For the past couple of weeks we've been touring the Land of Kings - Rajasthan. So we didn't get too much of a case of temple and fort overload or suffocated by the fumes of the mega cities, we decided to go off the main tourist trail and visit some 'smaller' cities in the south of the province.

First stop was the town of Bundi - a colourful town with a palace, a fort, temples, cows, monkeys and dogs. Apparently it's where Rudyard Kipling wrote 'Kim'. At dusk, thousands and thousands of bats swarmed out of the palace - very cool but very creepy looking at them up close during the day. Think I'll leave that to the Environmental Perspectives gang in future.

Then onto Chittorgarh - a not so colourful town with a palace, a fort, temples, cows, monkeys and dogs. Got a rickshaw-wallah to drive us all round the massive fort complex.

Next stop was Udaipur - a more touristy town with a palace, temples, cows (you get the picture). Luckily for us the recent rains have brought the lake up to a decent level and the Lake Palace Hotel (as seen in 'Octop**** ) did indeed look like it was floating. Took a boat ride round, went up in a chair lift to a sunset viewpoint, watched (and joined in with) some traditional dancing (aka cheesy tourist thing) and did lots of relaxing on rooftops.

Took a bus up to a hill station called Mt Abu which is essentially a holiday getaway for the locals. Bit like a English seaside town with tacky pony rides (no we didn't partake) and peddlo boats in the shape of a swan (oh yes we did). Finally got in some exercise walking up to 'Toad Rock' (we thought it looked more like a willy than a toad) and doing a morning's 'trek' up into the forested hills whilst being told by our guide that he'd been chased out by a bear the other day. Sadly no bears sighted this time - just lots of fresh poo sightings to keep the adrenaline pumping. Rented a moped as well and put Anton's cow-dodging skills to the test. No need to worry mums - very safe. We just won't show you the picture of the 'helmet'.

Final stop in Rajasthan - Jodhpur. No riding trousers purchased (in fact, we haven't bought anything yet) - just a(nother) tour of a fort. Actually the Mehrangarh Fort was very impressive and for once we did the 'audio guide' thing.

And now we're back in Delhi stopping over before our flight to Kathmandu (that is, if the Air India pilots end their ongoing strike...) and our little sojourn to India has come to an end. We've mastered the trains (fancy, free newspaper class; 'free' air con, no windows sleeper class, 2-tier bunks, 3-tier overnighters) so much so that the chai-wallahs 'chai chai coffee chai' is engrained on our brains, got ripped off by bus ticket agents and perfected the rickshaw negotiation. We've got used to staying in accommodation scented with fragrance a la mothball, walking around streets covered in s*** and rubbish and we're not put off by the manky dogs anymore. Basically we've got into the swing of things.

India is an incredible place, the people are overwhelming friendly and we have barely scratched the surface. But we're itching for the fresh air of Nepal so we'll have to save the rest of the country for another time.

Wish us luck for Anton's list of white knuckle activities lined up for Nepal!

xxxx