We stayed in Mohammad’s guesthouse, which was by far the cleanest and most modern place we stayed in. Strolling around Bodhgaya town itself, there is a stark difference between the wealth of the Asians being bussed into the temple on large coaches and the local people – Bihar is one of India’s poorest states – poverty is rife.

Interestingly, only male members of the family attend these ceremonies. In the past, widows were burnt alive with their dead husbands! The eldest son has to shave his head and the body is burnt with wood (different types, depending on the wealth of the family). There is a strict no photos policy at these ceremonies – angry family members have been know to throw stones at tourists trying to take photos from the boats in the river.

So, we spent four days here, wandering along the ghats, stopping for chai, and eating in Varanasi’s many nice food spots – Pizzeria Vaatika and Brown Bread Bakery for a real cheese toasty were both delicious.

The first night we took an evening boat ride back to the guest house. The atmosphere was slightly dampened when our friendly boatman wanted to double the price midway up the river. There may have been some slamming of the lonely planet in his face…

Here, more than in other places, anyone wanting to have a “chat” generally wants you to buy something, give a donation or to come to their uncle’s shop. The first night we went to see one of the ceremonies at the water. Stef and I got suckered in to taking a flower candle to put in the Ganges (“good luck, good luck”). At the water, our friendly “priest” did his blessing, after which he wanted 500 rps!

However despite the constant harassment and scamming, it’s a special place and  just really weird here.

The Taj Mahal is amazing to see and definitely doesn’t disappoint – everything is aligned so perfectly it looks like it’s a photoshop fake in your pictures. One night in Agra is enough though. Our safe food choices besides Mc Donalds were Joney’s Cafe and Shinaya Palace for great views of the Taj.

We had come to Ranthambore to see some real life tigers out in the wild in the national park. However, three safaris later we saw none. Our friends arrived that night when we were leaving. They went on a safari the next morning and watched a tiger hunting for thirty minutes, with the photos to prove it. Oh well..at least we tried…or something.

The first afternoon Annie and I rented some push bikes and cycled round the lake to a Hindu temple. A quick game of cricket along the way and an interesting drink of crushed limes and sugar followed by a couple of samosas wrapped in newspaper resulted in a pleasant afternoon.

A good spot for photos was the local market one evening – everything was available to buy and I met some interesting characters.

However the relaxing atmosphere of Udaipur made up for it. We stayed in Hotel Kumbha Palace – comfortable with a nice rooftop restuarant. Udaipur is calmer and cleaner than alot of other spots in Rajasthan. Everyone is well used to tourists, without being too pushy, and there are lots of nice roof top restaurants, bakeries and European style cafes. There’s plenty of shopping here, for handy crafts and paintings in particular. We spent afternoons browsing, visited the impressive palace and cable car view point. There was a festival on while we were here aswell – great people watching opportunities!

Me in my stylish “India gear” getting on my first train:

Our first day was spent wandering around the narrow streets, that crisscrossed below the impressive fort. Bombarded by groups of children is becoming the norm here – “one pen, one pen” is a common call, and everyone wants “one shnap” so for example a simple ten minute walk to get to the fort from our guesthouse becomes an epic adventure! Unplanned we ended up with henna tattoos that afternoon, see below.

Annie and friends:

All hennaa-d up:

The highlight for me in Jodhpur was the excellent cooking class we did with Reeka in “Spice Paradise” (see trip advisor for their excellent reviews) She showed us how to make a selection of Indian dishes including Biryani rice with Raita, Mutter Paneer Masala and four types of flat breads – all delicious, I can’t wait to try these at home!

Claire cooking up a storm:

And so, just after breakfast, the “Indian Fantastic 6″ (We had picked up an American girl Kat, from “the Alabamas”) along the way, headed off in the jeep to collect our camels at a small village nearby. See the gang below (minus Darko):

We set off for a couple of hours in the morning, soon realising that our two days and one night would definitely be enough time spent on a camel! They are comfortable at first (unless they start to speed up) but after a couple of hours (or even half an hour) you definitely need a stretch. Our leisurely lunch under some trees gave us a break from the midday heat.  Dal, rice, chappati and some veg curry was all cooked fresh by the camel boys and very tasty.

Back on board after lunch, we didn’t have too far to go before we got to our camp for the night. A cup of chai was quickly boiled up and we headed up to the dunes to watch the sunset. Dinner was more of the same but again tasty and we settled down in our accommodation for the night – some thick soft mats and blankets laid out on plastic sheeting under the stars. Being  my first night ever sleeping out in the open, I suggest it is definitely something everyone should try. I loved it, despite being slightly overshadowed by in depth discussion between my new American and London friends about “Dubstep” music through a weedy haze.

The next morning after breakfast (bananas, chewy toast and chai) we travelled back towards the village, hitting some unforecasted high temperatures. We soon realised we were going to run out of water and sitting in the lunchtime heat was not helping. None of us were keen to drink the local well water but it was becoming tempting by 3 o’clock. Finally we got to the village where litre bottles were downed in one! Two things to note  from this trip – always have too much water in the desert and two days on a camel is definitely enough. Click here to organise your trip.

Ishen’s shnap…

The lovely Camille…

Claire, the final accountant, Annie from Canada, Darko from Germany and Ishen from London had been travelling together for the previous week.

And so, the first surprise – our itinerary began with a trip to the holy rat temple. Click on the photo below – yes, around the rim of the bowls of milk are lined up happy rats!

The story goes that these rats are the reincarnated family members of those that come with gifts of food and offerings daily. After the rats we had an excellent meal in a local restaurant – Butter Paneer Masala is now a favourite!

After settling myself and having a shower I built up the courage to head out. The metro is a great system, very modern and easy to use. Going through the metal detectors (the women only queue is alot shorter) at the station is a bit daunting but inside it’s fine. They even have women only carriages which was very handy during the rush hour. Overall you don’t see women out and about as much as men, which maybe contributes to the amount of attention women get on their own. (more to be said on this later…) Anyway, I made it home in one piece for dinner at the hostel and arranged to go to the red fort with two Americans the next day.

Another metro into town got us to the red fort where the hassles began. Everyone seemed to want to take our picture which was fine to start with until groups of young boys in particular began taking “sneaky” photos with their phones or having their friends sit beside us for photos, which lead to one group actually following us around. Fortunately my confident American friend was having none of it…everyone always needs a loud American on tour!

After the fort we decided to get a rickshaw to take us around the old city. Even though the traffic is chaotic it was a good chance to see the different shopping spots. We got off at the spice market and my one armed driver walked us round until the smell from the fresh chillis (kilos and kilos tied together in woven bags) got too much for me and I couldn’t stop coughing. We also were brought to a sari shop where I had to make my excuses and promise to come back so I didn’t have to buy anything and stopped for some deep fried snacks on the way back to the metro station. I packed my bags and headed to the bus station to get my night bus to Bikaner.