Day 50 - We've made it to Agra

A few days out of internet contact has made us eager to get down all our news (and what few pictures these 115KB internet connections can handle).
We've jetted on from Jaipur (where we stumbled across this picture of all the princes of Rajasthan taken in 1939 - in there somewhere is Emma's great-grandfather).

The funny thing was that when we got to our next stop, Jaisalmer, we were wandering around the City Palace there (which is, incidentally, wicked) and found another two photos with him in! Emma is obviously very, very happy to have found them and even persuaded the museum man to let us take pictures of them.

Jaisalmer was a lovely place and really refreshing after the slightly disappointing Jaipur - stuck near the Thar desert (about 100km from the Pakistan border), it is very dry and flat but has an amazing fort stuck on top of a hill with 360 degree views of the land. Lots of people l;ive in the fort and there are loads of winding streets (yes, we got lost a few times) - unfortunately the fort is suffering from its use by tourists and is slowly subsiding. We did our bit by staying outside it (very nice Shahi Palace) - had some great food and relaxed on cushioned alcoves looking up at the fort in the moonlight.

We managed to get ourselves a little trek on a camel in the desert - it was v v touristy and the drivers were real bastards when it came to the baksheesh (tip) but it was fun all the same. Camels really stink and I feel a bit sorry for them having to carry us around in the sand all day. Here are a few of our vehicles...

Here are some of the animals we saw on safari in Tanzania too..

and one of us in our safari jeep...

That was quite a few weeks agao and I've since had a hair cut and shave in the barber's in Udaipur - no more beard.

We're starting to plan our trip to Malaysia now (and Fiji, which is going to be super expensive). Trains are really great in India and we happily sleep all night on them now - will be sad to say goodbye to them next week.

Enough rambling I think...pics of the Taj to follow, then Goa and Mumbai later in the week.

One last one to end, taken from the Sopa lodge overlooking the Ngorongoro crater in Tanzania...