Hello from Jodhpur.We travelled here by car from Udaipur where we had a lovely time exploring the city palace and enjoying the stunning lakeside views in the "Venice of the east.'We got invited to this guys house which was quite random for Chai and whilst we were there I agreed to let his daughter henna my hand. It turned out to be a bit of a mistake because instead of the lovely pattern I was expecting I got some blobs, hearts and squiggles all over my arm that looked basic for someone half her age. Still at least it only lasts a week despite it being a little embarrassing! We also visited the Maharajah's car collection at Charles' request- it was quite good though and included some very funny safari Rolls Royces!

The journey here by car was beautiful.It was great to travel through tiny villages with Ox turning the water well and see the countryside.We also stopped off at Kumbhalgarh fort and a Jain temple on the way.The fort was pretty empty which was a little disappointing after making a long trek in the scorching heat up to it but it gave a fantastic view of the surrounding area as it is on a hilltop 1100 metres high and certainly gave you an idea of the town it would have once presided over- Over 360 temples are within the fort, 300 ancient Jain and the rest Hindu. You can also see tens of kilometers into the Aravalli Range and apparently It is widely believed that the sand dunes of the Thar desert can be seen from the fort walls however we only learnt that afterwards and so did not look for them- I'm sure we'll have enough desert in Jasailmer! The other site is the perimeter walls that extend 36 kilometres in length and 15 feet thick, which they claim to be the longest in the world after the Great wall in China.

After burning there we climbed back into the car and drove 45 km to apparently the most beautiful Jain temple in India in the village of Ranakpur. It was truly stunning with intricately carved marble everywhere you looked. Over 1444 marble pillars, carved in exquisite detail, support the temple. The pillars are all supposedly all differently carved and no two pillars are the same. Locals say that it is impossible to count them!After some time there we returned to the car and continued our drive to Jodhpur.

Jodhpur is a truly stunning town- it is called the blue city and it really is blue! Overlooking it at a lofty 122 metres is a huge fort called Mehrangah. It is one of the largest in India and also contains two palaces. On the other side of the city the palace where the Maharaja still lives is also stunning creating a lovely feel to the place. Yesterday we went up to visit the fort and had the best audio tour I have ever had! It was really funny and very informative and we learnt loads about the palace and also Rajhistani traditions. When we came out there was a huge band playing trumpets, horses and lots of people hanging around and we learnt later that it was because it was a festival and the Maharaja was visiting- sadly we missed him by half an hour! On the walk back down to the town a guy started talking to us and invited us into his house.When he said he made machinery as a job we weren't sure what he was going to sell us but then it turned out that his wife did Henna! I agreed to try it again in the hope it would be better and so she did it on my left hand. It is much more beautiful than the other horrible one so that's a relief! Last night we went for dinner on a rooftop and could see all the celebrations going by which was pretty cool.

Today we went to the post office to send a parcel back of stuff we had bought.We were told that it closed at 5 but when we got there at 3.30 the tailor who has to sew parcels in white linen (all post in India must be sent this way_ told us we were really late and the parcel guy left at 4. By the time our parcels had been sewn up and sealed with wax it was 4.30 and so inevitably we had to pay baksheesh (bribe money) that went straight into his pocket!

I have been a bit rubbish at writing blogs from India. It is so hard to describe the sights and sounds, bright colours and fantastic food, hilarious conversations you have with people every day and how friendly the cows in the street are (who are everywhere!) We laugh all the time and get asked extremely personal questions constantly whilst feeling like a celebrity with everyone wanting their photo taken with you. The architecture is beautiful- even the Haveli where we are staying is over 250 years old. We have really fallen in love with it here and it will be impossible to tear ourselves away. We just can't think about that right now!The saddest thing that happened was that I haven't had time to have my own pair of Jodhpurs made here- that would have been fantastic!