No hurry No worry No chicken No curry !!!!

Prince Tom & Princess Georgie

Ben of the Thar desert with his
Camel driver Ahmed (12 years old)

Tom riding Paplu like a local
NICE LIPS !!

WOW !!!
We are ready for breakfast after early morning racing
around the Taj Mahal

Morning time in the Desert after a hard night on the sand
Where's my coffee?

Georgie riding the local wheels in Agra
They are harder to ride than they look
she fell off just after this photo

Max and a desert boy herding the goats in the morning

Max getting close with one of the locals

Our train accomadation morning time

Golden Temple in Amirtsar

Hello from the desert
12 days since writing the last spiel and we have finally stopped for a much needed breather. Are in an amazing desert town called Jalasalmer near the Pakistan border with a fort that reminds us of kids story books – towering above us on the only hill and surrounded by desert. We were up early this am (I managed to set the alarm clock 1 hour earlier than thought and was very popular) and spent a couple of hours winding through a warren of narrow stone walls, holes and streets and leaping over cannons, stone balls, all the time dodging cows, drains and motorbikes. Through all the streets are carved stone windows so intricate and often so close together that it made it difficult for the light to get through. The boys had had enough and left Georgie, Marty and I to find a train ticket and the ice cream shop!!!!
I have to get my head around where we have been as it seems so much has been going on. It really is so full on with the noises and smells and people. We survived our train ride to Agra with the locals – just. Not much sleep!! The vote in the Dobbe house hold rates Agra as a highlight. We just could not get enough of the Taj and lucky Ben Georgie and max were able to race in from where we were staying at anytime as free entry to under 15’. The adult’s saw the Taj 3 times in the 2 days we were there. Took heaps of photos and were wowed all the time. Our am sunrise was amazing. Managed to be first ones in and we were all racing around sliding and touching the beautiful marble that was everywhere. Marty and I could have spent all day just gazing but kids hungry and wilting. They had lasted 3 ½ hours so had done well. The other 2 times were on the local wooden dingy we had discovered on the Yamuna River in front of the Taj. We had the place to ourselves and the taj reflected in the water. AMAZING. We stayed at a fantastic little guest house right beside the Taj and spent time hanging out during the hot mid day sun. Georgie Max and I cuddled in bed reading Heidi, munching noodles, cheese toast and boiled eggs – Bliss.
Headed off to Amritsar and the train trip nearly killed us. 18 hours (the train spent 4 hours sitting on tracks somewhere!!!) Another Sleeper and Marty had to remove the beggars to get our seats. The train disgusting and toilets pretty bad after the 18 hours and very difficult squatting while the train moving and with the air from the tracks coming to greet you. I actually had a great sleep and unaware that Marty "who eats anything "spent the night decorating the start blocks with his vomit!!! Marty hence had a slow day while we all raced around experiencing the Sikhs beautiful Golden Temple.

Amaritsar also wowed us. The Golden temple is an amazing place – the Sikh’s place of worship. An amazing, beautiful temple surrounded by a pool of nectar, marble floors,scalfs on our heads, bare feet and Sikh bathers having a plunge in the waters. Incredibly friendly people who loved our family. We were there for Dawali – the huge festival of lights. The golden temple was covered in spectacular lights and a huge influx of Sikh people visiting as the holy time of year to bath. Dawali went on for nearly 5 days and it was unreal. Our fireworks are tame in comparison and have a new meaning. They are like bombs or explosions that are lit in these narrow streets by ANY age kid – usually young. The noise is deafening and certainly had us all scattering much to the delight of the kids. We were over it by the end as they were so scary and loud. Definitely a boy’s haven!!!!
We visited the border between India and Pakistan called Wagah (30mins from Amritsar) for the ceremonial border crossing that they do every evening at sunset. It’s a hilarious act of each side trying to outdo each other with yelling, chanting, music, dance and goose stepping by the guards. We thought maybe 10,000 Indians were there. A really funny thing to see.
I have to tell you about where we stayed as it was also an experience. The Sikhs at the golden Temple offer all the pilgrims free accommodation and food. We stayed here amongst them all. The toilet run was almost too much for the kids and me. 1000’s of people and we would go through where they all lay and slept to the communal bathroom where the toilet doors had a square hole in them. Not sure the reason but Tom hated the perverts!!!!! Georgie and I a bit luckier as the women mainly to short to reach the hole and stare at us. We ate twice in the communal kitchen. This place feeds 1000 people in ½ hour and stops for 2 hours at 2am to clean and prepare. We sat on the concrete floor with the pilgrims eating rice, Dahl and chapattis that were dished out from these buckets that the helpers carried up and down the rows. No sooner had we eaten and the huge floor scrappers came down the rows mopping up the spillage and then the next lot of people was usurer in. Given a tour of the kitchen - the chapatti factory of people rolling and cooking was impressive as were the pot sizes.
Another train trip to Bikaner in Rajasthan. It was funny as we all pleaded with staunch Marty to try and upgrade us to 3AC from sleeper where we sat with the dust swirling and the local guys staring and the beggar women beside us. Max came back from the other end of the train bouncing with delight and could hardly get the words out with excitement saying we can move to 3AC. We had our packs on our backs and had moved into luxury within seconds. The grins were huge and we lay on the seats away from the hustle and felt so relaxed. A good choice as the train ride was almost 24hrs with all the delays. We stumbled onto the platform at 4am.
Spent 2 nights and 3 days camel trekking in the Thar Desert. What a buzz riding on top of these amazing huge animals loping along and enjoyed the view from high. Riding the camels was like a slow motion rocking chair but the camel’s long legs meant we covered 30 km a day. Lunch was spent under the shade of a tree or shrub while Marty read Swiss family Robinson to us all. The sunsets were beautiful and sleeping under the stars listening to the camels belching and chewing their cud was an experience. The ground was so hard and we ate plenty of sand. We had an avid cricket fan who knew every fact about cricket as one of our camel drivers and he had a radio so we had great delight listening to the last 2 days of the cricket test. We would love to try and get to one of the 1 day games.
To get to Jaisalmer in 1 day we rode by camel, jeep, 2 real Indian buses and a tuk tuk!! The last bus ride nearly finished us off. This bus pulled up and Marty saw it and said luckily were not going on that bus. It had people in every crevasse. On the top, in the middle, aisles and seats and doors. We think 200 people.
Well it was our bus and we formed a scrum to get into the door. We were put in this top level sleeper compartment which is pretty much an oversized coffin. Marty decided it was smaller than a sheet of plywood and not high enough to sit up in. I was last on the bus and was shoved in head first by the bus conductor. We sat/lay for 2 hours in the sweat box with a tangle of arms and legs. I nearly lost it and was quickly plugged in to the music to calm me down. We did get the giggles all the time as just couldn’t quite believe it.
Jaisalmer – a place with the most spectacular fort built out of soft yellow sand stone looming above us and surrounded by desert has been a great place to charge our batteries. We are staying in a place with a hot shower – bliss. Last night we went out to sand dunes by jeep and lept ran and rolled down the dunes while the red ball of sun set. We had so much fun. The kids made a fort and found as many dung beetles as they could and had great delight in watching them struggle up the edges and fall back down. Our driver loved the kids so much that he took us back to his desert village to meet his family. An amazing experience.
Leaving this pm to Jodhpur by train. We are going for 4 days to the Pushkar camel fair on the 18^th.
We are missing home and our friend’s lots. The conversations revolve around food, turning the tap on to drink water and wondering what everyone is up to.