Jaisalmer - "Holy cow - it bit me!"

Can you believe it? Clare got bitten by a cow yesterday!! We walked fairly close to it and Clare said that she was looking into its eyes and it grabbed her on the arm on the way through! Bastard! I guess though if you are ever likely to be bitten by a cow it is in India! At least it was a holy one.

We are in Jaisalmer and there is an amazing fort here that was built over 600 years ago. We had dinner at a restaurant at the top of the fort and it really was magical - the views were unbelieveable. This picture does it no justice really.

We are having fun exploring the fort further today and are about to go to a camel festival which will be interesting.

These images were taken yesterday in Jaisalmer.

"I swear, it wasn't me..."

We spent last night in the desert with 2 camels and a very starry sky! It was an amazing experience. It was just the two of us, the camels and 2 guides - oh and a dog that decided to tag along.

The camels are so funny. They hold their heads up in the air with such pride and look down on you... They do live up to their name as far as loud and proud goes! They were letting rip all night! The guides didn't even flinch as they were so used to it... We couldn't stop laughing...

This is us by the camp fire loving ourselves sick

Sleeping under the stars was interesting to say the least!!

Bikaner rat temple - we had to take our shoes off and walk through!!

Horn Please and Give Way to the Camels

Just some of the amazingly weird but typical images we see on a daily basis travelling through Rajastan... Note the road rules are given on the back of passing trucks...
Clare got sucked in by the sweetness of the old man and bought one of his whistles (another item to squeeze into the backpack...)








We sat next to these old men charming snakes (for a fee of course) and Kristen watched in horror as the snakes hissed and leaped at Clare while she smiled for the camera obliviously...










What the?

Pushkar - It must have been something I ate...

Ok yes it has occurred - the dreaded Delhi Belly. We are not sure what we ate but something caused a massive case of gastro so we haven't been feeling quite up to it for the last couple of days. Thank god for all the medication we lag around in our packs!!
< Pushkar's awesome street markets
It all started when Clare did a bolt for the toilet whilst jewellery shopping in Pushkar. Then on the way to a restaurant later on Clare's limbs decided to give her grief and so Kristen quickly organised a 'rickshaw' (basically a cart with an Indian man on the front instead of a horse) to cheauffer us into town... You should have seen the looks we were given by the protentious tourists now!! Ha ha - one Aussie guy even looked at us with shame and said 'Bloody Lazy'.
We have been fantasising about being given the situation again and what we would have said and even created a full plan in case we bumped into him again... He was going to cop some abuse and patronising and feel terrible for what he had said and change his ways... Moving on...
She was pretty unwell from there on in but came miraculously good after a vomit in the restaurant followed by some dry toast with good ol' Vegemite (thanks to Barb -Kristens Mum who bought some special travel Vegemite on special a few weeks before leaving).
.............Then it was Kristens turn. Skyting about how she never gets sick on the way home from the market she started to complain of some slight aches and pains (as you do) - by the time we were back at the hostel it was on! All night it went on and all day the next day she was bed bound... Clare joined her.
Think it must have been something we ate...

This should be interesting

We are about to go to the cinema to see a Bollywood movie here in a big meringue looking theatre - we won't be able to understand the language but it is meant to be good for the experience anyhow -apparently the people get really into it and shout and yell at the screen! Today we went sight seeing with our driver Bappu and saw some amazing temples and an awesome view of the city.

We went to the Pink City (pink is the colour for public) and wandered around many bazaars dodging traffic and bartering very good prices for some small things that we can fit in our back packs! We just tried Maccas as an experiment and it was awesome - of course curry was involved in the vegetarian burger with fries and coke. I wish it was available at home!! I am sure though that we will never want another lick of the stuff by the time we are finished here! We are staying in the most amazing hotel at the moment and can't quite believe our luck! Room service and people wait on us for our breakfast!! Like I promised yesterday - I will find a computer with a USB port and put some of these photos on the blog! 5 minutes till show time so better rush! This should be interesting!! Love to you all from us and missing you!

Love Levels are Arising

Well since the last post we have settled in to India and are starting to love it here!
We went to Agra (home of the Taj Mahal) after Delhi with our driver Bappu (yes it's almost 'Apu' guys!) - he is nice and looks after us and makes sure that we dont pay too much for anything and are always safe... He has been doing this for 18 years or something crazy and his English is quite good but there are a few things that we cant understand. Agra is a town with not much in it (apart from the usual million homeless people, cows, dogs, pigs, monkeys, camels, dirt, rubbish and rubble) apart from the Taj Mahal - it was so amazing and we got some good pics of it - we saw it at sun set. We have to find an Internet cafe where we can put some pictures from our cameras on the blog - blogs are boring without pictures so I promise we will put some up soon - probably tomorrow...
< Clare loving herself sick with a very close view of a Father Antelope from the safari canter (topless truck like vehicle).

We stayed one night in Agra (after a huge 8 hour drive from Delhi) and then went to Ranthambore National Park where we went on 2 tiger safaris. Again the town is more of the same as Agra but people go there to explore the jungle and search for tigers and other animals and birds - sadly we didn't see tigers but saw a lot of other animals & enjoyed the bumps of the canter as we sat up the front next to the driver - it was fun! The first one was at 6 in the morning and I have never been so cold in my life! Our toes were going to drop off and we both got wind burn on our faces. Clare looks like she has pash rash and I have rosy red cheeks. Yep feeling great!
The weather is surprisingly cold here in the mornings and at night but will be hot down South. We both bought fleece jackets when we got back and now look like members of some uniformed group as we are obsessed with them and are both refusing to take them off!
< This is us on the tiger safari trying to keep warm with the blankets we *borrowed* from Singapore Airlines...
No wonder everyone wears cloth over their faces - there is dust everywhere!

It's so amazing to drive through the streets of India and see so much of what is so different from home! So much poverty. We have seen a few disturbing things like puppies & dogs dead on the road etc. We went to a wedding last night in Ranthambore - it was next to our hotel (by the way staying in some nice accommodation since booking this tour thing!) so we went there with a Brittish couple we met (accompanied by a male ;) to check it out as there were doof doof party tunes and fireworks and everything going off!!

Their marriage celebrations are just as full on as you can imagine! We ended up getting invited in (the couple we met from Brittain had been to a few and said they were fine and safe and came with us) and danced the night away with them - well maybe not the night away - just half an hours worth or so. We were like the guests of honour and the people made us get up on stage with the bride and groom for photos! It was so embarassing because we looked so crusty and were SO SO SO underdressed! And yes we were wearing our identical fleece jumpers with tiger prints on the back...
We felt so sorry for the bride and groom - they were so young and the bride looked like she had been crying and would not smile for the photos. Everyone else was having a ball at their expense - both looked very unhappy. It made us want to ball...

We are now in Juipur - awesome city - will write more tomorrow as time is up on this crusty computer...

Here we pay for our friends

Well I must say that this is a trying place but we feel that we have mastered it a little afer a successful day in Delhi:

We got the hell out of the hotel that we were scammed to stay in and made our way to the popular tourist area (in which we originally booked) and booked in to a rather plain to say the least hostel but at least its in the right area... We then got in an autorickshaw (tuk tuk) and attempted to get to the tourist office that the lonely planet book says is the only reputable one. Of course the driver didn't take us to the door (as you would expect at home) and we were ushered to another tourist office that we were not prepared to give the time of day until we read that it was reputable in the book also so we listened to what they had to offer. After two hours of checking their accreditations, making them call tourists already travelling with their drivers and getting everthing in writing we booked 20 days through Rajasthan inluding all accommodation, cheuffer, food etc for peace of mind and no hassles. We went on a tour of Delhi and saw some monuments this afternoon with our driver and he seems very nice. We decided that for a bit of extra cash we can save ourselves so much stress and have a better time. It's really weird because the other tourists that we have seen here so far seem to be annoying and pretentious and don't give us the time of day let alone a smile on the way past - we think that they think this place is theirs and they are the only ones who have discovered it and that generally they are great...losers ;)

Oh my gosh!

We arrived in Delhi safe today. This is the most full on place we have ever been! We got done by a few harmless money making scams as soon as we arrived and were as careful as we could have possibly been! All is has cost us is staying in a different area and admitedly the hotel is nicer than where we had booked in anyhow. There are cows in the streets and the most amazing jewellery shops and clothes shops! The traffic is full on and the place has this strange sweet smell that i bet will remind of if India for the rest of our lives... We are just taking it slow and working things out one at a time. We had a nice vegetarian curry for dinner. This place really does make us realise how good we have it at home!!

Bloody Alarm Clock

We are sitting here in our pajamas because we slept in (the alarm clock didn't go off for some strange reason ;) and had a massive rush to the airport - turns out check in is 2 not 3 hours before the departure time and that our flight is delayed so we are really early! There is free Internet and a swimming pool here though but we have to wait till we get through customs to use the pool. Until then I'm afraid we look like some weird pajama party...

We're Off!

Yep we're in Singapore now! It's an amazingly clean place - immaculate! You can get arrested for chewing chewy gum and can get a whopper of a fine if you eat food on a public bus! It's pretty warm here - I looked up the expected weather before we left and I think that it's about three times that temperature! Sweaty sweaty sweaty... Apparently its been raining but we missed it - must be because we are from Bendigo and we aren't allowed to see rain anymore... I had a long shower too and couldnt' get used to not feeling guilty about catching every drop with a bucket for the garden! We are sight seeing the lush green gardens and lawns more than anything as they are somewhat a thing of the past for us down in Vic! This place is so green! Our flight was ok but a bit long but we got some sleep which was good. The hostess was laughing at Clare because she was trying to clear up her plates and she was dead to the world. Clare is asleep upstairs at the moment - we are both really tired because we booked in to a hostel and they haven't had our beds ready until almost 4 in the arvo - and we arrived at 5.30 this morning so you can imagine the wait! I kept falling asleep in the taxi before and having mini dreams.
Today we tried the weirdest dessert - really creamy bricks of icecream wrapped in a piece of green bread! It's so nice though I almost had two.
< That's a picture of Clare with one... It looks like a brick of dog food in green bread!

We had some Singapore nooodles and dumpling like things in soup for lunch which was nice too. We even managed to have an 'ok' cafe latte this morning which was a bit of a surprise my mates from work will be pleased to know. It was no Bath Lane one though!

We are staying in this backpackers in dorm beds and its so expensive compared to the prices we paid last time - very comparable to Aus backpacker dorm prices $25 SNG.

My god it just started raining a little! I am going to have to go now and wake Clare up to see this!! Hope everyone is well! xxx

This is a test post just to see how it looks

Hi Everyone! I am setting up our blog - Clare doesn't even know it so she will get a nice surprise when she finds out. I can't believe that we're actually going on Tuesday!

Saying Farewell

Kristen's farewell dinner at the Mexican Kitchen in Bendigo...
From Left back to left front: Kim, Murray, Brad Bennett, Brad Waters, Maxine, Sharon, Kristen, Brett