Happy Diwali!! Today is the equivalent of xmas day in India, we feel a bit left out of the celebrations as you can see how excited everyone is and all the families are out and about together. We have been told it will be an all night party tonight with loads of fireworks although it sounded like the all night party started this morning in our hotel...noisy b*****s!!!

Jodhpur was called the Blue city as all the buildings were painted blue we didn't really notice it til we travelled up to the fort above the city, got some good pics. Trying to get a few artistic ones as the endless pictures are becoming a bit boring. We stayed in Jodhpur for 2 nights, the first night we just stayed in restaurant and had dinner and drank chai with Rajesh. The second night we took out Rajesh to a restaurant in town as it was going to be our last night together, emotional!! We went to a really good place recommended in the 'Lonely Planet' called 'On the Rocks' it was the nicest place we have been so far. It was a garden restaurant with a kind of jungle theme and a disco that played western tunes. The food was really good and there was an impressive list of not Cocktails but Rocktails!! We decided to skip them as Raj told us about a little alcohol shop on the way back to hotel which had beers for 60 rupees each/about 80p!! It wasn't the best beer but the bottles were massive. Earlier that day in Hotel we had met a guy our age from Belgium, a  real Hippi. He had dreads and was here for the Trance festival in Goa next month. He was really nice and funny although he was still feeling the affects of the Hash cookie he had eaten for breakfast that day. We shared some beers with him back at the hotel. The next day we left early for our next and last town with Rajesh, Udaipur. The drive took 6 hours and we can only describe it as Bruce Parry meets Indiana Jones!!! We drove right up and through the mountains which had no barriers on the sides there were rivers and lakes everywhere with Buffalos bathing, women washing clothes and green trees everywhere, Its amazing how much a bit of water can make to a place. We passed through small villages in the mountains its crazy how these people live it really is back to basics. It felt kind of awkward to drive through in an air conditioned car listening to ipod, especially when we had to wait for men to lead their flocks of 100's of sheep across the road (This was no Sheepwash!!) Right up in these mountains the people still dressed in coulourful, bright clothing and the women wore braclets right up their arms and nose rings which covered half their faces. The women are so beautiful I'm worried burts might leave me for one and become a shepherd!!! We arrived in Udaipur about 4 ish and said bye to Rajesh as he set off back to Delhi on a 14 hour journey. He was supposed to stay with us til the 22nd but we told him to go as this would mean he would be with his family for Diwali. We are really getting into travelling mode now as the clean washing is running out and Burts skiddies are piling up!!! We now just wear the same thing everyday (has anyone else noticed in the pics that Burts wears his red scarf everyday!!)

Sorry Pics were all mixed up but it took us 2 hours to upload them all. Thanks for all your messages its really nice hearing from you all, we miss and talk about you all the time.

Mam- Burts has read Life of Pi he will send you his review.

On behalf of Peps and Rainy we must apologise for all our spelling mistakes......you get the idea though!!!