Jaipur

It was a very early start. We had an alarm call at 0430. The coach was outside for 0500. There were people arriving for the disco. Aisling said she could hear the thumping in her room. We were given a packed breakfast by the hotel. It came in a big cardboard cake box! On investigation it had two boiled eggs wrapped in foil, a sandwich with onion mayo, two hard pastries, a pain au chocolate that was light on the chocolate, apple, banana, orange juice.

We got on the coach which then appeared to have a problem getting out of the grounds. The coach dropped us off at the side of the road - apparently there was too much of a jam for him to get closer to the station! Yeah right.

We walked along the dark streets with tuk tuks dashing past and crossed a road to get into the station. We had to put our bags through a scanner then we walked to platform 10. The train was there. We were in coach C10. Someone was already in our seat but we managed to turf him out.

The train departed about 5 or 10 minutes late. As we slowly crawled out of Delhi you could see the slum housing right by the railway line. These were brick built rooms toppled on top of each other. There were people washing themselves outside. Some were sorting through rubbish. There seemed to be a lot of rubbish! You saw a number of children in school uniform.

The slums gave way to rural fields. You saw a grain harvest being done by hand. Many people working in the fields - women in saris and fairly impractical clothing doing hard manual labour. The fields were not big but quite small. The grain was cut by hand and stacked in sheafs. A couple of places had machines on lorries to strip the grain from the stalks.

On arriving at Jaipur the train was stood for 5 mins rather than the usual 2 and so we did all get off ok. We walked out of the back of the station for the bus and walked through a lot of rubbish and deprivation. We recognised our bus. There were children begging. Aisling gave them apples.

We arrived at the Hilton. I asked Shakeel for a double room this time. We were offered cranberry juice whilst waiting. This was a far better hotel.

Rob went out with the others. Took a ride in a tuk-tuk and visited the palace of the winds. He went with the two Cardiff ladies.

I tried to have a bit of a snooze but my cold was settling on my chest so it made it harder to sleep. I headed for the spa. I saw the people from Sunderland having lunch by the pool. I had a sauna and a swim. The pool was very small. The marble steps to the pool very hot. One part was for decoration or children only. It was long but only two meters. I went back for a snooze.

Rob came back about half five. He had been in the bar on his return to catch up with the others who had gone out.

We went down to the bar and got a drink. Slowly others joined us and we stared to hear about their adventures. The couple from bath along with Tony and Maxine had been taken all around the city with their driver who then took them to a jewellery scam. They managed to get out without buying anything - but they described the scam. Apparently another English couple were there in on it - saying what good quality it all was and buying 12 rings! But the stones did not shine or sparkle.

Aisling managed to get to the city palace and said about how marvellous that all was.

I wasn’t happy at evening meal having told the woman seating is we were with the group. She put us on our own. The man took away the water and I chased after him. I said I wasn’t very happy and she must have realised what she had done and then put us on the end of all the others. It wasn’t that comfortable!

Went to bed and slept quite well.