Taking a break from the volunteer work for a couple of weeks, we have been very busy off touring around the states of Madhya Pradesh & Rajasthan with my friend Indu. We went to Deogarh to see some 11th century temples which were pretty spectacular, followed by a visit to the home of our friend Beeru's future wife ... they haven't set an engagement date yet, as they will have to get married within one month of this date as per Indian custom, but he definitely looks extremely happy when he gets to speak to her on the phone !!! We sat in a seperate room at the front of the house, where we were fed a wonderful lunch, before meeting the family that live there ... Beeru had to stay in this room, because it is a tradition that him & his intended don't spend too much time together before they get married. We returned to Orchha with Beeru beaming from ear to ear, which was really nice to see. We are currently most of the way through a 12 day tour around Rajasthan. We spent the first two nights in Agra, where we saw the magnificent Taj Mahal & Red Fort and stayed at my friends Eeva & Raju's guesthouse. Here I experienced my second whisky hangover in India! Enroute to Bharatpur for our next night's accomodation, which is a great location for visiting the Keoladeo Bird Sancturary, we stopped to see Fatephur Sikri, another wonderful set of temples. Later that afternoon, we were taken around some of the bird park on cycle rickshaws and the drivers were very well trained in spotting lots of different birds for us. We even saw a python asleep in the bushes, Pete got about 1m from it, but it started licking its lips so I didn't hang around to see it !!! Stopping to watch the sunset on the way back was fantastic, especially hearing all the birds in the lake behind us (there were hardly any when I visited here in March). Our next two nights were in Jaipur, where we visited the Amber Fort & City Palace & Observatory. Last time I visited the Amber Fort in March, I was taken up the hill on elephant back, however this time there had been a recent accident where a tour guide was killed because an elephant slipped on the path, so rides were out of the picture for us ! The next two nights were spent in Pushkar, where we stayed the first night out in a hut in the desert, after having ridden on camel back for about 3 hours. I was so scared on the camel, especially everytime it stopped to eat or lift its front leg up and have a scratch, but it was still great fun and I'm glad I did it. Pete had the crazy camel, one that apparently was well behaved with its owner, but because the owner has now died they are having to 'break it in' with the new guy who the camel kept trying to bite ! Pete managed to hang on for dear life, especially when his camel did a 360 degree pirouette on the main road coming back into town ! Pushkar was a beautiful place, with a wonderful lakeside setting from where we took lots of photos of the gorgeous sunset. It also looked like lots of tourists go there for the dope, judging by their clothes and hair etc. We are now currently in Udaipur, where we will spend two nights, before heading on to Bundi for the last two nights. Udaipur is another gorgeous lakeside town, it actually has five lakes and a massive mountain range. Lastnight we went to a cultural show, today we visited the City Palace as well as taking a boat ride on the lake to the former Summer Palace of the Royals but which is now a hotel. We have now just returned from a visit up the mountain to see the Monsoon Palace, where we caught magnificent views over the whole of Udaipur, followed by a trip to the Royal Gardens. Stay tuned for the next instalment of our trip.