I never really made a plan of what I wanted to see in India, it all just sort of happened. After Delhi, I end up on a bus to Jaipur, the start of what is to be a 3 week trip through Rajasthan. Best decision ever….Rajasthan is like the postcards you see of India….it's that colourful, that busy, that amazing….

In Jaipur, the Pink City, I check in to the Evergreen Guest House near Chameli Market, which seems to be a spot that everyone heads to. I'm getting used to accommodation standards in India - if you're not paying much, you're not getting much but as long as it's clean it's fine I suppose! I meet Bia, a really lovely Brazilian girl, on my first evening in Jaipur and we end up being travel buddies for the next fortnight or so….

Jaipur is really really beautiful. Myself and Bia take an auto-rickshaw for a day and travel around the city to the main sights with our driver Raja. Raja has some crazy driving skills and a questionable signing voice but it all makes for a really interesting and fun day about Jaipur. We take in the Amber Fort - an imposing structure with amazing views located a couple of miles outside of the city and which was home to the Rajput Maharajas (royal family). In the city itself we visit Victory Tower which has beautiful views over the city, Hawa Mahal or 'The Palace of the Winds', which is a beautiful structure that has peep holes in the upper walls - a great vantage point for taking in the local markets and activities. The ladies of the palace were not allowed to attend parades and festivals outside the palace and so had to be content with peering out through these small windows at the top of the palace. We also visit the Royal Gaitor where many members of the Maharaja are buried and the Jhulelal Temple', a temple where all religions can worship. We spend some time eating ice-cream while looking out over the beautiful Lake Palace before a short visit to the Albert Hall museum (to get to grips with the history of Rajashtan and India in general - so complicated). Another must-see-sight in Jaipur is Jantar Mantar, a site developed during the Mughal dynasty, where there is huge array of astronomical structures used for measuring time, tracking star locations etc. It's mad to see what the mind can think of and do!

Jaipur is busy and beautiful and with the 'pink' wash that is over many of the buildings in the city, it's not hard to see where it got its name - the buildings were painted such during the 1850s to welcome the Prince of Wales. It's also a crazy city - really bustling and in temperatures of up to 40 degrees it can be tough going. Rajasthan in general is famous for its cloths and fabrics and there's no shortage of them on the street. With all the bold and beautiful colours, there's always something to take a photo of! We spend an evening climbing up to Nahargarh Fort which again has great views over the city and you really get to see the 'local' side of things in the streets leading up to it's base. It seems that waste management here involves cows, pigs and fire - the first two eat what they can of the rubbish and the rest is burned!

We do go to a fabric shop where I pick up some presents and antique materials for 'the bottom drawer' - hopefully someday I'll have somewhere to decorate! Bia is on a shorter trip and in her element with all the beautiful things to buy - glitter and mirrors everywhere! It's not easy to get away with a secret shopping spree - there'll be glitter everywhere! We also end up going to Raja's (the auto-rickshaw driver) house to have dinner and meet his family. A really lovely evening - it's not often you get the opportunity to go to a local's home but it seems I've been very lucky! The final madness of Jaipur is the trip to Guru Ajem, highly recommended by Raja. I'm sceptical about the whole psychic/guru thing but will give anything a try. The Guru knows my age, mum's age, details of my family and aspects of my personality but has some ridiculous insights in to my family and upbringing! I come away from the Guru having a few questions for mum and dad but once they are answered, I can confirm that most of the stuff I've been told is nonsense! I've been told that my throat chakra is blocked and by wearing a tanzanite necklace, I could help this. The guru also runs a gem store - scepticism justified?!

Since myself and Bia are been getting on so well and are heading in the same direction, we decide to plan the next stage of the Rajasthan trip to Pushkar together. Everyone I've met has told me that Pushkar is a must-see. It's a small little town set around a lake with many ghats (a series of steps running down in to a body of water) where there is a continuous stream of people either bathing, washing clothes or worshipping (worship is called 'puja'). We get fake-'puja'ed at one of the ghats - some fake Sadhus (holy men) pull you aside, bless you, get you to pledge money and give you a little red and yellow arm band as a sign that you have been blessed. For the most part, it's a money making scam. It happens to many tourists but still mad at getting duped and decide that the sadhu is getting nothing - the money will go to those in need along the trip! At sunset, Pushkar would be a real photographer's paradise! We spend time here just taking it all in - wandering about the city, visiting the Brahma temple, eating nice food and hanging out. It's a great place for picking up some Rajput pottery here too! There are great plans to climb to either of the hilltop temples nearby but these are put on the back burner due to the incredible heat. It's so hot and we've met a lot of people who are leaving Rajasthan as a result but it's just too beautiful…. the red-haired freckly Irish girl seems to be managing just fine J

Next it's the local bus to Jodhpur, the Blue City! It's a long uncomfortable ride with myself, Bia and a whole Indian family squashed in to two seats. I somehow manage to sleep a bit of the way but as the only white people on the bus, it means that you just wake up to a new group of people staring at you at each stop! Everyone is really friendly though and eager to chat! The landscape on the journey is amazing and you can notice the style of women's clothing, jewellery and piercings and the sadhu's headdresses changing as we move through various parts of Rajasthan.

In Jodhpur we stay at Yogis guest house, one of the coolest places I've stayed at - lovely rooftop restaurant which looks out to the Fort and really colourful rooms decorated with traditional Rajasthani costumes and musical instruments. We meet Bobby here, an English guy, who is also making his way through Rajasthan and we decide to tour the city together. We decide to take a walk to visit the Jamali Gate via Sardar Market. Sardar is pretty interesting - lots going on including watching local trading, dying of cloth and men holding hands, not sure I'll ever get used to seeing this! Jodhpur is my first experience of proper Indian pollution - I don't think even Delhi was this bad. My eyes are stinging and streaming with the fumes and dirt from the auto-rickshaws, bikes and busses that are hurtling past us on the streets. One evening, we manage to find ourselves in the middle of a holy festival called the Thread Festival in the old town - the music and colours are amazing! The old town has so much character and despite the warnings from the Lonely Planet, we duly get lost in the maze of narrow streets. We also visit Mehrangarh Fort while in Jodhpur - probably the best of the Forts I've been to. The buildings are really well maintained, there is lots of interesting architecture, mirror work and decoration and the views over the 'Blue City' are incredible! We spend hours here just taking in all the beauty and as much history as our overheated brains will allow! We take a short spin past Jaswant Thanda, a very beautiful memorial to the Maharaja Jaswant Singh. The white marble structure is often referred to as the 'Taj Mahal of Marwar'. Our final tourist destination is the very white and very stunning Umaid palace which as well as being a private residence is also a very plush hotel.

I had high hopes for Rajasthan but its surpassing every one of them! I'm especially impressed by Jodhpur- home of the horse-riding trousers by the way! Despite the pollution, it really is a lovely place to stay! I notice that I'm a lot more relaxed in India and feeling really good - if you could only bottle the atmosphere! Have my first proper Indian tandoori chicken in Indique restaurant, Jodhpur - delicious! Meet with a guy from New Zealand and we discuss the ups and downs of traveling India. From what I've seen and heard so far, solo female travellers seem to have had better experiences than solo male travellers. It seems strange though as it's unlikely that the guys are going to get groped on the train or get half as much hassle as we do but maybe I've just got used to blocking the nonsense out!

Next we are off to Jaisalmer, 'The Golden City', by night train where we go on camel safari! I think it's highly unlikely that you will not be screwed over somehow on some element of your camel safari trip. We've been warned but still aren't really all that shocked when we realise we've overpaid and have been left in the capable hands of a crowd of children in the desert. Still though, it ends up being a pretty cool experience! We visit a small Hindu and Muslim community on the way to the Thar Desert. Meet some gorgeous children and all they want from us are pens - haven't been asked for this in a long time but I remember from my last trip to India that it's often a sign of good education and business to have a pen in the top pocket of your shirt. However, I think these kids may just try to sell them on but they get so crazy over the pens that I have to make them guess my age in order to choose which kid to give my pen to - apparently I look 50! Nice, eh? After finally arriving in the heart of the desert and picking up a beer from the local British Wine and Beer shop (should be thankful it's not Irish) we get the turban wrapped around the head and hop on the back of our designated camels! It may look graceful and elegant from a distance but it much tougher than it looks to get your balance and can be quite uncomfortable - especially when they start camel races ….and the camel farts are really really smelly! There's a lovely group of Japanese guys on our trip who get some amazing photos of the sunset. The Thar is not like your typical sand dune filled desert - it's actually full of vegetation. We hang out by the campfire in the evening, having dinner and a beer and watching sunset before going to sleep on our camp-beds under a spectacular blanket of stars! We are up at about 6am the next morning for sunrise which is even more spectacular than sunset! It's surprisingly chilly but nonetheless an incredible setting to wake up in! I have a bruised bum and am walking like a Texas ranger for the next few days but had a great trip! Very cool experience! Jaisalmer is actually a lovely city and there's lots to visit including the fort, which unlike many other forts in Rajasthan, is inhabited by locals and is full of shops and temples including the Laxmi temple and Jain temples. The latter are run by Brahmin (Hindu) priests but this seems to be quite common here and they are quite handsomely paid for their labours. The Jain religion is very strict and has numerous rather strange beliefs, including forbidding the consumption of root vegetables - too long and complicated to go! Also, as a woman, you're not allowed in to the temple if you have your period....

It's hot and humid in Rajasthan at the moment and as a result, tourists are few. This means that locals have time to talk to you and we receive numerous invites in to shops for chai (sweet, spicy, milky tea) and a chat! We spend ages in an antique material store where Bia teaches the owner some Portuguese and in a leather shop where we just hang out with a lovely young guy who teaches us the difference between camel leather and the other stuff that's being touted to tourists. If you are trying on leather shoes here as a European women, they look at you like you have ten heads when you say your size - we need to try on men's sizes here! We eat in a random Italian restaurant where, neither the chef nor the owner, have ever been to Italy. The pasta sauce does look more like tikka but that's the same everywhere here! The walls are made of cow dung dotted with mirrors to brighten the place up! Strange and kind of cool! We are staying in the musician's district on the outskirts of the city centre and go to a local Haveli (a small palace in which VIPs resided in the old days) which is now a restaurant/guest house for some live music - tabla (drum) and harmonium (accordion) and beautiful singing!

Moving on to Udaipur now on the sleeper bus - this is a first ! Our sleeper is like a small glass coffin thing for two people which is situated over the row of seats below - strangely comfortable and I actually manage to sleep pretty well! Booking any form of transport in India requires a lot of trust - you go to the tourist agency/bus ticket office called 'A' to book, you get a receipt which has the company 'B' letterhead, you arrive at the bus station looking for 'A' or 'B' and are told you need to board the bus belonging to company 'C'. You'll eventually get there but you definitely wouldn't want to be too nervous or pedantic on your travels.

Udaipur is lovely and a nice place to hang out for a few days. Myself and Bia are parting ways after this but we end up meeting with Irene, a lovely Dutch woman who is traveling India for a few months and Katarina, a Jamaican-American girl who has just arrived in India. It's like a solo female traveller support group but we have so much fun and it's lovely to hang out and swap stories! I also meet up with the lovely Sarah and Nerissa, two English girls who I spent time with in South Africa!

In Udaipur I visit a traditional Rajasthani music and dance show in Bagore ki Haveli - cheesy experience but actually really interesting and beautiful - the music is great, costumes really ornate and colourful and the setting is perfect! We also visit the City Palace, an imposing white building with beautiful gardens. Within the palace, you can visit the museum and see the mad network of hallways and connecting squares and rooms - there are numerous sections to the palace with different designs and styles (including the beautiful peacock square). It was built in stages during the reign of various Maharajas (or Maharana as they call them in these parts!) and the crazy development is supposed to have been an aide in resistance from attack. I take a boat out on to Lake Pichola and visit Jag Mandir, a beautiful white palace surrounded by immaculate gardens standing in the middle of the lake. In Udaipur, I finally try my hand at some yoga and do an ashtanga class most mornings here. Feels good to finally get some exercise! Myself and Bia spend a couple of hours in a local jeweller where we chat to the adorable shop-owner (he's genuinely happy to chat and doesn't want anything from us) and learn some of the tricks of necklace making! We also end up spending some time with a shop-keeper who makes his own incense from his garden produce - really great stuff and get sucked in to buying quite a bit! Love this kind of shopping though! We visit the Jagdish temple where there's a really lovely atmosphere - lots of elderly people worshipping and catching up on the events of the day! I get the most amazing massage of my life here in Udaipur - nearly two hours of an ayurvedic massage - brilliant! We eventually venture out of Gangaur Ghat, the tourist enclave where we are staying and where many of the sights are, to the Saheliyon-ki-Bari gardens - full of lotus flowers and fountains and a great place to spend a few hours relaxing! The female traveller support group make a group trip to the Monsoon Palace, the construction of which was never finished so it's not surprising that it's a little disappointing!

It's wedding season at the moment in Rajasthan and so every night there's a parade through the streets with huge speakers and microphones blaring music and a horse/mule carrying the prospective newlyweds in a mass of roaring crowds and colourful lanterns.

The gang meet for a last dinner in Udaipur and I head off for the next stage of the adventure - really sorry to part with such a great group of people - if I'm this lucky with the people I meet along the way, I'll be doing great!

I'm off on my lonesome again (well Sarah and Nerissa keep me company for half the journey) and head off on the night train to Ranthambore where I plan to visit the tigers. I arrive at 3am, sleep until 6am and head off to buy my ticket for the national park. Tickets are allocated on a lottery system so don't know which of the 5 zones you get to visit until the last minute. I'm incredibly lucky with my ticket - although I don't get a great zone, I'm lucky enough to see 2 tigers! I have never seen them in real life before (outside of a zoo, that it!) and they really are so beautiful and powerful looking! Their colour of their fur is beautiful! There are also lots of peacocks in the park which, when there are no9 tigers to be seen, add a bit of colour to an otherwise dry and brittle backdrop! I end up doing the tour with an American guy who is an actor and turns out to have starred in Mad Men -pity I haven't seen it yet! The only other major sight in Ranthambore is the Fort, so, as I've time to kill until my night train to Agra, I take a local jeep to the fort with a group of about 10 young Indian boys from Jaipur who are in Ranthambore to visit the Ganesh temple in the fort. The boys are delighted to have a white woman for company - there are plenty of questions and photos. They're crazy and excitable and even do a traditional dance for me when we reach the top of the fort!

I've finally got some of the Hindu G.O.D. thing down - G: the Generator refers to Brahma, the creator of mankind, O: the Observer refers to Vishnu, the preserver of the universe and D: the Destroyer referring to Shiva, the destroyer of the world. I'm getting asked the 'freckles' question a lot. As so many people dye their hair with henna, nobody is bothered by the red hair but the freckles are really throwing people. Rather than go through the whole technical 'spiel' as I have been doing, I decide to say that I'm half Indian - it seems to work out better all round - it musters a small giggle and takes away some of the confusion!

Ranthanbore is the last stop in Rajasthan - off to Uttar Pradesh to visit Agra and the Taj Mahal next….

I LOVE RAJASTHAN!