Hi everyone, am still enjoying Updaipur. On Sat I splurged and hired a car/driver and went to Ranakpur for the day.It is about 90  km s from Udaipur  and I did not  feel up to taking the local bus, plus the a/c was a bonus, it seems to be getting hotter every day. Ranakpur is widely known for it's marble Jain temple. Over 1444  marble  pillars carved in exqusit  detail support the temple.  It was constructed between the late 14th and  mid  15th  century.  It is really spectacular! The Jain  religion is very similar  to Hinduism  and accounts for  less than 1 percent of the population, where as  Hinduism is the religion of over 85% of all Indians. It was a nice drive and well worth it. Yesterday  (Sun)  just wandered about and ended up meeting a really nice  English couple, we went for a drink and then had a terrific dinner at  Amir (we had tried to go there for Lara's  birthday  but it was incredibly windy  and we went somewhere else). Sorry Lara  the meal was great  and it lived up to it's rating in the Lonely Planet Guide. It was a very enjoyable last evening in Udaipur, this evening I fly to Delhi and then  tomorrow London. I know I am ready for home, I have been craving a hamburger, I've been eyeing all the cows in the street and I've seen firthand what they do and stepped in it a couple of times as well (I am gong to have to burn my sandals once I make it home).Se you all in a few days.

Jodhpur continued. I took a tour of the fort in the morning before it got too hot. The Fort was founded in 1459 is in burnished red sandstone and stands 400 feet above the city, great views of the blue city below. The blue wash applied to most of the houses orginally denoted high caste Brahmin residences and resulted from the addition of indigo to the lime based white wash. It is thought tp protect the buildings from insect pests and to keep them in the summer. It's pretty impressive. Just a short stop in Jodhpur and then on to Udaipur, our final stop. Kim and Lara spent a couple of days here in Udaipur and left last night on the train to Delhi. Kim flies home on the 22nd via London, hopefully given what is happening with the closed airports throughout Europe and the UK. Lara leaves for Thailand the next day, I miss them already, they were terrific travel companions.I am here in Udaipur until the 26th when I fly to Delhi and home on the 27th via London. I opted to spend the extra time here versus Delhi for many reasons, but mostly because it's small, laidback and very pretty and not one tenth as crazy as Delhi. The hotel we picked is lovely and has a pool, but tomorrow I am changing hotels I found a really nice one on the other side of the lake, with great views of the City Palace. Will continue to update you, Less than a week to go, it's hard to believe it could go by that quickly..Love to all, Winn

We made it to Amritsar and the Golden Temple is incredible, it looks like it is floating on the water.Amritsar itself is not a very appealing city, am glad however we made the effort to go to see the Golden Temple, it was well worth it. We then took the train from Amritsar to Delhi and met back up with Kim in the afternoon and took the train that day to Jaisalmer, a bit of a long travel day, we started off at 5:30 am and did not arrive until the next morning.Spent the morning at the Fort, it is really beautiful but maybe in serious trouble, erected on a base of soft clay and sandstone, the foundations of Rajasthan's citadel are rapidly eroding because of the huge increase in water consumption. At the height of tourist season around 120 liters per person are pumped into the area, 12 times the quantity used only a couple of decades ago. For that reason we opted not to stay in the fort itself. We stayed in a nice little place just outside the fort and it even had a pool!  Temps are still around the 40 degree mark, so the pool was a necessary luxury. We took our camel trek here,and it was terrific. We drove a couple of hours into the desert and met up with our camels at 5:00pm. OMG it was hot, I am certain the water in my bottle was actually boiling. We rode for about 1 and half hours and then setup camp, seriously a little guy from the travel company walked into the desert and we actually had cold beer, nothing has ever tasted quite that good. After the beer we had dinner and then just laid out on our blankets and star glazed.. There was no one else around and it was magical, shooting stars and not a cloud in the sky. It did cool down for a short time and I actually had to use my blanket. Then breakfast and back onto Duke, Cornelius and Humphrey, yes we actually named our camels. Lara was in the lead on Duke, followed by Kim on Cornelius, then Sir farts a lot carrying the two guides and Winn bringing up the rear on Humphrey. Seriously camels do fart a lot, but it was so much fun and is definitely one of the high lights of the trip.We then took the afternoon train to Jodhpur, an easy journey as compared to some.  All are well, more to come..

India the saga continues

Hi everyone, I figured it was time to post an update, we have spent 5 lovely days in Upper Dharamsala or Mcleod Ganj home to the Dalai Lama and many Tibetans. It really is a lovely spot, very laidback, lots of walks, restaurants and most important you can get beer or wine here. We have had a great time, met a brother and sister on the 16 hour bus ride and tonight Lara and I are having dinner with them, they are a really nice pair we had dinner and several beers with them our first night here.We just put Kim on a bus to Delhi and tomorrow we are catching a government bus (no air conditioning and packed to rafters) to Amritsar to visit the Golden Temple. We have to leave at 4:15 am and have to take a rickshaw to Lower Dharamsala and catch the bus there.We are spending the night in Amritsar and then catch a train at 5:30 am (do you see a trend here?) to Delhi where we pick up Kim and take another train to Jaisalmer. It is going to be a hectic couple of days but am looking forward to the camel trek in Jaisalmer, but not the heat again. It is warm here in Macleod Ganj (mid thirties) but since we are quite high in the mountains the evenings are beautiful. It cools down really well. Take care will contine to keep you up on our travels..

Very cool I have 4 followers on my blog, hope am not boring everyone too much. We have met some interesting people in our travels and I have been asked several times whether or not I love or hate India and my answer has always been. it depends on what time it is, it is crazy, exciting, and mind blowing, a few days to relax is just what I need, and in case you are interested at this moment I love it, the only thing missing in Rishikesh at the moment is beer, there is a big Hindu festival (they are hard to escape from India). The festival is in Haridwar (one of the holiest Hindu cities) and Rishikesh and both places are totally dry, I would pay serious money for a cold beer. The actual festival lasts for 2 months, Mar & Apr. Our next stop is Dharamsala and even though it is the home of the Dalai Lama, they have alcohol. The Dalai Lama was here this morning to bless a special Hindu bible that was just finished.
Had a good day yesterday, we went white water rafting, supposedly class 3 or higher but the river must be low as it was fun but not over the top, Attended a north India cooking class this morning and ate our efforts for lunch, pretty darn good. Tomorrow we are planing on getting up early and hiking to a couple of waterfalls before it get too hot. Tuesday we leave for Dharamsala by bus, it is supposed to take 12 hours, should be interesting. All are well, take care..

India. the saga continues.
We are presently in Rishikesh. a small charming and most important a little more laidback town. We are going to spend several days to re-charge our batteries.There are lots of restaurants and places for yogi and the temp while still hot is only in the mid thirties (never thought I would say that) and tomorrow we are going white water rafting on the Ganges. Should be fun!
Anyways more about the train from hell. We left Agra at 7:00 pm and since the trip to Ranthambore was not overly long. we elected to go by sleeper class- big mistake! Kim had warned us in advance that sleeper class versus AC sleeper 3 was rough but no one could have predicted that trip. Our compartment had 6 bunks. 6 people right. no! more like 16 to 20 people. the train was so packed you could not move. it was stop and go all the way.and of course hot and incredibly dirty, Kim saw a huge rat. We suffered for 4 and half hours till the extra 500 or so people in car got off, they were attending some sort of festival, most did not even have tickets and the conducter could not even get in the cars to kick anyone off. There were kids six deep on the top bunks and people sitting/standing everywhere. Thank God no one had to use the facilities because you could not move.Then it only took another hour to get into our own compartment and actually lie down by now it is 12:30 and we had been up since 5:00 am, we finally get our hotel about 3:00 am and were up again in 2 and half hours for our safari, and then when we were almost finished our safari we saw the tiger and it helped. It was very cool, he had been in the water when he was spotted and our truck was the first one to get there, so we got a really good look at him and some great pictures.