Standing outside our bolted guest house gates at 5am we had our first major "Oh cr*p" moment. We had arranged with the guest house to let us check-in after our very early arrival in Jodphur, and all seemed fine when the tuk tuk picked us up from the train station on time with a "Natalie Corp" sign in his hands. The driver darted through the maze of very narrow, dark and broken roads before dumping us outside the world's most uninviting guest house and driving o...

As the train rolled out of the city and closer to the desert, it was like we were travelling to another country. The land outside became sparse and dry, and the air cleared (marginally) as we left the polluted cities behind. We only had a short delay of about an hour this time, and as usual we made friends on the train - this time with a young couple from Bangalore who'd just been to Jaipur for a wedding and are now spending a week touring Rajasthan. Apparently...

We were warned before arriving into Jaipur - the capital city of Rajasthan - that tuk tuk drivers at the train station would hassle us, trying to get us to go to the hotel where they'd earn commission for bringing customers to them. This happens at most train stations in India to be honest, with many drivers insisting the hotel we've booked has closed, or is "not good," so we'd be better to go with them. So, it was nothing unusual to be greeted by men literally...

Our night train from Varanasi to Agra was as eventful as most. Again it was delayed, but only by a few hours, but the main concern was the little rat that joined us in our carriage - zig-zagging it's way around our feet all night. We shared our section of the carriage with a family of six who were going on holiday to Jodhpur. The ten year old daughter chatted away with us until 11pm. Her English was amazing and she was practicing it with us. It passed the time ...

One week in to our trip and we've already racked up more than 30 hours in delays on trains and planes… We're hoping this is not the beginning of a trend! Amazingly when we arrived in to Varanasi seven hours late, our pre-arranged pick up was still waiting for us which was a welcome surprise… until we started driving. We should have guessed by the lack of wing mirrors that we were in for a bumpy ride. We're quite used to the mental driving in India now, but...