Day 3

what a day! Finally made some good progress but got drenched in a storm and tried out night driving for the first time. Discovered the horn doesn't work with the lights on, not ideal. Got run off the road by a bus and saw a goat getting sacrificed on the side of the road...blood rushing out of its neck..we all shrieked and had to pull over to regroup! We also had a stowaway for a while when a tree frog hopped on our windshield and rode along for a bit...more screaming obviously. Never caught up with the boys hoping to in the AM.
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Day 2

game time decision decided to ditch Goa plans early in the day since we weren't making enough progress. Decided to start heading inland towards Mysore. We were greatly rewarded, loved the scenery of the lush mountains and tea plantations, much better than boring coast hwy. We got to practice our gears on steep winding mountain roads, we're old pro's now! Touched base with our new friends Keep Karma and Curry On meeting up with them in the morning maybe. Got stuck in terrible rain storm in Pandalur but found the nicest people...just got room and dinner for less than £5 total for all three of us :)
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Day 1

epic fail today! Flat tire at the start line, drove around in circles all day, ran out of gas, had a block in fuel line...this is going the be a long 14 days! Managed to find a decent hotel even though this town isn't even on the map...another adventure awaits tomorrow!
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A family portrait

So things are starting to pick up a lot now with race preparations so I think blogs with be fewer and les detailed from now on.

Thursday morning we took the train to Agra from Jaipur to see the Taj Mahal. First we went to Agra Fort, which was another Fort with a view. We are Forted out! We did have a fantastic time meeting the sweetest Indian family. It all satarted when their young son wanted a picture with me, he was so shy it was so cute. We took a pic with bim and then every member of his family then a big group shot. They were so cute! Little did we know this would be the theme at the Taj.

When we got to the Taj it was so surreal! It really is every bit as magnificent as you would imagine! I couldn't believe that I was actually there standing in front of the Taj Mahal!! We took WAY too many pictures, but we just couldn't stop. We were in SO many Indian family photos, it was crazy. They all wanted us in their pictures. They have professional photographers there you could but pics from and these familys were paying for family portraits with us in them! Wonder how many mantles we'll be on!?

After the Taj we got caught in the quickest, most intense thunderstorm and then headed back to Delhi by train for fly down to Cochin, where we are now.

We all LOVE south india!! More to come on that later!!
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A List

Of animals we have seen in the last 3 days

1. Cows
2. Elephants
3. Camels
4. Horses
5. Donkeys
6. Pigs
7. Goats
8. Chickens
9. Cobras
10. Chipmunks
11. Monkeys
12. Rats
13. Bats
14. Rabid Dogs
15. Cats
16. Ox (which are apparently different than sacred cows)
17. Water buffalo
18. Annie saw a red lizard, but I'm pretending that didn't happen!

Keep in mind this was all in the cities, freely roaming the roads and doesn't include all of the birds and bugs which are plentiful as well!
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Cobras, elephants and monkeys

Day two in Jaipur started early with Sameer picking us up at 9:30 and heading straight to the Pink City, which is the old walled part of Jaipur. There we saw the City Palace and the Jantur Mantur. The City Palace is still the official residence of the Maharajah of Rajasthan. He was in that day as the royal flag was flying above the palace. The royal flag of Rajasthan looks a bit like the gay pride flag but with a giant swastika on it. Kind of weird. We asked Sameer about the swastikas, they are everywhere in India, and the are really an ancient symbol meaning good luck. Unfortunately Hitler hi-jacked that one :(

City Palace has this one great courtyard with four beautiful doorways representing the four seasons. We had a mini photo session. Since it is still in use you can only view the outside areas, so there wasn't a ton to see. We did also get to see the royal carriages, which were interesting. Afterwards, we headed to the Jantur Mantur, which is kind of like some weird modern garden. Some guy built all of these different astrological sculptures in this garden and some time telling fixtures. It all was several hundred years old but looked very futuristic.

Before leaving the Pink City we all three had some henna done. Rangina was the cutest lady who did our henna. She was very sweet and we were amazed at how quickly she was able to draw the designs. Henna is all natural, made from leaves and dyed with saffron. They squeeze it out a tube like an icing bag and it dries on your skin after an hour. Then you dab almond oil on it to help keep it moisturized then the excess bits flake off and leave the orange design on your skin, which lasts about three weeks.

After leaving the pink city we headed to the outlaying hills to see Amber Fort. We stopped on the way to get a fresh coconut water, they just hack off the top of a coconut and stick in a straw! Annie was super excited about Amber Fort all week because you can ride an elephant up to the top of the hill to the fort. Annie is obsessed with elephants. We were so bummed when we got there to find out they only run the elephant untill 11am bc it is so hot after that. So we had to drive up rather than ride an elephant, a bit of a bummer. Amber Fort is high up in the hills surrounding Jaipur and had great views. The have a Hall of Mirrors which can't quite rival Versailles, but was still very pretty. There wasn't much more to see other than the views. On the way out we heard so music and turned around to see a couple of snake charmers...eeeek! I wouldn't get any closer to them than about 20 feet. But Kate was brave and pet one of them on the head! It wasn't all that cool the cobras just sit there in a trance. I always thought they danced to the music, but the just sit there without moving. Before coming to India I was a bit worried about the snake charmers, I thought they would be on every street corner. But apparently it is now illegal to own a snake as a pet in India. So fear not snake haters!

On the drive back down we saw all of the elephants being walked down the hills so we pulled over and got to pet them and take some pictures. In Jaipur they paint their elephants in bright neon colors, one even had pink toenails! Of course, with everything else in India, the elephant handlers wanted tips for letting us take photos. EVERYONE in india wants tips, you take a picture they want tips, you smile at them they want tips, you speak to them they want tips. That is one thing that is hard. Some deserve tips while others haven't but you know they are so poor but you can't give to everyone. It is quite a moral dilemma every day.

By this time it was early afternoon and super hot so we went bak to the hotel for naps in the room then Sameer picked us back up in the eveing to take us to Monkey Fort before sunset. This really isn't anything to see other than a temple at the top of a hill with a bunch of monkeys on it. It did have another great view of the city, but we enjoyed ourselves by befriending a small pack of local boys offer their "guide" services. They were really cute and fun so we let them hang around and we all took pictures with each other and gave them a small tip after. They kept trying to get us to feed the monkeys but we wouldn't do it for fear of rabies!! I ended up opting out of the pricey shot before the trip.

Next we headed out to Chakadali, a little man-made village outside of the city set up to show the tradional food, customs and dance. It is like a little mini-carnival. There was rides, dancing, boat rides, elephant and camel rides and a meal with traditional foods. We were a bit disappointed as the book and some people made it out to be a little more cultural than it actually was. It reminded me a bit of the old western town at Six Flags but indian rather than cowboys! It was overly cheesey but was full of Indian tourists from other cities. We were the only western tourists there. After we had a look around and ate our dinner we headed back to Jaipur with Sameer to Tiger Fort, his favorite place in the city after dark. It was about an hour drive one dark deserted mountain roads with no one else in sight. I only had terrible abduction thoughts once or twice. But we really had no reason to doubt Sameer and he came through with an amazing mountain top view of Jaipur by night. It was a million twinkling lights, but you could still hear the madness of the city below, the honking...the never ending Indian honking!

Sameer dropped us off around midnight promising to pick us up at 5:15 to take us to the train station for our trip to Agra. He was there right on time and hadn't slept the whole night. After a full day of driving us from 9 am to midnight, he spent the rest of the night trying to get more jobs to earn more money. If you ever go to Jaipur get in touch and I can give you Khan and Sameers numbers as they were some of the kindest and most trustworthy people we have met thus far.
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Hello, my name is Khan

Jaipur!! We loved Jaipur! Again, you've caught me on another train. This time from Jaipur to Agra, but still at 5:45 am. We are sad to leave Jaipur but excited that we are headed to see the Taj Mahal! I can't believe that I will actually see the Taj in just a few hours.

I left off last time on the train to Jaipur from Delhi. It was our first train ride in India and was the best way to travel. We wanted to sleep but had a hard time peeling our eyes off of the windows. As soon as we hit the outskirts of Delhi, it was slums for miles. I've read a bit about Indian slums in Shantaram, but it was still a huge dose of reality. They were huge, endless, built of scraps and trash. One on top of another. They have no privacy and consequentially, no need for it. Dotted along the railways for miles were men, backsides facing us, doing their "morning business". Others were out having a bucket bath, washing clothes, shaving their beards. All along the railway.

Upon arriving in Jaipur we headed towards the exit ready to find a ride to our hotel. The competition is stiff for drivers, before we even reached tbe exit we were greeted by a little indian man with a big smile. Hello, my name is Khan. He convinced us with a rock bottom price of 100 rupies for the transfer, just about £1.50. Little did we know we had just met some new friends. On the short drive to the hotel he sold us his driving services for the day for only 300 rupies for the afternoon. We wanted to spend a few hours at our great hotel by the pool. We stayed in Umaid Bhawan, it was fantastic! Would recommend to anyone going to Jaipur. After a rest by the pool Khan took us to see the sights. We all three instantly loved Jaipur. It wasn't a crazy as Delhi, the people were friendlier and we had a new friend Khan. He took us to a tower that we climbed to see a great view of Jaipur from above. Jaipur is a city surrounded by high hills all dotted with huge forts.

Next, we headed the Royal Gatore which is a royal crematorium for old kings. However, these are al recent kings from the last 70 years...they still build tombs in a grand manner. Afterwards we headed off to catch a waterside view of the Water Palace. Aptly named, as it is in the middle of a small lake and looks as if it is floating.

Next we were onto some shopping at the factories that supply the shops and markets. We went to a jewelry shop that handmakes all of its jewelry. We were shown how they hand cut and polish semi-precious stones. I ended up treating myself to a new lemon topaz ring! We went to a textiles factory next. Here we saw a man hand weaving a rug on a loom. They showed us how they hand dye elaborate patterns on blank cotton canvases. We saw the dying factory where they hand dye thousands of cotton dresses in one large vat of boiling colored water, then hang them to dry in the sun. We were also treated to a little impromptu street parade along the way! I had no intentions of buying anything but ended up walking out with a new duvet cover and matching shams...oops! It is gorgeous though, white linen with white embroidery. It takes them two months to handmake and I got is all for £60!!

We spent quite a long time here so afterwards Khan took us to a rooftop restaurant called Maggis. The food was good and there was a puppet show, which creeped Annie out and was a little weird. Khan had his brother in law come meet us there to take us home when we wanted. So then enters Sameer on our little journey. Sameer is a young guy, spoke very good english and was quite a charcter. Sameer joined us on the roof terrace for a while and then Annie convinced him to give her some rickshaw driving lessons! They all think we are crazy, by the way, when we tell them what we are doing here! Annie picked it up quick and drove us the short drive back to our hotel! Our first rickshaw driving experience!! Sameer informed us he would be driving us around the next day, so we met him bring and early the next morning for a full day of sight seeing...but that will be another post. I need to take a nap on the train so I am well rested for my Taj Mahal experience!
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