Suzi 22/06/06

It had to happen sooner or later and, just as we were planning how to celebrate our 3 month travelling anniversary the following day, boy did we get sick on Monday!! Luckily the "emergency sickness budget" (also known as our credit card!) covered 2 nights in a five-star hotel so we literally got off the train from Agra (more on that in a tick) and went straight to the hotel, doctor, medicine, comfy beds, clean sheets and a bit of R and R. We actually stayed at Shangri-La but we went to Imperial first; they were booked out but we must have looked sick as they drove us in the hotel courtesy car from there to Shangri-La! 72 hours, several buckets and toilet rolls later we are fine again! Can't recommend the hotel enough, stonkingly expensive but they helped us with everything. If you're ever sick in Dehli, it's the place to be!

The one really disappointing thing is that we were, sadly, too sick to be able to make it to our " tea tour" up to Darjeeling, Thorsten's highlight of this part of our trip after all the fun and experience he had at Whittard. We are quite disappointed we could not go (we simply couldn't stop throwing up lng enough to make it to the train!) but, looking on the positive side, now we have a good reason to come back sooner rather than later and complete that part of our trip.

So, our travels over the last week or so then. We visited the Place in Jaipur as planned. Was good but it's not actually pink, it's terracotta! We spent our last day messing around in the pool to cool off and then went out to the Monkey Palace at Galta. It's actually the source of a holy spring and pilgrims come to bathe at the temple. However, it's also home to about 4,000 monkeys who also splash around in the water and generally look very cute, especially the baby ones!

We came up to Dehli from Jaipur and spent the weekend here. Is a much nicer city than Mumbai (or may be that we are more accustomed to India now, 99% of people we met have hated the first place they arrived in India so we think it was probably a bit of a culture shock rather than Mumbai in particular, just didn't expect it to be so extreme!), quite leafy and green. We have visted the Ba'hai lotus temple and went to watch the sound and light history show at the Red Fort, which was really good. Tip is to wear some seriously strong mosquito repellent, they're vicious buggers! We've also really enjoyed shopping in the bazaars here and have both had some clothes made for our onward journey as, sadly, we've had to say goodbye to our milletts' t-shirts, 3 months of continuous wearing and washing was just too much! We then went on to Agra and spent the day at the Taj Mahal (we got up to be there at 7am so we could see the morning sun shining on the marble, was absolutely beautiful). It is magnificent, even the throng of people and the massive admission fee can't detract from the fact it is awesome, totally over the top and unecessary but awesome. We took a book with us and read in the shade of the gardens for a while, overlooking the Taj itself and was a really lovely way to spend a day.

India has been great, an amzing country, full of colour and contrasts but I am now looking forward to a few days break in Sri Lanka. Off to Chennai tomorrow and then fly to Sri Lanka on Tuesday. Sun, sea and Sand here we come!