Hi, finally Lisa has let me have the opportunity to write something! Hope everyone at home is well, sounds like I'm missing some amazing football at the moment-come on Chelsea for the title!

From where Lisa left off we were still in the boat house in Kashmir. We went on a gondola ride to see the K2 mountain, with Lisa and I not realising if you're that high up it is going to be cold, so off we went in shorts and flip-flops and absolutely froze! (not forgetting Lisa's Raynauds of course!) Also while we there we saw another example of how Indian people have no idea how to make a queue, everybody pushes everybody and its crazy, the way they act you would think someone is giving money away or something!

For the rest of our day/night in Kashmir we visited the house of one of the drivers,a rug factory and spent an evening with three girls also staying at the houseboat,drinking a couple beers etc. Found out there is more than meets to the eye with the people running the houseboat, with them lying, threatening & even seperating Lisa & I from the rest of the group since they thought they were going to get even more money from us (being new to travelling)-cheeky beggars!

Because of this the next day we stayed away from their 'organised trips' and went off with one of the girls we met to the centre of town-which was far nicer than the dead part of town they were keeping us. We know we were overcharged for our trip, at least since the guy running the houseboat/trip started getting an idea we were annoyed (not really hard since he would enter a room and Lisa would either leave or ignore him!), we have been getting 'upgrades' to try and keep us sweet! Have been getting all our entrance fees to attractions paid for & been staying in some quite nice hotels-one even had a hot tub/jacuzzi kind of thing in our room!

After flying from Kashmir to Dehli, we met our driver who drove us to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. Its a very impressive place, the pictures don't really do it justice. Lisa and I both got pictures taken on the 'Diana bench', but mine has somehow been deleted. I think Lisa found the Taj quite spiritual but I didnt really get that feeling!

We are now in Jaipur, having passed through Fathepur Sikri on the way, which is a kind of ghost city. Was feeling pretty stressed last night since our driver 'Lucky', who we thought was ok, is starting to show his true colours and acting like the people in the houseboat, only wanting to take us places, especiaslly shops & restaurants where we are 100% sure he gets some kind of commission if we buy something. It does get pretty annoying in this place sometimes-since everybody seems to have an angle to try & get money our of you.That and the stares are really irritating, stuff that you would never tolerate in England.

Finally, we come to today. Been sight seeing in Jaipur, seen the city palace, astronomical centre, fort etc. Have decided now that an elephant ride is definately NOT a good idea, since apparently the heat (which is about 40+) makes the elephants mad, and apparently they killed someone last month! Lisa is quite dissappointed. Lastly we have been to see a Bollywood film at what is supposed to be one of the most famous cinemas in Asia. Didnt understand a word but surprisingly it was a good film, but very very cheesy .

We now about to go out to get my favourite dinner Pizza Hut, since I can't stand anymore of this Indian food-everything tastes the same!

Hope everything is ok at home. We are hoping to add some pictures soon, but need to find a computer that accepts the sim - so fingers crossed.

Chris and Lisa xx

Ps - Lisa didn't mean to say she was 'dressed' on the last entry, she meant dressed appropriately (it was a typo and she doesn't usually walk around naked!) While were on the subject of typos...we weren't actually 50 feet from the top but 500 - we're not that lazy to leave it there!

Maybe I should write more often with all these errors...

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