Chittorgarh to Ajanta

Dear all,

I realise it's been a while since we wrote. I almost felt neglectful when it dawned on me last night that it had been a couple of weeks. It really is true that time flies when you're having fun! I suppose I shouldn't gloat too much, when I know that you're all dealing with rain, coldness and the general greyness of the British winter!

The strange thing is we know that you're all gearing up for Christmas. Linda, Gra, Jordan and Rebecca's tree has gone up, Christmas shopping is busily being done and plans for big dinners and drinking are taking place! These are the things that we would normally be a part of, so it's very strange to be in the sunshine and heading for the beach. I promise this isn't gloating, it just feels so different.

When we last wrote we had been camping in the fort at Chittor. We had bout of luxury after we left there and stayed for two days in a beautiful hotel called Castle Bijaipur. Mark had always wanted to stay in a real-life old castle and this fitted the bill. It was built in the16th century and has classic Rajasthan architecture. The owner of the hotel upgraded us to a suite for the same price as a double room. He was very impressed with our journey and had done some of his own 4x4 travel.

The setting was fantastic. We spent some of our day around the marble swimming pool, some walking around the stables, chatting with other residents, having long hot showers (our idea of luxury!) and eating! The evening started with drinks in the courtyard where we were treated to Indian dance and fire breating. After this we went to our table by the pool for a hot Indian buffet meal. We met two fellow Londoners there who had left London seven years ago for a most intersting life; they now spend 6 months of a year in an Umbrian ruin in Italy and 6 months in Bijaipur teaching in local schools.

When we had finished our stay at the hotel Jude and Alistair let us camp in the grounds of their new cottage, being built 500 meters from the hotel. The man who owns the hotel owns most of the valley it stands in and has opened a school for impoverished girls. Jude teaches English there. We were fascinated by their story. We cooked them dinner that night with the spinach from the fields we were camping in and fresh turmeric, which we've never had before.

After our glorious retreat into Bijaipur and our historical and quiet isolation in Chittor, we were ready to face another city. Udaipur has been described as the Venice of India. It is a lovely place and boasts the Lake Palace where parts of the James Bond film Octopussy were filmed. We enjoyed our time there attending another cooking lesson, having a tin door made for the kitchen cupboard, eating and drinking and meeting other travellers. We stayed near Brahmpole next to a school and had good access to the old city. We spent a really good night with Sasha, a 23 year old from Moscow, who had never left Russia before and was enjoying his first holiday abroad. With him we met Sara and Alberto from Madrid and Nikel and his friend from Mumbai, and had a great evening.

We left the next day and headed South-west through Gujarat. We stopped in Ahmedabad, the largest city in Gujarat. We loved this place for two reasons; we bought a car stereo and canpopies for the beach! The stereo Mark's mum Shiela bought for us in the UK went wrong - thanks Sony - so we sent it back and Shiela bought us another. We can't tell you how much we have loved having music back! Its brilliant! Can you believe we bought a Queen CD and sing at the top of our voices 'I want to break free', 'Don't stop me now', and other cheesy but great tunes! I think they call those things 'guilty pleasures'. Mark will probably curse me for dicslosing this on the blog!!

The canopies we bought are the ones they use here for weddings. They are huge canvas decorated sheets that are sewn with rope so they don't rip. They are usually suspended over bamboo poles. The idea is that when we get to the beach in Goa we can set up a large shaded area for us and our friends to sit and eat and lounge under. We bought a huge outdoor rug as well. It sounds like we're spending a lot of money, but of course, being India, it's cheap.

We are really looking forward to the beach and not least to our friends Alan and Shameem and Tracey and Martin coming out to see us. How exciting!! Alan and Shameem come out in the second week of January to Goa and then we're travlling South to Kerala via Hampi. Tracey and Martin are joing us in the first week of February in Kerala. 

Anyway, after Ahmedabad we headed further through Gujarat and stopped in an empty field amongst fields of sugarcane. We were near a village called Pisad, near Bardoli. We managed to meet twenty or so men from the village under rather tense circumstances! When we parked, we were aware that there were some people with motorbikes looking at the van, but they didn't come and knock on the door or say hello. Men on motorbikes are ten a penny in India and we didn't think much to it. We were however, quite surprised that no-one came to say hello.

About an hour later, when it was dark we saw more motorbike headlights appear and were rather alarmed by people shouting and banging sticks on the van! We opened the door and shone a torch out to see twenty or so men who suddenly looked very relieved to see two white tourists in fron of them. They had experienced thefts locally, not least their electric irrigation system, and thought it may be the theives returning!!

The next day two of the men came back with a pot of Chai at around 7 in the morning and we then returned with them to the village.

This was an eye-opening experience. The village had a strange combination of one storey normal village houses/cottages and then a load of two storey American/Indian looking houses. A local man named Tack came to greet us and explained that during the 60s when America was seeking educated labour he and many other local Indians had applied to go and succeeded. He was a civil engineer and is now retired. He lives in Washington DC and returns to Gujarat for four months every winter.

As we were eating breakfast the local villagers came in, except this time when they introduced themselves they then said where they came from; Colarado, Texas, Oregan and so on! It was a surreal experience! Most of them run motels in America and were really interesting people to talk to about their time in the US, institutional racism, the Iraq war, Obama and so on. Apparently Indians run seventy per cent of the motel business in the US. We both thought that was pretty remarkable.

From Pisad we headed South, but this time East as well. There are some Buddhist caves in the North of Maharastra that date back some 2,000 years and are carved into the rocks. Ont he way we had our first getting stuck experience. We pulled off the road to camp and ended up in what looked like a dry river bed, but turned out to be not so dry! After some sweat-inducing digging and a vague sense of panic we manged to get out. It took us about an hour, but we were so chuffed with ourselves for doing it! We feel like proper overlanders now!

We made it to Ajanta the next day. The caves were amazing and in a beautiful setting. The countryside is changing again. We drive along in beautiful sunshine and look over what seems to be the Malborough Downs or some other gorgeous rolling hills of the British countryside. In the next bit we'll bring you up to date on the Ajanta and Ellora caves. By then we should be in Goa, having driven the Konkan coast from Murud southwards.

We've also found out that our friends Simon and Handan from Sheffield are in Goa with their 6 month old daughter Zola. We're really looking forward to seeing them too. So, for now, enjoy all your Christmas preparations, we do secretly miss them a bit, and we'll be in touch soon.

Lots of love,

Jo and Mark xx