of the Maharaja of Jodhpur. In recent times part of the palace has been converted into a five star hotel and a museum (with exhibits concerning Jodhpur, the Royal Family, and the game of polo) which is what I went there to see.

I didn't realise it when I set out from Delhi and Agra but my journey around Rajasthan has really become a tour of the Maharaj palaces. I'm very happy about this - I love looking around them, and I've still got two more to come in Jaisalmer and Bikaner. Here the Mehrangarh Fort, which was built around 1459 on the advice of a saint, is striking partially because it sits on a vertical 125 metre high rock in the centre of the otherwise flat city, and also because it stretches kilometres in diameter and is full of ornately decorated function rooms, walkways and courtyards. During my visit, lots of Indians wanted to talk to me and some even to be photographed with me. Rajasthani gents made prayer signs as they walked by and I responded in kind. Mehrangarh Fort is one of the few Rajput forts to still be privately owned by a Maharaja (rather than by the government). The nearby Jaswant Thada was also stunning: a 19th Century royal cenotaph built in white marble in commemoration of Maharaja Jaswant Singh II and three other cenotaphs, stand nearby. Some call it the Taj Mahal of Jodhpur. I noted while I was there that I share a birthday with the now long dead Maharaja.

Of course, I'm not the only English person to visit Jodhpur recently. The Mehrangarh was closed a month or so ago when it was hired out by Liz Hurley and Arun Nayar who came here to hold one of their many (rather ostentatious if you ask me) wedding receptions. I've been trying to canvass local opinion on the marriage. Here's the word on the street: the caretaker's son at the Jaswant Thada said he welcomed the couple coming to get married in Jodhpur but did not believe it could ever be a valid Hindu marriage because Hurley has a child from a previous relationship and Arun Nayar has been divorced. At the Sarvar Guesthouse they felt it unimportant that Liz Hurley is a European but did think it a problem that she already has a child. My Tuk Tuk driver up to Mehrangarh said that locals were a bit annoyed that the fort was closed for two days, but otherwise weren't too bothered about the whole thing. A few others said more briefly, 'yes, big party.'

I've got the rest of the day to relax here in Jodhpur and will have a bit of a wander around the bazaars near the clocktower this afternoon. Tomorrow morning I'll be moving on - by bus again - to Jaisalmer, which will be the furthest west I will venture during my time in India.

pushkar

I could have made so many more friends out here if only I knew the slightest of things about the game of cricket and how it is played. But the truth is I don't even know the basic rules, or the names of any cricketers except for Ian Botham and Geoff Boycott. There's no point in trying to pretend either, my lack of knowledge is immediately transparent, and saying: 'I'm sure going to a match makes a lovely day out,' wins me few favours. It was the same with football in South East Asia (my knowledge of football extends to knowing who David Beckham is) where everyone wanted to talk to me about the Premiership, West Ham, or Arsene Wenger.

I'm writing from Pushkar, which may be my favourite place in India yet. The small town, which has a population of 15 000 people, sits surrounded by tall sheltering brown hills under a misty blue sky. There is a holy lake in the centre around which the houses and community are built. The lake is said to have appeared after Brahma, while he was in the area, dropped a lotus flower to the ground. Pushkar is highly populated with tourists, and I find here the highest concentration of European/American faces I've seen since I arrived in India. I think I like it here because the setting is beautiful, it's less in your face than Jaipur, Agra, or Delhi, and it's very easy and easy going. Pushkar, like Agra, also seems to be a place of regular power cuts. I've checked in at the Hotel Kanhaia near Mali Mandir. It's my favourite hotel to date (Pushkar is doing well!). The family who run it are lovely, the rooms are well decorated and well kept, and yet it is still very very cheap. If you come to Pushkar I'd very much recommend staying here. I've just had breakfast on the roof of the hotel. As I ate I watched the monkeys roaming and jumping from roof top to roof top around me. That reminds me: one evening while I was in Agra I was unlocking my hotel room door and saw a shadow appear to my left. I assumed it was the person from the next room waiting to pass, but when I looked properly saw that a monkey was sat may be five feet from me watching me unlock the door.

I enjoyed the journey across here from Jaipur which was made on a clackety old bus. It only took us three hours (I thought it would be five) and involved lots of unorthodox manoeuvring and overtaking along the busy and dusty roads as we went. It was incredibly hot in the bus, but all the windows were open which helped a little. There were several other tourists on board and it amused me that they made a fuss about sitting in their allotted seat numbers even though there were only about 10 other passengers on what was a 50 seater.

I meant to note down before, but forgot, that I've seen several snake charmers over the last week or so. In fact, I got quite a shock at the City Palace in Jaipur when a guy whipped open a basket in front of me and a cobra jumped up and out of it. I'd be interested to know if these snakes have been de-venomised - if not surely snake charming is extremely dangerous? I also meant to note that I've been reading Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene. It's a brilliant book, a bit of a farce and a good page turner. At one point the main character, Mr Wormold, is asked by the British Secret Service for details of a suspected atomic generator hidden in the forests of Cuba, and having no such information sends them a hand written blue print of his vacuum cleaner instead, which is duly accepted and categorised as being of grave concern. Our Man is book number one of the trip (I've got five in my bag altogether).

India has eighteen official languages: Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. Learning the language is therefore a rather daunting prospect, but nevertheless I am trying to get at least a few words under my belt. My Hindi makes slow progress. So far I've got: 'namaste' (hello), 'shukriyaa' (thank you), 'aap kaise' (how are you?), 'chai' (tea), and 'dhobi' (washerman/washerwoman). I am now fully equipped to courteously meet and greet a washerwoman, and offer her a cup of tea.

jaipur

I've moved on to Jaipur. The five hour journey by train from Agra across here turned out to be a bit of a trial. The train left on time, there were no delays along the way, and there were friendly passengers in my carriage who were keen to get to know me. The problem was my stomach. Just before I left for the train station at Agra I began to feel a bit nauseous. Perhaps unwisely I decided to carry on regardless. I won't bore you with the details but it was a long and rather painful five hours. I did make it to Jaipur though, and eventually got to my hotel - the Stephels Hotel - a little after 11pm. I checked in and was finally able to lie down and rest.

I spent Tuesday recovering, either asleep on my bed or drinking water with electrolyte rehydration powder. I thought it better to rest solidly rather than try to soldier on only to get worse, and I was right to do so because by Tuesday evening I felt 100% better and had a slight return of appetite. Interestingly I took my laundry through to the hotel manager during the day and asked him if they had a laundry service. 'I'll get my boy to do it,' he said and then in walked a guy who must of been at least 70 and took it off my hands.

Today I've been out sightseeing in Jaipur. It's a nice city; there's a much better feeling of space here than in Agra. The streets are wider and the buildings don't overhang so much. I started the morning by having a cup of tea and a chat with a guy known as 'Guru,' and then spent the latter part of the morning at the Hawa Mahal, a five storey royal tower which was built in 1799 for the ladies of the Jaipur royal household (to enable them to watch over the city). Like everything I've seen so far it was simply amazing. After that I walked across to the City Palace, home of the Maharaja of Jaipur (and a pal of Prince Charles if you're interested). The palace is a blend of Rajasthani and Mughal architecture. Inside the Mubarak Mahal building within the complex they had on exhibition the enormous coat of Sawai Madho Singh I. It was unbelievably large - he was reputedly two metres tall, one metre wide and weighed 250 kilograms. He also had 108 wives. Not sure I believe all that but the coat was there and that's what the sign said. Finally, I climbed the nearby Minar Swarga Sal (the Heaven Piercing Minaret) which gave me a panoramic view of Jaipur and the shopping bazaars below. Happily, along my way, I picked up an adapter for my battery charger, and an onward bus ticket (for 6 April) to my next destination: Pushkar.

Tomorrow I've arranged for a Tuk Tuk driver called Ram to run me up into the hills outside the city and to Nahargarh (the Tiger Fort) which overlooks the city from a sheer ridge to the north, and the Amber Fort which is built just behind and dates back to the 16th Century. After I'm going on to Jantar Mantar (back in the city centre), the famous observatory built by Jaipur's founder Jai Singh in 1728. Then it will be time to pack up my things again and onwards to Pushkar.

delhi and agra

I've been in India for almost a week already and I'm beginning to acclimatise to my new surroundings. It's the most fabulous place, I've never been anywhere remotely like it, and I've had a busy few days.

Wednesday: I went into Old Delhi and walked up from my hotel to the Red Fort and Chandni Chowk (the main thoroughfare of Old Delhi). This took me about an hour but it was incredibly interesting making my way through the crowded and filthy streets. The 17th Century Red Fort, built by the Mughals, is enormous and took me a lot of the afternoon to wander around. The bazaars which run off Chandni Chowk are chaotic and alive with energy. I was too tired to walk back to the hotel after so I jumped in a cycle rickshaw and was brought back via several of the interesting market areas.
Thursday: I visited Central Delhi and went to see India Gate, the Rashtrapati Bhavan (the President's House), the surrounding Secretariat Buildings, Sansad Bhavan (Parliament House), and the National Museum. The whole area was laid out by Lutyens during the time of the British, and is quite a sight to behold. The long drive which drops to a dip in the middle reminded me a bit of the long driveway which runs away from Windsor Castle and out into Windsor Park. There's a lot to see in the National Museum. It's well worth a visit even for the museum weary (which includes me). I spent a lot of time looking at the exquisite miniature paintings on display. They were mostly two dimensional depictions of scenes from the days of the Mughal Empire in Northern India. I was given a ride to the Museum for free by a man called Ramjeet who said it was his birthday and insisted on calling me John despite my telling him my name several times.
Friday: I caught the train to Agra (location of the Taj Mahal) and checked in to the Shahjahan Hotel. I haven't seen everything I want to in Delhi but I'll be looping back there in a few weeks so I thought I'd save some sights for later. The journey down to Agra was only three hours and very straightforward. As soon as I arrived I went over to the ticket counters and bought an onward ticket to Jaipur for 2 April (which is tomorrow). I then walked out of the station and in to a sea of tourist touts. The Shahjahan Hotel is very basic but no worse than anywhere I stayed in South East Asia, and it would be wrong of me to expect the Ritz as it is so cheap. My room which is on the roof top has a view of the Taj Mahal and you can't really ask for more than that. I'm staying in the area immediately south of the Taj Mahal called Taj Ganj. Taj Ganj is the original area where the workmen who built the Taj Mahal set up camp back in the 1600s. I suspect things haven't changed that much since except for the addition of Internet cafes and shops selling Pepsi Cola and Mirinda Orange.
Saturday: I spent the day at the Taj Mahal and in the late afternoon went for a walk along the Taj Nature Trail. It's as beautiful as they say, and a great privilege see. Such a romantic story behind the building of it too. The Taj Mahal was built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan as a tomb for his second (and favourite) wife Mumtaz Mahal who died in 1631 giving birth to her fourteenth child. Construction began the same year and it took 20 000 craftsmen until 1653 to finish it. Specialists were brought in from all over the world and the result was one of the world's finest ever man made constructions. Just after it was completed Shah Jahan was overthrown by his son and imprisoned for the rest of his life (another eight years) at Agra Fort. An octagonal tower with views across the river to the Taj Mahal formed part of his detention quarters and he used to sit there gazing across at his wife's last resting place. When Shah Jahan died his body was taken and placed by the body of his wife reuniting them but spoiling the otherwise perfect symmetry of the building (his tomb slab is off centre). It's hard to accept that the Taj Mahal was built in the 1600s because it looks like it was finished yesterday. Even close up everything is superbly finished, and built - it would seem - to last for eternity. I took a few moments while I was there to spare a thought for Shah Jahan's first wife who got no special tomb and has been forgotten by history.
Sunday: I went into Agra and visited Agra Fort, Jama Masjid, Itimad-Ud-Daulah (sometimes nicknamed the baby Taj Mahal), and a park called Mehtab Bagh which sits the opposite side of the river to the Taj Mahal and offers a wonderful view of the garden tomb. Agra Fort is even bigger than the Red Fort and took out another half day. Jama Masjid (the main Mosque in Agra) is also very well designed but is in need of some significant repair work. The caretaker showed me round and said that very little money was received for maintenance works and that tourist donations were heavily relied upon (hint). It did seem to be the case judging by the state of the building.

The weather feels very hot to me at the moment, but quite copable. I think I may be noticing it more because I've just spent a bit of time in the UK. I'd better get used to it because it's set to get hotter and hotter.