Hello everyone again. Thanks for your comments makes me very happy!

I feel like I've been here for weeks because loads has happened. After Bikaner we went to a random holy town full of stoned sadhus (beardy holy men with no possessions) got followed by a large group of men and had to pretend to be both Tammy and Kim's husband; not sure they quite believed me. The attitude of some men here is terrible. There is a strongly held belief that any lone Western woman wants to have sex with them so it has been quite draining for T and K to ward off men. Woman are very hidden, we've only seen one woman driver in 10 days. After the town we went to Jaisalmer with some American girls. It's an enormous fort that looks like a sandcastle rising out of the desert and is very atmospheric. In the evening both groups had a meal together with our drivers. We realised our driver Anil is an alcoholic and along with Hayley and Cassies (American friends) driver Ragu got tanked up on whisky. Me and Kim kept drinking it to stop him getting too drunk. Cassie drove Ragu back to their hotel and Ragu came back hugely insulted. Anil was insulted Tammy had gone with them so me and Kim were stuck with a drunk driver with no idea where we were. It was a slightly hair raising drive back, luckily the road was empty.

The next day we explored the fort and escaped people trying to sell us crap clothes (well I didn't escape and bought a crap shirt for a couple of quid) then we went to a far village and did a camel trek! My camel was called Salna and was the most flatulent and greedy of all - it embarrassed me greatly cos it kept belching. My driver was really weird as well - all he could say was "comfortable seat" yes "thank you, thank you not double thank you but single thank you" I didn't understand and tried to ignore this after the 18th time. :) The sand dunes were amazing (Jess! The cactus has been to it's spiritual home!). After an hour we came to a remote mud village that was looked really medieval. Loads of kids ran out to greet us and we had tea in one of the huts. I burnt my tongue in my desperation not to offend anyone. We then had a really big meal cooked by Anil. I've gotten really good with food now - I eat anything, even if it looks soupy. That night we were driven by jeep to the dunes by a nine year old (Anil was annoyed because the kid was a better driver) and slept under the stars. Didn't get much sleep as Anil was drunk again but the sunrise was cool.

After we drove to Jodhpur which, apart from the fort was a dump and we stayed in such a crummy place. We got to the fort late so could only look around - was still impressive. The next day we didn't see much as Liz Hurley had stolen it, and the other main place of interest, for her wedding. The cow. So we made do with talking to the wedding organiser and trying to think of ways to crash it. I wondered what she'd think of the obvious poverty lining the road up to the fort to have her 700 bottles of champagne as I found it pretty depressing.

Yesterday was much better. We stayed in a wildlife sanctuary with some Jains temples that where huge and had taken about 150 years to create. They were really relaxing and full of interesting carvings - quite a few from the karma sutra - Jainism seems a very erotic religion. Then we climbed a small hill to a local beauty spot which we had to ourselves.

In the garden of the hotel there were monkeys! The waiter's fed them chapattis but they were quite big. Then they all ran off, apparently they hide in the trees from panthers and leopards; that made me nervous so I went inside. Today we went to Udaipur; on the way we were stopped by a gang of men who'd blocked the road with rocks. They demanded money and Anil payed up to let us through. Apparently this is how they celebrate Holi in these parts and it happened twice more. Otherwise they pelt you with the powder - we saw one tour bus turned pink by it.

Udaipur's really peaceful. We went on a boat around the palace where Octop**** was filmed and to an abandoned palace on a mountain for sunset. I've eaten too much surprisingly and have now gotten sleepy with writing too much. Oh and I saw an elephant holding up all the traffic - that was surreal. Sorry my entries keep being so extensive but I'm using it as a diary type thing as well. In India I think it's quite costly for people to upload photos. I've taken loads so I'm just putting them on a cd for the moment. You may have to wait a while to see some. :)