Taj Mahal, Agra

At first sight, the Taj Mahal doesn't look as big as you'd hoped it to be, in fact it looks a bit tiny to be one of the 'Wonders of the World'. Seems to be an illusion though as it takes a long time to walk to it. By the time you get to the front door, it's quite impressive. Final resting place of some Sultans wife, never found out the name (not paying for a guide!). The towers around the outside of the Taj are built leaning away from it, so when they eventually fall over they don't land on the palace. Had to get up at 5am to avoid the crowds but it was definitely worth it. There's even a picture of me somewhere sitting where Princess Diana was in that famous phone (I'm not as photogenic as she was, however).

Tiger Safari at Rathambone

I have an unnatural fear of tigers. Well it's perfectly rational to be scared of something that can eat you, just not when you live in the UK, where bumping into a tiger isn't very likely. Fortunately I had an overweight man sat in front of me and I convinced myself if we were to see a tiger it would definitely pick him. I announced this to my friends but only realised the rather large man spoke perfect English once the safari was over. I think it's safe to say we're not friends. The safari lasted 3 hours but alas, no tiger (damn!). We did see several other animals, the mongoose and the turtle being my favourites. It would have been nice to see a tiger, but I kept thinking about the form I had to sign in case I got eaten alive. I guess it's not all bad. There is a picture of a tree trunk below where a tiger has marked it's territory by scratching the crap out of it. Closest thing to seeing a tiger in the I'll probably ever get.

Camel Trekking in the Jalsamer Desert

We went for a 24 hour camel trek in the desert, Lawrence of Arabia style. Slept under the stars and ate fresh food. Lucky thing we had a bucking broncho at the work Christmas party, because staying on a running camel is an art form. The weather was incredibly hot, probably touching 40 degrees in the early afternoon, we had to stop, eat and lay down for a couple hours. Really don't know how the camel guides do it day in day out, 24 hours was hard enough! The next day we had a 90 minute trek back to the jeep and roughly 60 minutes of that was running. The guides found our cries of pain, stemming from strain to the crotch area, hilarious. I've been walking like John Wayne for the last couple of days. That silhouetted picture of a person on a sand dune is actually me, how cool is that?! I have more pictures to upload but I'm mostly using ones taken by other people as I don't have a laptop to plug my SD card into. I'm in Jodhpur at moment, staying in a nice guest house. I'll try and get some more pictures up by the middle of the week.

Jaipur Train Journey

Well we had to book an overnight 14 hour train journey to Jaipur. When we arrived on the train (with minutes to spare) we were told our tickets were 'unconfirmed', meaning we didn't have a bed or even a chair. Great. So from 22:45 to 07:30 the next morning we spent our time trying to get comfy on the floor or a couple of luggage shelves we found. The pictures below are testament to the amount of room we had! I'm wearing that thing on my face on the last picture because we were next to the toilets :s

Surat Holy Festival

Well we were walking down this random street in Surat and came across a street festival. They were cooking fresh food and and gave us loads of the local delicacies, all free of charge. They then beckoned us over to start dancing, which was awkward ha! Then someone passed me a baby while I was dancing around! Local news team shows up and videos us eating, dancing and saying a few words, don't think many westerners visit this part of India. Apparently we'll be shown on an Indian news channel called GTPL, which is shown right across India and I think Pakistan too. Surreal evening!

Mumbai - Elephanta Caves

These photos aren't great because I've been using my phone, left the charger at home. Doh! Managed to acquire one now though, next problem is getting them from my camera to a computer. Next stop is Surat and then on to the desert states, apparently it can hit 45 degrees on a hot day! Mumbai is hectic, busiest place I've ever been. It's full on, a trip to the shop for some water is tiring. If anyone needs to contact me my email address is samuel.j.randall@gmail.com and my Skype is sam.j.randall
After tomorrow I'm not sure how long long it'll be before I can get Internet access, took me two hours to find a place today! Hope everyone is okay. I'll update this as much as I can.