Hi Everyone,

Sorry it has been a while, but I have been caught up in the madness that is India. I arrived in Delhi just over a week ago which was initially a massive shock to the system and I am currently trying to work out how 4570 150 = 5000 as I try to book a flight from Kolkata to Mumbai. Delhi was insane, a big city that was heavily polluted and had lots of people everywhere. The weather was much colder than I expected and even after changing my hair color I still somehow manged to get stared at by most of the male indian population. I met the tour group on the second day. They are a cool bunch of people, there are 12 of us in total.

We spent a few days in Delhi seeing the sights and then headed on an overnight train to Jaislamer which was a 21 hour ride. I have fallen in love with all the curries, breads and also the chai tea mmmm chai. The train ride seemed to take forever and was relatively uneventful, thank god for the ipod.

When arriving in Jaislamer I got the shock of a lifetime, we stayed in a massive fort which was beautiful, there was cows and stuff everywhere and it was so completely different from Delhi (which was a good thing). The people were very friendly (some a little too friendly) and everybody wants to invite you into their shop to drink Chai (how could I resist). The sights in Jaisalmer were amazing, I will upload some photos shortly. One of the days we had free time so I decided to go for a walk and find the lake. I got a little lost as I often do and ended up being threatened by a bunch of dogs and almost walked over a black cobra. I s*** myself, heart was pumping for a good hour after that. I eventually found civillisation and met three guys who gave me chai and put my nerves at ease. I then went with one of the guys to his silver shop which I wasnt really keen on but he had been so kind and gave me a tour of the lake so I felt like I owed it to him. Coming back to the fort on the back of a motorbike with my knees touching cows as we pass was quite an experience. I also had an interesting experience after a guy offered to perform a thing called 'reiky' on me, it was explained as healing of the body using energy (ie rubbing the head, well he only initially showed me the head part ) but I seemed to get a hell of alot more than I originally anticipated. I quiclky found a way to make an exit before it go too out of control, but I dont think I will detail the whole thing here, probably a story for when I get home.

The next day we went on a camel safari which was great fun, we jumped in jeeps thet went deep into the desert and we then jumped on the camels. That was great fun, but a little painful on the butt and legs!! Lucky me got the clumsy camel that tripped over a rock and fell and I very nearly went flying off it!! We all spent the night dancing around the campfire...drinking vodka and beer (this was absolutely necessary as sleep was going to be difficult in the freezing cold). After sufficiently numbing the body I crawled under a mound of blankets and didnt again wake until I felt something climb on my bed in the early hours of the morning, luckily it was only one of the pet dogs so I shooed him away and set off back to sleep. Next time I woke the sun was rising and there was a man standing over me asking if I wanted chai...what a way to wake up, would love that every morning!!! After breakfast we then boarded our camels again for the journey back. I would recommend a camel safari to anyone, but in saying that would add 'the more padding on the butt and legs the better!!'.

Well once again I am about to go indulge in some fine indian cuisine, so ciao for now and I will write again soon.

Stay safe

Mandy