Jaisalmer

We thundered through the desert in a dilapidated bus to the sleepy fort town of Jaisalmer. It's just 100 kilometres from Pakistan here and right on the edge of the Great Thar Desert. It's customary to go trekking in the desert on a camel and spend a night under the stars so I guess we'll be doing that at some point. Although there are many hotels in the fort itself, the government urges tourists to avoid them and to stay in the adjacent town as the whole fort is slowly sinking under its own weight. We got a good price on a room after much umming and ahhing (3 quid a night!) and are looking forward to spending a few days here, which will include Emma's birthday. No broadband = no piccies.

Jodhpur

We hurtled across Rajasthan in a bus bound for Jodhpur. It was hard to leave Mount Abu.  We tried to move the bus we had booked for a third time but this time they weren't having any of it. We spent the last couple of days doing much the same: eating great thalis, trekking in the mountains and drinking with our new friends. All in all a great time was had.

Jodhpur is a thoroughly likable city with many of its buildings painted bright blue, giving it a unique, blue-washed look. We're staying in a beautiful, 400 year old Haveli in the (quieter) old city. The fort here is excellent, with awesome views of the city and a superb audio tour (and this is definitely a rarity in India!). We plan to spend a few days here before heading up to Jaisalmer, on the edge of the Thar Desert.

Mount Abu Pics

Still in Mount Abu

Basically, we bloody love Mount Abu so we're still here. We do a half day trek every day in the woods with the local guide who leads parties out in the morning and evening. It's just fantastic that a place like this exists in the middle of Rajasthan which is known for being a very arid, flat, desert state. We've also met some great people here so spend the evenings eating great food and making merry. Tomorrow we're going to Jodhpur......probably.

Mount Abu

We took a bus to Mount Abu, Rajasthan's only hill station (sitting at a mighty 1200m above sea level). It's fundamentally a holiday resort for Indian families and couples and feels strangely like I expect Blackpool would have felt in the 1950s, with pedalos on a big lake, ice cream vendors everywhere and shops selling tourist tat. Having said that, it's actually quite a nice place to be with loads of restaurants serving great all-you-can-eat Gujarati Thalis (we are only a stone's throw from Gujarat) and excellent walking in the hills. It definitely makes a refreshing change from the throngs of Western tourists in the other Rajasthani cities and towns. There's nothing approaching broadband Internet connections here so we won't be uploading any photos for a few days....apologies.

Udaipur

Udaipur is really pleasant town next to a big lake and surrounded by mountains. We've been here a few days and really like it. We're staying down by the lake in a great hotel called the Gangaur Palace. Due to some confusion and some expert bartering/walking away/game playing on our behalf, we managed to get a great room for half the price paid by it's previous occupant (I sneaked a look at the payments book). The hotel is a Haveli, which is a large building (usually 3 or 4 stories) with rooms built around a central, open courtyard. It's a beautiful old building with narrow stone staircases, big tall double doors and a nice restaurant on the roof. Part of the James Bond movie Octopussy was filmed in and around Udaipur, so many of the restaurants show it in the evenings (it's a classic). There's loads of great shops in Udaipur selling art, clothing, wall hangings and all sorts. We are having some clothes tailor made, which we are picking up this afternoon. You can get fairly good suits made for about 60 quid a pop (and have them sent home) which is very tempting. It's very touristy here so prices start ridiculously high and you have to barter ferociously and at length to get a good price.

Yesterday we had a cooking lesson with a local woman called Swati. It was a superb morning spent in her family home learning to make veg curry (the base sauce used for almost all curries), biryani, samosas and chapatis. Whilst we were cooking away, her mother (a Gujurati) kept cooking dish after dish and offering them to us to try. We sampled so many delicious foods, most of which we have not seen on any restaurant menus before or since. We really enjoyed ourselves and are so glad we chose Swati over the bigger (and more expensive), classroom style cooking "schools".

Pushkar

We're in Pushkar and it's Diwali, the festival of light, which turns out to be more accurately describable as the festival of noise, as young children spend 48 hours letting off bangers and fireworks in the street (mildly entertaining at first, but now just plain irritating). Pushkar is a great town though, with long alleyways filled with lots of interesting shops, surrounding a large lake in the centre. There is a temple topped mountain on either side of the town, both of which reward a long, sweaty walk with excellent views over the picturesque surrounding mountains, the town and it's lake. No alcohol, meat or eggs are allowed to be consumed in Pushkar so the restaurants have to get inventive (which some of them do very, very well). We were expecting Pushkar to be full of the bong smoking baggy trouser crowd but were surprised to find what a popular tourist destination it is.

Although we have definitely been through a low period recently (India can be hard work and slowly grinds you down), we are now really looking forward to seeing Rajasthan and Punjab and intend to make the most of our last few weeks in India.