Tuesday 5th November…..

Ok so to recap what we did the rest of yesterday before I write about today…..We decided to take a walk to the cheap hotel at Arga we were staying as it look fairly close. We eventually found it and it was not too bad. Most people to seem to think Piyush wont speak the language Hindi here so when he talks to them in English about something e.g. how much to get somewhere, they sometimes speak to someone else in the local language like he's a foreign idiot…..little do they know he speaks about 5 languages and knows what their games are. When we arrived there was a good example of this as the miserable guy at reception spoke in Hindi to a guy that was going the way we wanted and could take us on the way, but he want to make up some crap and charge us 300Rs.

After we dropped our bags and sorted ourselves out (about 9pm) we got a rickshaw to a place Piyush went to years ago with his dad and brother (Michael who I met in London when I left mum and co at Trafalgar square)….this place was a bit posher although piyush thinks its gone a bit downhill.
We sat outside on the rooftop restaurant with Bollywood style MTV type channel projected on a big screen, and while trying a load of common Indian drank beer and rum. In fact this went on for a few hours, and we have a good laugh chatting about what had been going on, and drinking a lot.
About 12:30 we got a cab home, after piyush scolded and embarrassed the driver for trying to rip us off a fair bit. When we got back to the hotel we used the wifi to book our bus to Jaipur at 2pm the next day (waiting for this bus is where my username here came from - lame I know, but I didn't forget it so it worked!).

We got up today at 5am (before even the mosques started their call to prays) to beat the crowds and see the sunrise at the Taj Mahal. After getting there, getting hassled, and getting tickets (again Indians pay 20Rs while foreigners pay 750Rs - official ticket price) we went around to the east gate rather than the main gate. Knowledge of this east gate is sold for around 500Rs, just for them to show you around the corner where the queue is shorter. Anyway, Piyush already knew about this (after finding out some years ago) and we went around. After a queue for a while we went in…
The Taj Mahal is truly awe inspiring, and beyond what I expected. When walking through the arched gateway and seeing it in front of me for the first time it was honestly amazing….it actually gave me a lump in my throat. I can really see why this is a true wonder of the world.
Firstly we took photos of course, and then walked all around and inside it for the next couple of hours. This amazing place was built by Hah Jahan when his wife Mumtaj Mahal died giving birth to their 14 child.
Gilded in marble and like nothing else I have ever seen, and I can't really put the Taj Mahal into words so will leave it at that.

At around 8am (I guess) we left and walked around looking for a plug adapter nearby, considering the amount of tourists I assumed this would be fairly easy. I was wrong.
We walked into an area which was like going back in time, which I can image London or somewhere was like about 200 years ago. Only a photo can try to do the area justice, and I don't mean that in a bad way (I didn't have any hassle), but it's just got so much going on that is not the norm for any westerner from 2013 that it would take 5 pages for me to give some real perspective and idea of the place. Anyway, turns out we picked the most unlikely place to find a plug adaptor for sale and didnt find one. But it's good to be wrong sometimes, I'm glad we walked around there.

Eventually we got out and got a tuktuk to Agra Fort, bought tickets (usual storey) and went in. This place was built by the grandfather of the Emperor who built the Taj Mahal, who kept 5000 women in his harem. This place was big, much bigger than it looked from the entrance. This is the most important fort in India. One thing I remember is that Jehangir (the grandfather) had a solid gold chain 80 foot long and 60 bells on that reached out from the fort so that any common folk could ring it to gain the attention from the emperor tell of major concerns and for his action (apparently there is proof this existed by a British guy who was there around the time - 16th century). I could go on and on about this too (was a great place), but anyway we spent about 2 hours here and moved on.
-----Continuing to write this the next day from the same place….
We needed to go to the railway station to try and buy a ticket from Jaipur to Jaisalmur (as we had the train from Agra to Jaipur sorted) which to cut a long story short was unsuccessful. We still needed an adapter so we walked around trying to get one. By the time we gave up on getting a train ticket from a small private travel desk and getting an adapter we decided time was running out and we got a tuktuk back to the hotel, where our main bags were still at and we could use the wifi for a train ticket and get some breakfast/lunch. Found a place that sold an adapter on the way a got to there about 11:30am and started to sort out stuff (bus tickets, charge laptop/phones, eat). For some stupid reason you cannot buy a train ticket online between 8am and 12pm, which even when we got there we could not do for numerous stupid requirement reasons. Everything in India takes minimum 30 minutes (for something simple), and mostly way longer….and if it doesn't work out it's only our problem. Nothing is easy, and nothing is without hassle and agro unfortunately.

Anyway at 1:45ish we went….----Stopping here as they want us out where we currently are now as it's starting to get late (I think it was about 11pm).

Wednesday 7th November…

I will continue from where I left it and try to remember what we were doing (although seems like about 2 weeks ago now)….
Anyway at 1:45ish we went to the bus stop which was way smaller than Delhis. Fortunately there was a bar next door (very rare here) so we had a couple of beers with the short amount of time we had before getting on the bus and leaving. The journey started with a lot of driving to get out of the city and through the crazy traffic (Vicki would have been way sick within about 10 minutes). This time the bus was pretty full but the seats were fine. Fortunately the weather this time of year is fine for me, otherwise the heat of the summer would have killed me by now (air con didn't work).
We did a lot of driving through the countryside and small villages and after 2 1/2 hours there was a toilet stop, and we also managed to get a beer there too haha.....another 2 1/2 hours and we were at Jaipur. The first stop someone actually got on the bus to try and convince me to get off to no doubt rip me off. When we arrived at the last stop people were following the bus in from the sides looking in and looked happy when they saw a white face on board (mine). After some further hassle we bought a cheap coffee which costs basically nothing so we could talk to the seller and try to get some honest advice about where the train station is and how much we should expect to pay….20Rs was the answer, while his mate laughed and said they'd take 50 from us.
Asking the tuktuks to take us to the station and the price we got was 80Rs….obviously we (Piyush) wasn't putting up with that. So the usual haggle resumes and we walk on, but this time the tuktuk guy walked with us and everyone we asked he shouted out what he had asked for so all the tuktuk drivers would say the same. This is just around 50c/30p in it but Piyush would not have it….even though he'd be fine paying $50 for a taxi home from the pub in Sydney haha. The same guy told us we were walking in the wrong direction and directed us off another way…..turned out he was lying and sending us in the wrong direction. We got a rickshaw soon after we started walking for 40Rs.

As the bus had got us to Jaipur late we got to the station eventually around 21:30 and tried to get a ticket for the train we had seen online scheduled for 23:15 (which we were unable to buy before) to Jaisalmur. Out of luck, no chance.

-----I will pause here and post before I lose wifi again, right now the time is 16:35 and we are in Jodhpur, Rajastan. I will just comment to say that we are now a long way from $10 (580Rs) James Squire pale ales in Sydney.