Day 2 to Day 6

Howdy Peoples!

So we are on our way around Rajistan at the moment. Much of the area is very dry & desert like & dotted with old cities built around castles & fortresses.
We are taking a 14 day tour organised by the hotel from Delhi - not really what we had in mind but it makes it easy for us for the first part of our trip.
We are travelling in an indian Ambassador car, our driver is named Rajindra, he is a nice man from the Rajistan area & knows it very well it seems. Our trip takes around Rajistan & so far we have been to Bekinar, Jalismer & today we have arrived in Juipur. I'm hoping to add some maps to this page / site so you can see our route - & it will mean a bit more to our readers!

Jalismer was a real highlight, an old fortress city dating back many hundreds of years & was a very important part of the trade routes linking western asia & the middle east with india. We are continually amazed at the skill & craft of the people here. The buildings are pieces of art in themselves with such fine detail going into each & every part. Each city & town has a speciality in some kind of craft or another, Jalismer was silver & jewellery, Bekinar textiles, today we're in Juipur which is a central place where all these things are collected & then exported.

The food here is great, surprisingly not as spicy as you might think & so far no upsets, although saying that our guest house tonight has many comments in the visitors book raving about the food, so we were really looking forward to our meal tonight, but instead we found it to be the blandest thing we have had so far - no spice to it, no kick, seemingly just boiled veg mixed together & they told us we would have 'the best home cooking you will have in india' - my arse!
We are sticking to veggie food only (better for our karma!) & also the best way to avoid the infamous 'delhi belly'.

We're having a great time & think it will only get better & better. We have a little Ganesha statue (the god with a human body, 4 arms & an elephant head) which is preyed to for luck by the hindu's, so we hope she will look after us also.

Will do a better update when I'm not so tired & have more time & will try to make it a bit more entertaining instead of some two bit history lesson! Love to all from us both. XXX

Day 1

Hello everyone!!

Here we are in Delhi, crazy Indian capital city, where chaos rules!!!
Arrived this morning and were already hassled to buy stuff, tours, things!!

People are usually very nice, the porters took us to our room and just stared at us for a minute or two before our tired brains could realise... a tip!! they want a tip!!

Our hotel is ok, has comfortable beds, hot water & toilet paper is provided! No sign of the mosquitoe's yet but I reckon we'll meet them once we get out to the country side - we know they are waiting to bite us!

Current plan is to head west to Rajastan for a week or two,hopingto find the backpacker hang outs tomorrow to see what other westerners do to get about. Our hotel wanted to organise one for us (22 days) at about 400 pounds each - we said no thank you very much - eventually!

The sales people are very persuasive, and difficult to get out of!! So difficult in fact that after explaining to us about the family that hand made a silk rug & the good feelings in the heart it brings we did buy one for 8,000 rupee! yikes! lets not do that every day or week/month even! or we'll be eating patties & rice & nothing else for the next 6 months!

So, for a first day, it feels a bit (very) crazy, and we need to make sure we know when we want to spend money, and when we just need to say: Thanks, but no thanks and walk away! That will come soon i'm sure!

Time for some alcohol!
Namaste!!

Take care all and do send us little updates of yourselves!
Love from the Adventurers In India

xxx
J&S

Ready-Set-Go!!

20 Jan 07: we are enjoying the last full day in England, went to the caf' for the english breakfast, our bags are ready to be packed, and basically, we're almost ready to go... Better get packing!