Today we woke up in our tent freeeezing!!! I had to get up in the night to put my hoodie on... Not a good night's sleep at all! Not helped by all my coughing. The tent is beautiful though, however it's crazy how the temp can go from thirty five degrees to near freezing overnight.

We had breakfast... Buffet for two hundred rupees each and was tasty! Haven't had many breakfasts since arriving so made a nice change. I had some cereal then an omelette and tea. Then we headed out to see the palaces... They were pretty amazing! One of the palaces had been built by a Hindu mogul as a gift for a king, who after spending one night there went away and got himself killed. In Hindu culture once a gift is given it can't be taken back or used by the gift bearer. As a result the palace has only ever been occupied for one day. The place was stunning though and throughout the rooms were these amazing paintings that remained even to this day centuries later. I enjoyed the stories and tour but was feeling pretty shattered from my head cold and lack of sleep so probably didn't show as much enthusiasm as I should have... Did do some jumping shots though and chilled at the top of the palace admiring the view... You can see for miles around. I took a few photos but to be honest they never do it justice and sometimes you have to just sit and enjoy the view.

After the palaces we had the option to go and cook with a local family but at five hundred rupees each I thought it was a bit of a rip off and we do a home stay on the second part of our trip anyway. Instead I went and chilled by the pool for a while... And it made such a difference. Felt a lot better... We then checked out and hit the road at one thirty. We headed to Allopura which is a small village where we were staying in a palace. We arrived and left our bags in the courtyard and headed straight out to explore the village. It's a small place and very clean, the government have invested in laying a concrete pathway throughout the village so it's a lot less muddy and dirty. The kids were again very friendly and shout "hello pen" to you all the time. Apparently this is because kids in the past have been spoiled by visitors who give them pens... We were advised not to do this as it's not good for their future and although they say pen they don't actually know what it means and think pen is a white person. This village sits right on a big lake and is very tranquil and the local's friendly... Everyone saying hello. After a little walk through the village we headed back to chill before dinner.

On our return we headed up to the roof terrace and enjoyed the view with a cup of chai while the final glow of the sun illuminated the surrounding area... Quite beautiful. We then checked in to our room and it's so nice. We are located in a pretty part of the palace away from the hustle and bustle and opens on to a little courtyard. We have a bedroom and sitting area, a dressing area and a huge bathroom. As we are here for a couple of days it was nice to unpack our things and sort them out. I seem to be losing vest tops along the way and now only have two! We thought we would do some washing so I sat over my bucket of scalding water and scrubbed my little heart away. Then after a bout thirty mins our bathroom was less of a palace and more of a laundry house.

We thought we would try the Wi-Fi and upload the blog and chat with family but the Internet is just frustrating... It connects then loses the signal and just makes you want to scream so we gave up on that idea and headed to dinner. As I hadn't had Indian food for a few days I thought I would brave a butter vegetable curry with a little rice and roti... I was passed being hungry but Steven keeps moaning about me skipping meals. I just find I'm no longer hungry when we sit down for dinner as the Indians eat so late.... The food took nearly an hour so I definitely wasn't hungry by the time it arrived. I did eat it though and shared it with Steven and it was nice being with the group as I haven't been at the last couple of dinners. After we headed to the lounge to play rummy with Christian, Emilie, Vanessa and Angie... And it was quite funny plus it was nice to chill together and have a laugh. Emilie was trying to teach us Norwegian and as much as Angie tried ...she just sounded Scottish! I wasn't much better and had a Japanese twang!

Rachel and Mel joined us and Steven attempted to teach us poker but since we all had the attention span of a Nat we didn't get very far although he did get through to Rachel. Abhi invited us up to the roof terrace for some rum with him, Jen and Finbar, so after a few games of rummy we put on our comfies and headed up. As the community is a mixture of Hindu and Islamic there were a few festivals going on just now and we could hear the bells and chanting of the local temple and mosque, it was like they were in competition as to who could be the loudest.

After a period of time we started feeling a tad cold so all headed down to the lounge where the rummy playing and rum drinking continued... Then finally around twelve thirty when the chanting man shopped... (much to Jem's relief) we all headed to bed... Early start tomorrow and it's a long day. We are heading about three hours away to the karma sutra temples.