25th February - Rathambore to Jaipur(The 'Pink City') Went to Albert Hall muesum which sounds grand (in the English sense) but was a bit crappy cos it was hard to see some of the exhibits because the cases hadn't been cleaned in months it seems. Much more fun walking around the local shops (more like scrap yards) which are full to the brim with the goods on sales (e.g. One may sell buckets, another copper wire, another blankets)and the local scramle all over the goods to get to what they need. All we hear is 'Hello Madam, Hello Sir - Where are you from?" Then you know they're going in for the hard sale.
After a while you just ignore them - sounds rude but you get even more hassle if you don't !

26th February - Jaipur and Amber - Visited the Sheesh Mahal (the palace of mirrors) - taken up there on elephants which was a bit scary at first . Of course, we got the wild one who didn't have a good night's sleep. Followed that with a visit to Amber Fort - unlike UK tourist attractions no walking required you can take the car in.Went to a 'posh' restaurant for lunch so we took a risk and had some chicken. No bad effects followed. Went to see the Hawa Mahal - the 'Palace of Winds'(nothing to do with the curry we had for lunch by the way!). Went to the City Palace where the Royals of Rajashthan live which unlike yesterday had a really good muesum. Sue resisted the temptation to buy some hand-painted pictures! If you were here on a holiday you could easily spend a small fortune on quality stuff that sells at home for a bigger fortune! We keep bumping into local people who are coin collectors - the guy I gave 20p to was only missing the $1(pound) coin from his collection apparently! Transvestites ('Eunuchs' we have been told by locals) seem to hang out around the Palace. Finally met some English speaking people Spencer and Jo from Stoke-on-Trent who are doing a very similar trip to us . Nice to swap stories and realise you're not the only people who are having crazy experiences.

27th February- Jaipur to Pushkar - Mad busy roads (main Delhi to Mumbai route) our little car weaving in and out of great big lorries - best not to look out the front window - saw the remains of a pile-up which did not help our worries! Pushkar is supposed to be a very holy place where Brahma the Indian God crated the world (we think). Went to the sacred temple but the place was extremely dirty and we walked round in our bare feet. One local thought it was fun to reach in our bag, take out a map and not give it back! He did in the end laughing. There were people bathing in the holy lake but it just looked manky, but we wouldn't even wash the car in it! Pushkar is like a mini-Goa where all the hippies like to hang out. Offered dope on more than one occassion by passing cyclists. Hassled by 6 year old boy with some kind of string instrument who followed us for about 20 minutes with a noise reminiscent of a scalded cat . He was so bad (musically) we nearly paid up to get rid of him. Went to see the sunset over the lake but arrived late! Instead sat in Sunset cafe watching over the holy lake with the best meal we've had yet.Bean chilli burritos and some great curry...mmm. Back to hotel for a quiet evening but there was a mad taxi driver and his Maltese passenger talking about sex with animals ('I like jiggy jiggy with beef' he said I kid you not!). We made our excuses and went to bed

28th February - Pushkar to Bikaner - Stopped on way at Deshnoke which is where the 'Temple of the Rats' is. Had to take shoes off when entering (as with all Temples) and there were rats everywhere. Soon they were running over our feet but you get used to them surprisingly quickly! Supposed to be lucky to see a white rat there and we did! Tonight was the first night in a week here that there was no power cut! Highlight of the day was the sight of a man riding a cow bareback (and Indian cowboy I guess!)

29th February - Bikaner to Jaisalmer - After a long journey in the car great relief to arrive at the hotel - until we got inside . The place was a complete dump - and we mean dump! No plugs were working (they suggested we stick a pen in the plughole), there were bird droppings everywhere, missing bannisters, a building site round the side, the reception desk was a woman on a stool - the list goes on! We cut to the chase and eventually got our tour provider to put us in a palace of a hotel that we found down the road. We're here for 3 nights and enjoying every minute of the luxury room! After the stressful day we indulged in some Kingfisher beer (first alcohol of our trip) which doubled our bill to $5

1st March - Jaisalmer - Went with local guide around another fort - which ended up in a tourist shop as usual! Went on camel safari in the evening and watched the sunset from the sand dunes - the sun was a brilliant orange colour which no photo could do justice. Followed this with some local dancing and local Rajasthani food.

2nd March - Jaisalmer - Today is a day of leisure - treated ourselves to breakfast in bed for a pound - cornflakes with hot milk (I didn't ask for hot!) and toast and tea. The tea in the teapot already had milk in it when it arrived! Met Petra and Marco from Slovenia and sat down for a chat about Thailand. The stool Derek was sitting on for an hour or more suddenly collapsed with no warning!

Signs of interest we've come accross -
Leprosy can be cured
Highly inflammable (written on every petrol tanker in the country)
'Horn please' and 'Wait for side' (whatever that means, written on the back of every lorry)
We are fast, reliable and inconvenient (on front of shop)
Internet paint for sale

PS - We've finally put some photos on previous entries now - Enjoy!