Last time I wrote we were in Delhi about to leave for Agra. After reassuring us that his driver knew exactly where to drop us to catch our bus at 6am we booked a car with the owner of the guesthouse who told us we must leave at 5.15am. At 5.30 his driver turned up and then said he needed to strap our bags to the roof of the car whilst we got increasingly worried about making it there in time. He then proceeded to drive us to the hospital and started taking the bags off. We quickly realised it was the wrong place but it was quite hard to persuade him who insisted that this was where he had been paid to bring us and it "wasn't his problem" if we needed to go somewhere else. Eventually we found someone who did know where the bus went from and did some shouting at our driver who in turn, very grudgingly, retied our bags and huffed back into the driving seat. 10 minutes later we were dropped at the side of the road and luckily a phone call to the bus company confirmed that we hadn't missed it. At 7am we were very relieved to see the bus pull up despite being an hour late and jumped onboard for the 7 hour drive to Agra.

As it was Charles' 30th birthday the next day I had booked us into a nice hotel. It looked great on the website but nothing could prepare you for the beauty of it- especially after a long time in guesthouses! We had a view of the Taj Mahal from our room and a balcony overlooking it so as you can imagine we spent most of the day just sitting there looking at the stunning view and enjoying the luxury.

On March 16th Charles woke up age 30 and after opening his presents we walked out for a bite of lunch (terrible- by far the worst meal in India) and then down to the Taj Mahal. It is one of those images that is so familiar as you see it throughout your lifetime but nothing can prepare you for seeing it in the flesh- it is truly stunning. We jostled with the crowds to get our pictures taken and spent some time walking around before heading inside to admire the beautiful intricately carved marble inlay that surrounds the tombs. From there we spent a lot of time sitting in the mosque at the side just admiring the building itself which was a lovely peaceful way to spend the afternoon. In the early evening we walked back to our beautiful hotel and then sat by the pool to watch some traditional music and dancing. When we got back to our room I had arranged for a candlelit dinner on our balcony for Charles' birthday. We had a delicious feast and then suddenly Charles was down on one knee asking me to marry him! It was so beautiful and very exciting and we are very very happy. We spent the next 2 days doing very little but enjoying the hotel and we were really sad to have to leave for Jaipur on the 18th.

Jaipur is also called the pink city but I can't say it's what immediately strikes you about it! It is the centre of the gemstone trade pretty much throughout the world and so we decided that we would buy 2 rubies to have made into my engagement ring when we get back. We went to Gem palace which is very famous and there are photos of lots of royalty and stars on the walls with the owner. He made us laugh when he said "look at how much Prince Charles has aged but I still look the same!" He was right as well. We spent a lot of time there looking at the stones- we English like Rubies a dark red colour but lots now are very pink which is how the Indians like them. Eventually we found a pair of (stunning) earrings which had two lovely rubies in and the owner kindly agreed to take them out for us. Yesterday we went to collect them and they are absolutely stunning- it is very exciting!

We also visited the city palace of the royal family which was built between 1729 and 1732- that too, wasn't so pink but it did boast an amazing array of weapons on display including daggers that open like scissors inside your victim and very ornate pieces with handles of jade and semi precious stones as well as original carriages, art galleries and the largest silver objects in the world which are two huge sterling silver vessels of 1.6 metres (5.2 ft) height each with capacity of 4000 litres with a weight of 340 kilograms (750 lb). They were made from 14000 melted silver coins without any soldering for Maharaja Sawai Madho Singh II, who was a highly pious Hindu, to carry the Ganga river water to drink on his trip to England in 1901 (for Edward VII's coronation) as he was finicky about committing religious sin by consuming the English water. Hence, the vessels are named as Gangajelies (Ganga water holding urns.) I don't think we'll be bringing water back form the Ganges to drink in London as it is now the most polluted river in the world!

The night before last we jumped on a train to Udaipur. Normally I sleep really well with the very soothing rocking motion but this one was pretty juddery and we were thrown around a lot- I was still awake when we arrived at 6.15am and was shattered yesterday!We had a little sleep when we checked into the room and then headed out to see the Maharaja's car collection (guess who picked that?!)It was really cool though and they had some very beautiful ones including the Rolls Royce phantom that was in Octop**** and some very funny safari Rolls Royces. Included in the ticket price was a Vegetarian Thali which was very good- the highlight being the potato and mint samosa which was the best one I have ever had!Today we are going to look around the city palace. The heat is absolutely roasting (about 40degrees) and it is very hard to get the motivation to do anything no matter how beautiful it is!