Flying from Mumbai to Rajasthan made this part of India feel a world away from the bustle of the city and heat of the south. In all we travelled for 14 days across the biggest state ( by land size) making our way from west to east. Our plans were sparse before we arrived in India, but the beauty of travelling meant we had picked up new destinations such as Pushkar and Jaiselmer to add the itinerary.

So firstly we headed for Udaipur to start our Rajasthan adventure. A small town with a beautiful hotel in a lake and regal palace to visit, plus the old Rajs' car collection. So far so good, we met a lovely French couple and took a day trip with them into Very rural India to visit Kumbalhagr (big old fort) and Ranakapur Temple. The temple was exceptionally beautiful, carved out of marble and completely symmetrical, with over 1400 columns, it's hard to put into words. It's a shame that to get in you have to get passed some pretty aggressive female security guards that demand you leave most of your belongings with them whilst shouting at you!

All in all a great first few days of exploration, but then came the Delhi belly. So for the next two days we hid in our room in udaipur and ate a bowl of rice a day taking all manner of antibiotics that we'd collected in Africa. On day 2 I bumped into the French couple who had taken the trip with us, and they too had been ill. Turns out the samosas Olly had bought us all for our road trip were the culprits and we felt very bad knowing we'd made them ill (all be it a little less than us as we'd eaten more than them).

From Udaipur to Jodhpur, via a nice 6 hour bus that was defiantly well over capacity for the whole journey, we made our way to our favourite hostel so far. A huge beautiful blue havelli with wonderful hosts. The house was around 350 years old and had been handed down through the family. The town was a little more rural than udaipur and everywhere else we had been. The place has stunning blue houses scattered around and streets are narrow and windy. Water runs down each side of the road, as run offs from the houses; so you can always tell what is going on, whether they are cooking, cleaning or washing up. Cows and dogs are everywhere, sometimes just walking into people's homes or just lying across the roads. The town has a small market square selling everything you could imagine. Including Saris for a pound. This was probably the first market square we had seen in India, something you miss when travelling, as it helps you get your bearings and also makes you feel relaxed that you are in the right place. The main site for the town is the unpenetrated fort. The doors are lined with hand prints of princesses that had been made before they left the fort taken to be cremated (alive) alongside their dead husbands who had perhaps died in war or of natural causes. Now that's commitment !

From Udaipur we headed far north on the often desert roads to Jaiselmer. A laid back town with a beautiful working fort in the middle overlooking the rest of the town. We'd picked Jaiselmer to start a trip into the Thar Desert on camel and it didn't disappoint. We met a lovely group of people including a nurse who'd trained in Tooting Bec Hospital. The camel ride into the desert was, well... very uncomfortable. I'm not sure what we thought it would be like but it didn't feel very stable and getting on and off the camel was a feat in itself. The camels lead us into the desert and up to some sand dunes for a beautiful sunset. Every so often a fighter jet would fly past reminding us that we were very close to the Pakistan border..

Dinner was served by the camp fire, and we felt like we were back in Africa again! We opted not to camp but return to the comfort and shelter of our £1 a night room; we weren't ready to camp again just yet.

Most people head straight to the spiritual town of Pushkar after Jaiselmer but on good recommendation from Ollys dad we visited the town of Bikaner to see (and smell) the rat temple. A temple out of town full of happy little rats drinking milk and climbing walls. I didn't know what a collection of rats smelt like, but now I do. The whole experience, of course, had to be undertaken with shoes off in the temple. Luckily we caught site of the lucky/ holy/ Devine white rat, and as with custom made a wish, 'get me out of here'.

After an overnight bus where we hurtled into the air every five minutes ( reminder to never sleep above the wheel axis), we arrived super early into Pushkar. With our hotel still shut we found a bench on the lake to try and sleep. At this point we felt like true travellers. We weren't alone at 5am. There were women and men in the lake washing; holding onto ropes as they leant back and duncked themselves in the water , holy cow it must have been cold! At was at this point a gentlemen took our hands and guided us down to the water, placing a flower in our hands and making us chant with him. I didn't understand much of what he said, until I heard the words $50 €100 and realised he was after money. We ditched the flowers and returned to our bench. Our time in pushkar was probably some of the most laid back since we were in Goa. Although there's clearly a tourist scene here much of the area and the people seem unperturbed by tourists . We saw two weddings parades down the main roads in one evening, amazing to just stand and stare at. I think Olly might have been a bit jealous of the groom paraded on a horse decorated in jewels Lit by a portable back light, what a sight!

Our time in pushkar was short and sweet with one more stop in Rajasthan before we headed for the golden triangle. Jaipur was our final stop, known for its pink palace and amber fort. The pink palace was a bit of a let down, but the fort was stunning, both inside and out. We enjoyed waking the walls and hiking around the fort for a good few hours. A great conclusion to the Rajasthan fort tour we had been on for a few weeks! Jaipur itself is also a great place to visit. The back streets are teeming with shops and stalls and there's also a (self proclaimed) top ten most beautiful cinema in the world.