Rightio... Rhys Vadas here reporting in for the Pushkar blog on the India Tour 2010/2011.

Okay, so, my story begins with a drive toe the Amber Fort for a planned elephant ride and some general sight seeing, but due to a series of unfortunate events, the General had died so we could not view it from the inside, so instead we continued the epic pilgrimage to Jaipur. At Jaipur, a Palace was awaiting us, where we saw a man sitting by the gate, dressed all in white blowing on a eerie sounding instrument...it was not long before cobras arose from the small weaved basket that sat before him. After many pictures and a very forced "Donation" we further looked around the palace at very interesting artifacts that date back to the time of the British Raaj, 1947.

Walking through the palace had made everyone somewhat tired so we headed back to the bus. Although the trip took a while, we all managed to keep our cool and have some fun...i think i even saw judy smile out of the top of the plastic bag she had been using to hold the contents of her stomach.

It was dark when we arrived in Pushkar, so Jamie walked us to the Sunset Cafe for a delightful dinner. After a great meal, which consisted of Jack Nagy and myself ordering the hottest item on the menu, and poor old Trent somehow ending up with it, we headed to the apartment and went to sleep.

It was time to rise and shine, so we all headed out to do our own thing which was almost the same for everyone...SHOPPING. Constantly being asked for "Chipati" by the beggars was worth some of the bargains. After splurging and buying some nice gifts for ourselves and others it was time to meet up for dinner. 80 Rupees per person was the price, which is about $1.90 AUS. with a full tummy and thinking aheadwe decided to make the most of it, we filled our jacket pockets and hoodies up with Chipati, and headed back into town. how stoked some of the beggars were when we pulled out wads of this prized bread, yet some rudely declined our offer and prompted us to buy biscuits from their uncles store. I think there was a scam going on... Tired from our good deeds we again retreated back to base we hit the sack and had a good sleep for tomorrow would be a day that would test our mental and physical abilities, and push our levels of patience to the max - a dreaded 14 hour bus ride. I leave you, the reader with some words of advice from one of the locals... No woman no cry, and no coffee no chai. We couldnt really make too much sense of it but we hope you can.

Rhys.