In Agra we met up with Jake and Dana - We met Jake 3 years ago in Peru and this seemed like a suitable enough place to catch up again. We hired a car and driver, and started out on a tour of Rajasthan.
We spent 2 nights in Jodhpur, being pretty tired after trapsing around 4 different cities in 5 days (Jaipur, Uadipur, Pushkar and Jodhpur). We wanted to post some shopping back to England - a relativly mundane task you might think.. but not in India. Firstly we had to procure a box to pack the stuff in. The staff at the guest house we were staying at (the 'Shivam paying guest house' - a great place) were only too keen to help, although the process took at least half an hour as they actually went out, bought a case of mineral water and emptied it for us. Next we went to the local sweat shop to get the box stitched up in cotton (seems to be the done thing here). This was basically a shed containing 4 incredibly thin men sweating away on old Singer sewing machines. They were hard at work on a huge batch of crappy CD cases destined for sale in Target, but for 200RP or so one of them took an hour out to sort us out.
Next came the task of locating the correct post office (we were given directions to at least 3 different ones) and deciphering the Hindi signs. We were ushered in behind the counters and past a group of men sorting through and stamping a huge pile of letters on the floor. The postal master was collecting the addresses of 'new friends', so he could 'post them birthday cards', in return for each new friend sending him one on his birthday. He insisted on a photo...
We had lunch with the famous omlette man (see the LP). Competition in the omlette selling business is fierce around the city gate, with others trying for a piece of the originals fame. A masala omlette sandwich set me back 12RP (around 15 pence). We were actually served by the omlette man's son. The man himself was asleep on the floor of the hovel we ate in.
We ended up in Jaisalmer where due to time restrictions with our rented car and driver we were planning to just spend a night and then head back to Agra.. but after a swim in the hotel's pool and a chat to some Australians we decided to dismiss our driver and go on a 3 day Camel 'safari' through the desert...
(Tall humpy men, in the sun)
After that, we took an overnight train back to Jodhpur, and then another to Varanasi. The last leg was 27 hours without AC and was pretty nasty to say the least. We were all completely trashed by the time we checked into our hostal in Varanasi, and Kerry had come out in a nasty rash on her legs. After 4 days of bed we decided to cut our losses and depart India. The few trips we took out of the hostal was just nasty. Varanasi is like condensed India - more dirt, noise, cows, rickshaws and touts than anywhere else. We flew to Kathmandu, Nepal the next day.
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