Pushkar = hippy paradise

We have just spent the last two days in the little town of Pushkar, a half an hour's drive from Ajmer. It's one of those places that you would describe as 'discovered' - Westeners everywhere, all the restaurants catering for Western appetites (I've had a jacket potato the last two days in a row for lunch, feeling better already!) and an awful lot more hassle from the locals to go into their shops than we had in Ajmer. The town is set around a lake, which has many different ghats, including one where some of Gandhi's ashes were thrown. It also has a Brahma temple, which there very few of. The town has one central road which sells an awful lot of hippy-esque clothes, and has some dubious looking shops which look like places to go and get high (before you wonder, no I haven't been in them - as if my body needs that to deal with on top of everything else!). Overall, Pushkar has some beautiful sights and great views, especially from the rooftop restaurants, but has probably lost some of its magic due to the very high amount of tourists here.

Ajmer - an unexpected treat!

We've just spent a lovely two days in the little town of Ajmer. We've been staying in the wonderful Haveli Heritage Inn, and the owners have been incredibly helpful and full of great information about where to go. Today, we started off in Nareli temples, a massive Jain temple set high up a mountain. We didn't get to go right to the top of these temples as there was construction work going on,and anyway I don't think the tuk-tuk would have made it!

When we went in to the temple complex, we were immediately beseiged by Jains thrusting their children towards us for pictures (this is when you realise you're not in a Lonely Planet recommended place!) As we walked on, the crowd around us grew and grew until we arrived at the inner temple, which had a Buddha in. You can see by the picture below what happened next!

Anyway, after shaking a million hands, we left, and after this we saw some of the sights in town - the Anasagar lake, The Jain Red temple, and then we headed to Dargah, a Muslim sight of pilgrimage. Unfortunately, we weren't able to take our cameras in there, but it was an amazing and incredibly different experience. We were led around by a priest man, who showed us where and when to donate money, buy gifts for family (apologies to my family, I didn't buy you any flowers to leave at the shrine!), get blessed, and also the priest prayed for me, which was nice! He then asked me to kiss the wall at which he prayed, which I pretended to, then eat a flower bud, which I politely refused. As if my stomach needs that to contend with as well! I should've asked him to pray for my stomach, thinking about it!

So, all in all, we've had a great time here, it's definitely worth spending a couple of days in Ajmer. We're off to Pushkar tomorrow to see how that compares!

Jaipur - much better!

Jaipur is a very interesting city, still crazy, congested and polluted but much calmer and more pleasant than Delhi. The Amber Fort in particular was quite spectacular, and the old city was good fun to navigate our way around. Nikki and I both managed to strike good deals on pashminas and get really pretty, patterned ones for Rs 300 (starting from Rs 900 in my case - yes, I am rather proud of myself). We spent a long time in one of the pashmina shops, where they showed us sari's which went up to the thousands, they were so beautiful. Nikki was made to try one on in the end for our comic benefit! We ate at a lovely rooftop restaurant for both nights of our stay which was near the very nice looking but fully booked Pearl Palace hotel, and ate pizza and pasta both nights without any horrific consequences! Not good but its a start. I've read in my Lonely Planet that they sell jacket potatoes in Pushkar, you wouldn't believe how excited I am about that!!!

Not a good start....

Well, I'm finally out here, on my trip I've been looking forward to and planning for so long, and I can honestly say that 80% of it so far has been absolutely awful! We arrived in Delhi tired (no sleep due to a delightful screaming baby for the duration of the 8-hour flight) but excited, and everything seemed good. We found our driver at the arrivals gate and we got to our hotel safe and sound, which was in the Karol Bagh district of Delhi. The staff were very friendly, and quickly convinced us to go talk to their friend in the Tourist Information Office (we quickly learned that there are a million such places, none licenced, trying to rip you off on every street corner!) We escaped with all our money, and a recommendation for a 'safe' restaurant to ease our stomachs into India, The food was lovely and we were feeling happy and ready to face Delhi the next day.

On Tuesday, we learnt how the metro system works - it's very fast and efficient and people are willing to help you find your platform which was great. The trains were busy but there were lovely and much less crowded women only areas, which we took advantage of. We went to Old Delhi, a chaotic, congested, mad environment with loads of tiny little shops which sell the same things are the surrounding five shops - so you get a row of 5 shops selling taps, then the next 5 sell wallpaper, etc. We tried some street food for lunch and then went to Jama Masjid, a hige mosque which was beautiful and very peaceful.

Later on, we went to Pahar Ganj, the backpacker district, to see if we could make some friends, and we met a really lovely guy called Richard, who we arranged to go on a tour with the next day. Unfortunately, that tour never happened, as soon after finishing eating dinner with Richard, Nikki started to feel ill so we headed home. And that was when the bad times began! Nikki and I have been very ill ever since - I won't go into details, but trust me, it's not been pleasant.

We managed to sum up the strength to get out of Delhi yesterday (we were both desperate to escape by then and blamed it completely for all our problems) and managed to get a train to Jaipur. So far, I can't tell you much about the place as I've felt too rubbish to do anything, but Nikki felt well enough to go on a tour with Richard (who we randomly bumped into at our new hotel) so hopefully she'll be able to report positive things back to me. Maybe one day soon I'll get to see something more interesting than the ceiling wall again... here's hoping!

Nearly there!

Just under a week to go now, and I don't really feel all that ready! I'm picking my passport up tomorrow from the Chinese embassy in London, who seemed extremely efficient when I dropped it off, so hopefully everything is fine as far as that's concerned. At the moment, my main worries are about what to pack, whether I can fit everything into my backpack, and also whether I can lift said backpack once everything is inside!