Jaipur and Jodhpur

Guides working at the palace in Jaipur - Unfortunately, due to Delhi Belly I didn't get to see these guys but they were working at the palace in Jaipur which the Maharajah still lives in. Apparently, it was very nice.

The view across to the fort in Jaipur from the Hawa Mahal - again, I believe the views were wonderful from the top of this residency of the women of the court. Like most of the buildings in the old city area of Jaipur this building is pink; Jaipur is known as 'The Pink City'.

An Indian wedding procession we stumbled across - it's wedding season in India at the moment so there are plenty of noisy processions. This one that went past our guesthouse in Jaipur was followed by a band and a tuk tuk carrying a generator to power the lights. The family of the groom were dancing through the street. Not a bad idea we didn't think, Jo! ;-)

A monkey at the sun temple in Jaipur - we got pretty close to around 4000 monkeys which congregate at dusk on the hill on top of which a temple dedicated to the sun god is situated.

Looking up at the fort in Jodhpur - we took a six hour train from Jaipur to Jodhpur. The fort here overlooks the whole city and today we walked up to it. This photo was taken on the way up, it looks pretty ominous in real life.

Me in the fort in Jodhpur - in the background you can just see the blue houses which are typical of the old city in Jodhpur, known as 'The Blue City'. You can probably see that there is a running theme here! The indigo stain helps keep the houses cool and also helps keep the mosquitoes away. Our guesthouse is pink. :-(

Claire's backside walking through one of the back streets in Jodhpur

We've spent the last two nights in Jodhpur and will be catching a bus to Udaipur early in the morning. We'll be staying there for a few nights before heading down to Mumbai.

Clarkie
P.S. Norflox 400 did the trick and we're both fighting fit again.

We made it!

Lot's more photos to come but until I can work out how to put labels on them the photos below are as follows, at the top it's Clarkie with the Golden Temple in Amristar, the Sikh version of Mecca. The Taj Mahal! Finally a camel near the Taj Mahal, we've seen lots today out in the desert on the way to Jaipur and loads of monkeys!

We arrived in Delhi last Wednesday and had a couple of days there seeing a few sites, including the Red Fort and acclimatising to the Indian way of life and all the sights, sounds and smells that come with it! There are pigs, cows, goats, horses and donkeys roaming the streets, lots of open drains and piles of rubbish so it can be a bit smelly! Having said that we're having a great time :)

After Delhi we caught the train to Amristar, we ended up with first class tickets which included breakfast, lunch and mid morning tea, our train journeys since haven't quite lived up to it! Amristar is the Sikh version of Mecca, all Sikhs are supposed to make a pilgrimage to it once in their lives to bath in the tank surrounding the temple. It's covered in gold and we needed to cover our heads, hence Clarkie's orange headscarf! We met loads of lovely people at the temple especially those wanting to practice their English and have photos taken with us. Whilst in Amristar we also went to the Pakistan-India border to see the border closing ceremony which 4000 people watch from the Indian side, there was chanting, flag waving and the crowd generally tried to hype the Pakistani spectators on the other side of the gate! This happens every night when the bordering crossing closes.

The next stop was Agra to visit the Taj Mahal which was beautiful and just as good as it looks on TV and in photos, we stayed there for a couple of nights and visited the fort as well.

We're now in Jaipur in Rajasthan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaipur. The plan at the moment is to spend the next week traveling around Rajasthan and then make our way to Mumbai.

Love to everyone

Claire and Clarkie
xx

P.S. The map has also been updated if you want to see where we've been or are planning on heading next.