My dad has an identical one which he uses for all manner of things.  Dad, if you happen upon this post, this pretty much sums up India, colours galore and tractors are no exception. I know you will like it – I did!

Please be aware that we have no phone coverage here and both electricity and internet are intermittent – just what we love.  Last night we had dinner by candlelight, not because we were feeling romantic, we had no choice :-). In case of an emergency, please call Chitwan Tiger Camp on +977 580060.

The first few pictures are of us leaving India and then entering Nepal – see if you can spot the difference (tip: look for filth).

Having seen the Taj all these years in movies and magazines, it’s surreal being able to see it up close and actually touch it.  It too has seen the effects of global warming, which is a real concern for the Indian Tourism Board. The structure was engineered in such a way that it requires the force from the river behind to keep it upright. Because the river has started to dry up in recent years, two of its piers are leaning by 7%, and if the trend continues, they will only last another 25.

You get free bottles of water when entering – and although it was a normal hot day – the reflection off the  marble intensified the heat and we lost at least 2ltrs of sweat – even the Indians were drenched.

Great to see it and worth the entrance fee.

UNESCO World Heritage Site #3

Many are pretty tame, but the majority are vicious bastards – they get quite irate if you don’t feed them, especially if they know you have food.  We visited early in the day so there were only a few monkeys there.  Just another experience we’re sharing with you.

We only had a whistle stop tour but managed to fit quiet a lot in.  The Pink City got its name when the entire old city was painted pink (it’s actually moire rustic), a colour associated with hospitality to welcome the Prince of Wales in 1876 (later became King Edward VII). The colour has been maintained since – probably because it attracts so many tourists.

Sorry for the lack of decent photos, we’re not as trigger happy and we haven’t been inside many of the temples – trying to sticking to our budget!

It was interesting seeing the preparation and then the event. We both had a guided tour of the so called kitchen area and they were very proud when we asked if we could take some photos.  It was a very quiet affair, no music or dancing and it was all done and dusted by 12am. The men on one side and the ladies on the other – how strange?  Had it been a traditional Hindu wedding, there would have been plenty of booze and unlikely to finish before sunrise – maybe then we would have joined in.

Mutton was the dish of the night.  It was crazy to see them mixing the dough and building the clay ovens for the naan bread. Mind you, if you had seen the number of flies surrounding the dough, you too would have refrained from eating, period!

Thankfully, we had a great night sleep.

We’ve immersed ourselves within the markets or bazaars of Old and New Delhi, taking our time to explore every nook and cranny.  It’s striking to see the arrangements and abundance of colours.  Alongside these beautiful stalls you see horrendous poverty and we’ve chosen not to show these for fear we’d put you off your breakfast.  It’s difficult to describe third world poverty until you witness it first hand.

On a more upbeat note, it’s so funny listening to an Indian pronounce ‘S’, everything is ‘Sh’, “please come shit in my car, please shit, shit” – it’s been crack’n us up!

Tomorrow we plan of visiting the sites of Delhi with a car and driver (should have clarified this earlier) so hopefully we will have some great shots.

We pulled into a service station to grab a bit to eat and there was a little girl (pic 4) busking, if we can call it that – it was so funny. We have a video but we cannot upload it because of the slow internet speed here.  The two boys in the 4th picture were begging for money, instead we gave them a large packet of biscuits, you would have though they had won the lottery, they scampered off jumping and screaming with joy – very moving – you want to give them the cloths off your back.

We will have many stories and videos of our travels that we will share with you on our return.

A few snaps of our journey:

Sam and I are not big on tourist sites and this long day definitely confirmed it – the expense, queues, security, no photos at many etc. etc. – at least we made the effort and have some half decent pictures in which to remember India.  I was going to write the names and a description of each site, but frankly they are not really that interesting.

Hopefully we will get to see rural India on our tour of the golden triangle (Delhi, Jaipur and Agra).

The Red Fort UNESCO World Heritage Site #2

We had an amazing day walking around the Main Bazaar yesterday ,  a metropolis of shops and stalls in the centre of New Delhi.  We haggled and laughed for most of the day.  It’s embarrassingly cheap – our accommodation (with a/c) is £3 each per night and in a reasonable hotel – that includes breakfast and 1hr internet, but you have to buy the toilet roll :-).  Sam bought a beautiful hand stitched shoulder bag for the equivalent of £2.50. A glass bottle of Coca Cola is around 12p.

Not sure what you’ll make of the photos but walking around is a surreal experience – we can’t wait to go out again today.  Although, as I write this, it is shitting it down with rain. Tomorrow we will hire a car and visit many of the temples and museums etc.