Mad dogs, Englishmen and a couple of Aussie girls...

Our first week of touring Northern India has been a pretty eventful one. Since Agra we took our show to Jaipur after our proposed tiger safari in Ranthambore was cancelled for stocktaking. The glamour of it. Jaipur is a pretty city and we spent some hot lunchtimes braving the 42c heat to see the Pink Palace and the Amber Fort, which is majestically situated on the hills outside town overlooking the river. After a false start (it was almost like watching me try to get a horse started) we took the slightly touristy but enjoyable elephant ride up to the top. Inside the fort was three parts scorched sandstone to one part menacing monkey, a combination that we found to our liking.

Our extra night in Jaipur gave us the chance to browse the bazaars, soak up the local culture and visit Pizza Hut. Well, there is a limit to how much curry you can eat.

Pushkar, a highly religious town where alcohol and meat are banned, followed next. The heat here was offset slightly by the fact our hotel had a swimming pool and we spent the next day and a half engaged in light sightseeing, getting harrassed by the locals (No, we really, really, REALLY don't want to buy two marionettes) and attempting to grow gills.

Now we are in the pretty city of Udaipur, home to many lakes, palaces and temples. Admittedly the lakes have dried up but the temples and palaces are stil around. Today's attempt to melt in the noonday sun took us to the fantastic Monsoon Palace, high on the hills above town and utterly deserted apart from the monkeys, a chipmunk which had moved in to one of the upstairs rooms and a bat in the basement. Our solitary creepings added much to the atmosphere of the place and made it one of the highlights of India so far.

(Note to those awaiting new galleries - a seemingly promising spot has turned out to be a bust so we may have to wait until Thailand. And I though India was meant to be the home of whizz-bang technology. After all, that's where all the helpdesks are...)