So the last few days have been insanely busy!! We went to see a lot of sights in Delhi including humayans tomb, quitab minar, the red fort, presidents gardens (which is only open for one month every year) etc. I'd say my favorite was definitely the quitab minar and the presidens gardens. We were supposed to be leaving Delhi on Monday to get the train to Jaipur, we got to the train station half an hour before the train was supposed to leave, which should be plenty of time, until we realised that despite our tickets saying new Delhi, our train actually left from old Delhi station, on the other side of the city!! So we had to get a taxi, in the rush of getting our bags into the taxi, Emily fell and her bag landed in a pile of poo (which was actually hilarious!) the taxi driver was nice and drove insanely fast for us, even carrying on when an auto scratched the side of his taxi! We made it to the station with about ten minutes until our train arrived, but we had no idea what platform it was on. We couldn't find anyone who worked there and when we asked the locals they either didn't know, or sent us in opposite directions!! We were running all over the station with our insanely hefty bags!! I thought I was going to have a heart attack!! And just as we got to the station we saw our train pulling off!! :( we saw the unreserved class o the train as it was pulling off and it's crazy!! The carriage was literally crammed with people, loads were hanging off the side of the train, and one guy was even balancing on the bit that connects two carriages!!! After recovering on the platform (where after the whole drama of us running through the station, we were being encircled with people staring at us- literally like being in a zoo!) we headed back to the hotel and got some yummy paneer for dinner. We then had to get up at half past five the next morning to get a bus to Jaipur! Only when we got to the bus, only two o us had seats and Emily, viz and siz had to sit in this sleeper bit above us, but they said it was very comfy!! Jaipur is a bit quieter than Delhi, so I prefer it. Our first full day in Jaipur was insanely busy!!! We went to the amber fort first, where we saw our first elephants one the trip! Then we went to hawa mahal and the janta manter which is a medieval observatory. We then went for lunch and shared some dishes but I wasn't feeling to great so it wasn't that appealing. :/ then we went to the city palace, we didn't have much time there but they have these two massive silver pots which are in the guinness book of world records. Then we headed to the polo ground for the annual elephant festival which was really good!! It started with a procession of lots of elephants amazingly decorated, there was one that was dressed in a shirt and jeans!! There were brass bands and dancers in the parade as well as some camels, cows and horses. One of the horses wasnt very happy as the guy tried to make him dance (this was quite horrible to see :( ) and he was kicking and nearly went into/ over the barrier of where we were sat. Then there was a tug of war (India v foreign tourists) and a race where people had to carry jugs full of water on their head. We got to meet some of Emily's friends from her project at the festival and also saw George again who ha a much better train experience than us!
Today is holi, and we had to but the most ridiculous outfits to save us from all the paint! We actually looked hilarious. When we first went out it seemed really quiet, but as we walked nearer to the centre we started meeting more people who put pain on your face, give you a hug and say happy holi! We even got squirted with water guns which was refreshing! As we carried on walking we got more and more paint on us and then it started getting a bit insane with loads of paint going by our eyes and stuff so after a while we decided to make a bit of a retreat back to the hotel absolutely covered in bright paint!! After major showering we got a chance to just relax and do a bit of reading in the hotel. Wee got a train to Ajmer tomorrow so hopefully we'll be a bit more successful than last time!!