Namaste, Ram Ram

We are now back in Delhi after our road trip through Rajhastan. Our trip took us from Delhi, to the most northwesterly city of Jailsamer and back again, seeing the Blue City, Pink City, The Taj Mahal and a lot of temples on the way. We have also eaten more curry than most people would in their lifetimes! Max's bum has definitely suffered the consequences of this.

Our Driver Guti was a nice guy, who kept a comb in his backpocket and a bottle of rum in his boot. Whilst in Ranakpur he took us on a picnic by a secluded lake. A picnic that consisted of a bottle of rum and a bag of crisps. Indians generally drink to get drunk quickly and the rum was served straight with a dash of water. At 3.00 a bottle it wasn't bad though. Ranakpur was a nice place up in the mountains home to the Jain temples and a man with 6 fingers - people who dont eat meat, eggs, onions or garlic because they are 'pure'.

Our favourite city by far was Udaipur. The setting of the James Bond movie octop**** and featuring two large lakes with floating palaces. We had a really nice hotel that overlooked the lake complete with a laundry service (women washing the clothes in the lake outside). We couldn't put that poor Indian women through the hell of washing Max's pants so bought a surf bar of soap and washed our clothes in the sink. Udaipur was mellow and easy going with a lot more tourists and a lot less madness. The hotel was awesome with a cool restaurant and excellent food! We also tried a local cafe where we served a bananna and an aubergine curry - homemade for about 2.00!! The views of Udaipur from the surrounding hills were unbeatable. If you're planning to go to India please visit Udaipur!

After Udaipur we hit Pushkar which is meant to be home to a sacred and holy lake. In fact, it was just a huge hippy hang out with many Indian trying to scam everyone. We was shouted at for coming to the "holy lake but not worshipping", so we did what we thought best and went to an all you can eat buffeft which turned out to not be a buffet anymore due to other copycatting joints. We have both agreed to NEVER let ourselves turn into hippys because they look like morons. We did visit a Karma Sutra temple though that had by far the best carvings!

Jaipur was not as expected. The so called pink city is actually more orange and the traffic was horrific. Our hotel was so out of the main city that we resorted to walking to a petrol station cafe for dinner to avoid curry. A hot slice of chocolate cake was an added bonus. The next day we asked our driver to take us to Mcdonalds where Max sampled a McMaharaja Mac - basically a spicy big mac. The highlight was visiting a monkey temple in the hills. It was here we also stood for a period of time watching a huge fat naked Indian woman washing breasts bigger than the cows here! The monkey temples were very strange. Two natural springs where people wash surrounded by hundreds of monkeys that they feed,as well as a hindu temple.

Next stop Agra and the Taj Mahal!! One of the new seven wonders of the world. The Taj Mahal was built by an Emperor as a tomb for his favourite wife (one of many wives!) It was pretty impressive but heaving with tourists. The buliding itself is massive although inside you are rushed round and arent allowed to stop and look as there are guards with whistles if you stop walkling! We also had some really nice shoe covers to wear inside! Around the Taj Mahal there is a 1km exclusion zone for motor vehicles so our driver dropped us off and we walked 1km to the Taj Mahal before realising the ticket office was back where he dropped us off and we had to walk all the way back on what must have been the hottest day we have had so far! The Taj Mahal was definitely worth it though however "a bit excessive all for a women" as max says.

Then it was back to Delhi, which doesnt seem anywhere near as bad as we first thought. We even managed to find a decent cafe serving pizza yesterday as well as pancakes (Hayley was very happy not to be missing out on pancake day). We have now booked a train to Varanasi which leaves tommorow at 11.30am and arrives Friday morning at 5am!! We have been to the local supermarket to stock up in preparation and we will hopefully let you know if we make it through in a few days!!

Singapore is sorted with a 8 bed dorm booked. Its fantastic though because it serves unlimited free toast all day with Nutella or Jam. After Singapore its a boat or flight to Jakarta on the Indonesian Island of Java.

We love you all.

Over and Out. Stay in school.