The Taj Mahal Nov 19th

We're up early on the train to Agra from Jaipur, even though it arrives a couple of hours late, we are still in time to get to the Taj in time for sunset. Our hotel has a great rooftop restaurant to sit and gawp at the Taj over a beer but we've hit it lucky as its World Heritage Day which means that its free to get in, so we don't hang around and waltz through past the ticket office. The Taj is stunning - beautiful and serene, and pretty perfect in every aspect, apart from the crowds of tourists

Watching the sunset is one of the most memorable and breathtaking experiences that we have had so far. The colour of the building changes by the minute, and more and more tourists leave - we're one of the last to be ushered out by security.

The Taj isn't lit up by night, but we find another roof top bar to sit on and gaze into the darkness over a couple of beers...

Jodhpur - Jaisalmer - Jaipur (11-19 Nov)

Jodhpur - Jaisalmer - Jaipur

The bus to Jodhpur is a bit of a boneshaking experience... We're part of the entertainment for the seemingly hundreds of people packed onto the bus, and squeezed into the sleeping compartments where you would expect luggage racks to be. There are few to no trains from Udaipur so the bus is the only option. We get to Jodhpur safely though and transfer take a rickshaw to our hotel which is in a quiet street away from the hustle, bustle, pollution and the hassle on the street. The further we get into India, the more obvious the poverty becomes with people living and begging on the street, the more the smells purvey everything, and the more cows seem to be roaming the streets.

Although out of the centre of town, our hostel is near to some decent restaurants, so we dig in to more curry - back on the meat now after veg only in Udiapur. The main attraction in Jodhpur is the fort, sitting on a hill looking down on the city, and it is stunning. The views are magnificent, most of the houses are painted a pale blue, which scares off mosquitoes and also keeps the building cool. The fort is full of the history of the Maharajas of Jodhpur (and how jodphurs came to exist due to their penchant for playing polo), and some great views across the city - its obvious why Jodhpur is called the blue city...

The rest of the city is based around the central bazaar which seems to sell every piece of tat that you could possible want alongside some aubergines and chai - everywhere sells chai. We wanted to stay an extra day in our hostel to chill out on the roof, but they are fully booked, so hurriedly sort out our bus to Jaisalmer - the train is fully booked, and decide to move on the next morning.

Even more people seem to be crammed onto to the Jodhpur - Jaisalmer bus, and there are dozens of people travelling on the roof! At least the roads are a bit better to Jaisalmer, and we're a little less shaken up when we arrive in what feels like the back of beyond. We're pleased to have someone from our hotel meet us as there are loads of touts waiting at the bus stand to tempt us to their brother's hotel where they will bag a large commission. Somehow they have got from our man that he is waiting for James, so there are about 8 people all saying "Are you James?" The man in the know also has the surname. Its a tricky old business getting to a hotel safely...

Jaisalmer is in the middle of the desert, near the border with Pakistan, and the military are very much present. We hear jets patrolling the skies, and are aware of plenty of soldiers on the street. It properly feels though like the furthest we have been from civilisation, so there is only one thing for it, find somewhere for a beer. We're not the only tourists in town, and find a load of Germans, and French are doing the same thing - having a beer while watching the sunset.

Jaisalmer is another fort-town, this time built from sandstone, giving the town a golden glow. It a well laid presented fort, and again has some stunning views, even though it is a little hazy. The streets around are a huge bazaar, where everyone wants to take your rupees. Its starting to get tiring again, the relentless questioning about where we're from, and the begging is much more obvious and in your face, children tapping your arm as they walk alongside you asking for money. There's little else in Jaisalmer, and it feels like we have come a long way out to the desert, as we arent interested in going on one of the ubiquitous camel safaris advertised everywhere, but we do find a great restaurant for more curry that evening! There are a couple of decent restaurants, in one of which we almost experience a true Goodness Gracious Me moment when the Indian guys on the table next to us order the blandest food on the menu - chicken in a basket!

Saturday in Jaisalmer, and we are planning the crazy time of getting on the overnight train to Jaipur. We kill the morning in the internet cafe, and for lunch have an amazing tandoori mixed pate of chicken, paneer and veg koftas to set us up for the 13 hr train journey, which passes off quite uneventfully - the trains in India are 100 times better than the trains in Egypt - better organised, everyone has their seat and bunk bed, leave on time, and arrive only about 20 mins late, and we have good chat with an Indian couple who have been to Jaisalmer for the weekend, and now returning to Delhi.

We arrive in Jaipur at 500am, and are not really up for the stares (particularly Luce) or the hassle from the rickshaw drivers, who want to take us somewhere else, not where we have reserved, but we dont let them. I dont think that they had planned on dealing with us at 500am! Understandably, our hotel is all in darkness when we get there, but once we ring the bell, we are shown to our room, and catch up with a bit more sleep.

Jaipur is the pink city - although I would say it is more of a burnt orange. We're not at our best, and get very quickly frustrated by the constant hassling to jump in a rickshaw or hand over cash, but have a good explore around the enormous city palace.

Next day we hire a driver to take us out of town to the magnificent fort at Amber, the Jaigarh fort with great views back to Amber, and also the Narhargarh, which has great views back to Jaipur - having a driver is a great treat, and sure beats having to negotiate all of the 'up' by ourselves! We've been recommended an out of town evening event at the Chokhi Dani - you get dinner and there are all sorts of entertainments so we decide to give it a go. Its more than a little bizarre, with elephant rides, dancers, camel rides, magicians and all sorts. Firmly for the family audience, we are not up for participation, and soon get our car to take us back to Jaipur.

The last day is the pink city is birthday! Its an expensive start to the day as I've trodden on my glasses and have to pay for a new pair. Fortunately, Indian opticians are as quick as UK, so I can soon see again! We spend the afternoon pottering around the rest of the city - Palace of the WInds, which is an ornately decorated in the cetre of the town for the ladies to watch what is going on in the streets below, and the Jantar mantar - a huge observatory with enormous for watching the stars... We dont really understand it! Having had enough curry to last a lifetime, we go out for pizza instead - a cute rooftop restaurant, which doesnt have a booze licence, but gets round that little problem by serving beer in a teapot with a pair of mugs. Odd to say the least.

We're leaving Rajasthan and all its forts and palaces to go to Agra, and the Taj Mahal next up...

Mumbai - Udaipur (Nov 5th - 10th)

Mumbai - Udaipur

We're pretty exhausted by the time we land in the baking heat of Mumbai after flying through the night. Egyptair aren't bad, but the food they serve up is atrocious! We're expecting the worst in terms of hassles when we land, but are pleasantly surprised to find a modern airport that we pass through easily, prepay for our taxi down to the Southern tip of Mumbai, Colaba where our hotel is, and set off without being asked once where we are from. Its a good hour and a bit through the sprawl of Mumbai to get to our hotel. I remember slums along the airport road from when I was here 12 years ago, but they have either been moved on, cleared up or a new road has been built as there is no sign, just a lot of advertising hoardings, and beeping traffic.

We get to our hotel and are pleased to be offered a huge room in an old colonial house, with the biggest bed we have seen, and a TV to learn of Barack Obama's success (yes we can accept...) After a siesta we wander around Colaba to the Gateway To India, covered in scaffolding built to commemorate King George V's royal visit in 1911. We find a good place for our first curry of the visit, and look forward to many more.

It takes a while to get going the next morning, especially as the internet is against us trying to book flights up to Udaipur. We've decided that 16hrs on the bus is not really an option, when an hours flight will get us where we want to go! Later that afternoon, we take a boat from the Gateway over to Elephanta Island, about 9kms through Mumbai Harbour. There are some fascinating cave carvings to gods, and some very cheeky monkeys.

Mumbai is full of bars and restaurants that wouldn't be out of place in London, and we start our evening with cocktails in Busaba - we're the first in, but its a great bar, with fab cocktails. Then next door for dinner at Indigo, a truly first class place, although Indian wine isn't up to much (and is expensive.) We finish the night with a Bombay Sapphire (natch) in the Taj Palace Hotel - a 5* jobby opposite the Gateway. Compared to the places that we've been in earlier that night, its a bit bland (the hotel, not the gin)

Feeling a little under the weather the next day, we take the easy way out and book our flights with a travel agent - they're cheaper than online, so everyone is a winner. Its probably the hottest day of the trip, but we set off on our walking tour of the city. There is a good swathe of interesting architecture with art deco cinemas opposite gothic court buildings, and Hogwarts-esque university. In the middle of it all, on the oval are games of cricket with the players in full whites. The British influence is still plain to see - St Thomas' Cathedral is the oldest English building standing - and is an oasis of calm amongst the beeping bustle outside. Its also full of fascinating tombs of old Generals who fought alongside Nelson, and young soldiers who died from malaria.

We make a beeline to a restaurant with fierce A/C to cool off - its the Tea Centre so Luce is happy (although they don't do cold milk for her tea, they do a mean curry.) We jump on the suburban train for the princely sum of about 3p to go up to Mahalaxmi, which is home to the biggest outside human powered washing machine - its all blokes doing the work, thrashing whites around in lines and lines of enormous washing trenches - all the washing hanging up looks immaculately clean, but you wouldn't fancy getting all the buttons back! We're a bit out of the main centre, and this is the first time we get really hassled by beggars - with little kids tapping our arms asking for money, so we head back to the station and go back towards the centre, but jump off to visit the Ghandi museum at the house where he used to stay when in Mumbai. Its quite interesting seeing his letters to Hitler during the war, and also to Roosevelt, giving an idea of his utter disdain for the British rule in India.

We're down at Chowpatty beach with plenty of other Mumbaikers for sunset. As usual, we provide the entertainment for most people, but they seem happy just to shyly say hello and run off - much less imposing than the Egyptians. The Lonely Planet recommends stopping for a snack of Bhel Puri, and as it is food related, we jump on board. Its an odd, but quite pleasant mix of puffed rice, noodles chutney and other stuff! After a walk along the promenade, we jump a cab back to the hotel to pack ready for the flight up to Udaipur the next day. We both agree that Mumbai is a fantastic place, and a wonderful introduction to an India much less imposing than we had feared. Its a city that is obviously on the up - the Middle classes are on the rise - GQ India (Daniel Craig cover) and Vogue India (Posh Spice in hilarious Indian wedding cover "I feel very Indian") are advertised everywhere (we pick up a copy of each - and they are full of high end advertising aimed at cash fuelled 20-30 somethings.) The bars and restaurants are all aimed at having a good time, and some are dead cheap and amazing value. Its easy though to spend a fortune too (but for great quality) and we have, so are hoping to save some budget over the next couple of days and get back on track.

We're flying with Kingfisher up to Udaipur - but sadly no complimentary beer. Ali, our driver from the airport tells us about how he worked as production driver on Octopussy, Ghandi and Jewel in the Crown, which were all filmed in Udaipur. He wouldn't make it as a production driver anymore, as he was mental behind the wheel!

Udaipur is a stunning city on the banks of Lake Pichola, with two island palaces to take endless pictures of, in addition to the mainland Palace looking out over them. It reminds us of Lake Bled in Slovenia, but is a bit warmer, and many more tourists. We stop for dinner at a roof top lakeside restaurant, and the view of the palaces all lit up is breathtaking, which is just as well as the food is pretty bland! There are lots of little shops selling all the tourist tat ever required, and the hassle level is increased somewhat, but the Indian people seem so much more friendly that the Arabs, so we can almost forgive them, and find a good bar to chill out over a couple of beers.

Sunday 9th November is a lazy Sunday morning before we head out to the City Palace and have a good explore around all of the various rooms, courtyards and additional museums (with some great pictures of ex-rulers of Udaipur who seem to try and outdo their ancestors in the moustache arena...) Every window has another stunning view out over the lake or over the town.

We take a boat around the lake, and the views back to the City palace are equally as breathtaking -we're thankful for digital cameras, otherwise we would spend a fortune on developing film. As we're staying in the budget Khumba Palace, we cant get off the boat to look around the 5* Lake Palace Hotel (don't they know who we think we are?) but enjoy mooching around the Jagwandir Palace grounds, which has stunning views over the other palaces.

We're back on the mainland in time to order sunset drinks, and a small curry to keep us going. This sunset is probably the most breathtaking sight we have seen - the colours over the lake are magical, all with the delightful Lake Palace in the foreground. As magnificent is the City Palace which takes on a pink/ochre colour as the sun goes down. Mind-blowing.

We don't want to go for a bland tourist meal again, so have been recommended the place where Indians go if they cant cook at home. En route, we stop by the Maharaja's classic car collection, and have an escorted tour of the 30 or so vehicles kept in immaculate condition for the Maharaja to use. He's got a superb RR phantom (used in Octopussy) in addition to Mercs from the 50s, Rolls Royce safari vehicles and a Morris Minor. The chap who shows us around is so proud of the collection, and obviously takes great pride in keeping them ready to go at a moment's notice. We jump a rickshaw to the restaurant which is miles from the main tourist drag. Its perfect - all you can eat thali, guys come round with pots of veggie food and fill up your plate until you cat eat anymore. We've been learning Hindi words for food, so can impress the waiters with naming bindi (okra) paneer (cottage cheese) aloo (potato.) We seem to get bonus attention from the waiters as we're the only blondies in there, and an Indian girl comes over to chat to us, and help us out. Apparently her whole family had a great time watching us wondering what was happening, and then cautiously tasting each dish, before deciding, yeah this is great and digging in! All in all some great experiences today - probably the best day so far

Monday morning in Udaipur is spent over breakfast of poached eggs on toast and porridge, and a read of our books in the garden, before we set off to go on our Indian cookery course via a little museum that houses the world's biggest turban, which must be number two on the things to see in India after the Taj Mahal. Our host and teacher for the afternoon is Vijay Singh - who like his golfing namesake also excels in sport - he is a Swimming and Water Polo national champion and has the pictures up on the wall in his house of him meeting the president at the height of his butterflying prowess. He takes us out to his house on his motorbike, which is a bit hairy, but an interesting drive with the both of us on the back. Don't think that the scooter would manage 3 passengers, but the cows that we pass don't bat an eyelid. We guess that Vijay is from the wealthier side of town, he has a big house, where he lives with his wife, mother and the rest of his family.

As well as a proficient swimmer, Vijay is a great chef, and rustles us some delicious veggie pakora, and curries that we're looking forward to try and create back in London. His wife potters around in the background looking after their daughter, and doing bits of washing up, and his mother watches some classic Indian drama on the TV in the lounge. Vijay's talents also stretch to a bit of palm reading - he doesn't pretend to be any sort of professional, but I'm due to have more money than I know what to do with when I'm 35, and will have 2 kids - a boy first then a girl. Luce is also going to have 2 kids, so that's a relief, and she is very honest. We spend about 4 hours with the Singh family, and then weighing substantially more jump back on the bike to return to town.

We're back on the tourist trail to see some local dancing that evening the piece de resistance of which is the woman re-enacting the ancient dance of the nine bowls from Western Rajasthan. This is a desert area, with a lack of water, so the women used to carry 9 bowls on their heads full of water. Anyway, its a great piece of tourist tat. We've got an early bus to next stop, Jodhpur, which has a lot to live up to. Udaipur is a stunning place - both in scenery and activities, which as they all revolve around food, and in particularly curry are right up our street. Its also amazing value, and our budget is stretching a lot further, meaning more treats to come!

Slow trains, temples, tombs and sailing along the Nile

We've a bit of time to kill in Cairo until the overnight train to Aswan leaves at 1000pm, so we elect to have a lazy morning, sorting out our bags for our week away touring Southern Egypt, and organising our flights to get us down to India. After a couple of false starts on getting to India, we find cheaper and direct flights to Mumbai, so opt to go there instead of Delhi first up. There's a couple of showers in the air, but once they have gone we head up the Cairo Tower which sits on an island in the middle of the Nile, and offers great views over the city and to the Pyramids at Giza through the smoggy pollution.

After a pizza for late lunch we wander through a couple of shopping malls, and find a cinema that offers the promise of the new James Bond, but not until next week when we are in India, so instead we enjoy the sunset along the Nile, and a beer in the Hilton. Its not easy wasting time when on a budget.

The train leaves about 10 mins late from Ramses station. We're in 1st Class on a 13 hr trip, and paid about £12 for the privilege. Its surprisingly comfortable - similar size seats and legroom to business class. Apart from the snoring Egyptian, chatty French girls and the fact that the lights are left on, we sleep surprisingly well. The next day though, we slowly come to realise that as the train trundles along, we haven't made quite as much progress as we had hoped through the night, and are still a long way from our destination. We eventually pull in a frustrating 6 hours late having finished our books, and planned at great length our route around India. After a stroll along the Nile admiring the dusky views, and a spot of birthday dinner, we're back to the hotel as we're getting up at 300am the next day to join the convoy to Abu Simbel.

Abu Simbel is an enormous temple commissioned by Ramses II to proclaim how magnificent he was. When the Aswan Dam was built in the 1960s, the temple would have been flooded were in not for a feat of modern engineering which moved the temple piece by piece to higher ground. Its both an amazing temple, and a fantastic piece of engineering, just a shame that due to security regulations, tourists have to travel in convoy, and the place is packed and bustling. Its a 3 hour drive, so a long way to go for an hour, and then three hours back, but some astounding views as the sun rises over the desert. On the way back to Aswan, we stop at the High Dam, which created Lake Nasser and a hydroelectric plant which powers most of the Nile Delta.

Later that afternoon, we board our felucca - our home for the next couple of days. Its proper back to basics, sleeping under the stars, washing in the Nile, no showers, no electricity sort of trip and is utterly relaxing. We've a good mixed group travelling - couple of Aussie blokes, 2 Belgian women, a Dutch guy, a Chilean girl who teaches English in Paris and our Egyptian crew of 3. Our food is prepared in a space about 3 ft square, and there is always enough to go around. Its utterly relaxing gently sailing along the Nile reading and lounging in the sun, chatting about nothing in particular, and drinking beer. It gets a bit chilly by night, but falling asleep looking up at the stars cannot be matched, and the colours as the sun sets and rises have to be seen to be believed.

We're a bit exhausted and desperate for a shower when we get off the felucca on Saturday morning at Kom Ombo. There are a couple of temples to see en route to Luxor in the bus that is waiting for us. Kom Ombo temple and Edfu temple. We're a bit worn out to fully appreciate them, and are pleased when we get to our hotel in Luxor despite our driver's best efforts otherwise, and insistence on a tip! We're pleased to find a 3* comfortable hotel, with a roof top swimming pool where we can snooze away the afternoon. The rest of our felucca group are looking for a bargain hotel room, so we're feeling a little bit smug.

Luxor gives the first impression of being a resort town. As we enter the city there is the KFC/Pizza Hut combination that we saw at the entrance of the Pyramids. There's an Irish and an English pub advertising football, and a lot of Europeans pottering around. We have dinner in a restaurant run by Anne from Ipswich who tells us all about her family, and where she lives, the sizeable UK ex-pat community (which generally seems to revolve around middle aged women coming to Egypt for younger men, and then getting fleeced out of their savings, only to fall for the same trick from another guy) but does serve up some decent apple crumble! Sometimes home comforts are in order.

Sunday is to be spent on the West Bank of the Nile (the main city is on the East Bank). We have a tour guide with us for the first time on the trip, and despite initial misgivings (Jim) we actually quite appreciate what he has to say as it brings together a lot that we have seen already. The West Bank was used as the burial grounds in Ancient times, and life continued on the East. The thought went that as the Sun rises in the East this is where life begins, and the transfer to the afterlife starts with the sun setting in the West. Our first stop is the colossus of Memnon, two huge statues that stood at the entrance to a later destroyed temple. They are pretty colossal...

Hatshepsut Temple is our second stop. Queen Hatshepsut was a bit of a one. Desperate to rule over Egypt, she faced a major problem in that she was a woman. Undeterred by this, she managed to ship off the 10 year old King Tutmosis III to learn a bit more about the world, and by persuading the rest of Egypt that the sun god inhabited her father at the time of her birth, she was actually the son of a sun-god. All the monuments of her depict with a man's body, she wore a false beard etc., and everyone was fooled, and she ruled for about 20 years. Anyway, her funerary temple is stunning, and tells lots of stories - her trip to Somalia, all about her being the son of the sun god. The Egyptians used natural dyes mixed with wax and egg white, and some striking colours remain to this day.

Next stop is the Valley of the Kings. This is an astounding collection of tombs, of which 62 have so far been discovered. The most famous of which is Tutankhamun - famous as it had not been looted and all the treasures were there to be taken and displayed in the Cairo museum. We explore three other tombs, which have survived the passage of time amazingly well. The designs of gods, hieroglyphs and stories that they tell are fascinating. Pharoahs began to build their tombs here from the day that they rose to power until they died, meaning that some tombs are vast. Once they died, there were 70 days to finish off the tomb while mummification took place, so they are often quickly finished off. The colours on the wall paintings and hieroglyphs are amazingly strong here - the tombs tell a similar story, of the Pharaoh travelling to the afterlife - a 12 hour trip (i.e. during the hours of darkness) along a river until they reach a kind of Ancient Egyptian Pearly Gates where their heart (the only organ left in the body during mummification) is weighed against the feather of Horus. If it is heavier, then a lion-esque monster eats it up, and its no afterlife for them, but if their heart is lighter, then off they go to the afterlife. Anyway, its all a bit mental, and their tombs would have been filled with weapons to kill off demons on their 12 hour boat trip, games to keep them occupied, all sorts of gems and treasures so they generally have a jolly good time. Excavations are going on while we are there - its an ongoing working archaeological site, eternally hopeful that another tomb like Tutankhamun's will be discovered, complete with all its treasures.

The Valley of the Queens is a short drive away. These tombs are not just for Queens, but also children, some of whom died much younger. They aren't as vast as the King's, but still have a good story to tell. Its been a long morning, so we are happy to get back to our hotel and snooze away the afternoon. Downtown Luxor is a bit more authentically Egyptian with dusty streets, souks, and a large number of Egyptians trying to relieve us of our money. Not quite as may as usual, as Egypt are beating Cameroon 2-0 in the African Cup of Nations, but still plenty are around to tell me that I am a lucky man to have Luce on my arm.

The next day, our final in Luxor we have morning by the pool surrounded by leathery old female expats, who have a smattering of Arabic between them, and all have some comment about their Mahmood or Mustafa. We're really quite surprised that this sort of Brit, normally seen in the Chinese restaurant on the Costa Del Sol has colonised this part of the Nile - our tour guide later tells us that the area where our hotel is located is known as Little Britain... In the afternoon, we're off to Karnak Temple, one of the most impressive temple sites in Egypt. Its a combination of about 4 temples that were added to, knocked down, rebuilt ad extended some more over about 1500 years. One room, the Great Hypostle Hall houses 135 enormous columns and is a site to behold. They filmed a James Bond here (not sure which - but it wasn't Quantum of Solace.) We're too templed out to go around the Luxor temple, so pop off for supper in a great restaurant called Jamboree, and back home to chat with our smiley hotel staff (we still don't want to pay extra for a room until our 1030pm pick up to catch our night train back to Cairo)

The train is slow and painfully late. We'd booked first class, but its not in the same league as the train down here, and we are jammed in uncomfort. We arrive late into Cairo, but there is nothing spoiling as the flight to Mumbai does not leave until 325am the following morning. After a spot of lunch, we decide to go to the cinema, and catch up on WB's latest release Body of Lies. I hadnt really paid much attention to it before we left, so didnt know the whole story. It brings a new dimension to watching a film set in the MIddle East about the ongoing war in Iraq when you're sat in the middle of the region in an audience of Arabs. Its a great film though, really thought provoking, and a good way to kill a couple of hours. We're looking forward to getting out of Egypt. Its a fascinating country with some outstanding monuments, temples and tombs. The ancient Egyptians truly were an amazingly intelligent race of people, and we have been at times astounded and amazed at their ingenuity and accomplishments. We're less keen on modern Egyptians though, who almost without exception seem to be eternally trying to fleece you out of money, and we have fallen for tricks at least twice that we know of! The last straw I guess has to be a new bottle of conditioner that Luce has bought from a smart looking pharmacy, only to discover in the shower that it has been watered down substantially! Its a great place to visit, and we would recommend it to everyone, but once is going to be more than enough for us. Roll on India, from what we can gather, Egypt will be like a starter in terms of hassle and scams to what we can expect next!