The day started with Brendan trying to recover contributions for the previous nights bar bill. It was four times the minimum monthly wage. Mmmm.

Back on our bus everyone took the same seat as the previous two days . As usual Forbsey was first one to claim his front row seat. It was to be a leisurely six hour drive to Jaipur 230 km's away.

The drive through Delhi was interesting first through the leafy embassy district, then into the suburbs and finally the new satellite towns that seem to go on for ever. Everywhere you looked there were buildings under construction, some were being worked on, others were standing still, seemingly abandoned and half built.

The Indian roads vary from good to average to very poor, however for the first three hours we made steady progress and the drive was always interesting for those looking out of the bus’s windows.

Lunch was biryani at a roadside restaurant that appeared to specialise in feeding western tourists, but nonetheless some team members appeared apprehensive about ordering and eating there. Club sandwiches were not on the menu!

After lunch we thought we were on time to get to Jaipur at about 3 .00 pm. However, we were wrong. We got caught up in a monster of a traffic jam as hundreds (if not thousands) of trucks attempting to merge from three lanes into a single lane that was all the only road that ran into and through a town on the route. It was chaos. 95% of the vehicles were trucks and all were trying to weave into whichever lane they thought was moving the most. It was very slow going and how we did not hit or get hit by another vehicle was amazing. It took us two and half hours to cover 56 km’s.

However the time spent on the slow moving bus gave us plenty of time to observe India. You can go to the toilet anywhere, the trucks are colourful, and people are everywhere.

Once through the town we had a comfort stop at an Indian interpretation of a freeway service court and then we motored on through the changing Rajasthan landscape.

Nine hours after leaving, we finally arrived at the Mansingh Towers . The hotel is an annexe to the Mansingh Hotel. The rooms are very spacious and nicely furnished. We gathered in the bar for drinks and then the decision was made to go to the Peacock Rooftop Restaurant. Unfortunately most of the Western tourists in town had decided to do the same thing (damn Lonely Planet) and discussions on when tables would be available led Denise and Tina to climb down the steps and cross the road to another roof top restaurant that seem less than full. A few of us followed and in the end Robin, Larry and myself joined the ladies in a very low key vegetarian restaurant where the beers were paid in advance so the waiter could buy them from the local Wine and Beer Shop. The food was very good and very very cheap. Who knew vegetarian could be tasty and filling (for a change).

A tuk-tuk ride back to the hotel with a very amusing driver finished the day.