GLUING STAMPS IN THE GARDEN

The day we left for Jaipur started badly as we managed to over sleep! Luckily we ordered a take-away breakfast to take on the train, so the waiter woke us up at 5am by knocking on our door. We then had a mad panic to get to the train station as our train was due to leave at 6.15am. It turned out that our train was delayed by 5 and a half hours!!! We ended up spending the whole morning on the platform surrounded by monkeys, stray dogs and small street children who kept trying to get into our bags. It was quite sad really as they were no more than 4 or 5 years old, dressed in rags and collecting rubbish in the station to sell for recycling.

There were some amusing sights though, namely the rhapsody of high waisted, snow washed denim jeans and disco shirts that seem to be favoured by the male residents of Jaipur.

We got to see some wonderful scenery on the train, Rajasthan is very picturesque, lots of rural villages, rice fields and mountains. Every now and then you see a flash of the brightest pink, orange or red, where the women dressed in saris are working in the fields.

Our hotel in Jaipur is really nice, we have been lucky so far that our budget has stretched to really decent guest houses, so we've not had to experience any hostels yet.

Whilst in Jaipur we had some postcards to send so we tracked down the local post office. As per traditional Indian custom, there was a seperate counter for everything! Once we'd bought stamps, we couldn't get them to stick to the postcards. Sarah went back to the counter and was told to use " the glue on the garden table" Sure enough we went outside and there was a table in the front garden of the Post Office with a communal bowl of glue and some twigs to apply it with - genius!!

We also visited the City Palace, which had lovely exhibitions of Rajasthani clothing and art and then we walked back through the bazaars.

Next stop Udaipur...........