Jaipur: not bad. Mumbai: bloody good!

Hello again...

Onwards we travelled, an hour down the road, leaving the the small town of Pushkar (population 15,000) and arriving in Jaipur - population 2.5 million! Jaipur's the capital of the Rajasthan district, with suburbs that sprawl on for miles and miles over the horizon.

A few nice old buildings and forts are sprinkled throughout the town, but finding your way around is a real effort. Laura, Paul and I got lost a fair few times on the gargantuan wide streets. It's known as the pink city, owing to the town's ruler decorating everything pink to welcome the king of England back in the 1870s. It's not gay or owt.

The street vendors and touts in Jaipur seem to revel in cranking up the annoyance factor. Walking in the city we got hassled nearly every step of the way. 'Hey, where you from?' 'You want postcard?' 'You want rickshaw?' 'Where you going?' It's all designed to reel tourists in for more business. Patience is a virtue. I love being in India but sometimes I have to take a step back and remember it is a vastly different culture to that of the West. Here it's 'hard sell' all the way.

We spent two days in Jaipur and our driver Viru took us to see a few forts and temples in the surrounding hills. The three of us felt a bit jaded after ten days of intense sight-seeing, and Viru worked tirelessly to carry us along on his magic carpet of manic enthusiasm. I have to take my hat off to the guy - he's driven us over a thousand miles through some very difficult terrain, taking little time to rest, and never complained. We've tried to treat him to food but he always refuses.

There are some great sights and photo opportunities around Jaipur. The Monkey Temple was my favourite. Monkeys (along with cows) are sacred creatures in the Hindu religion, and they roam free everywhere. Often as you walk through towns you see them scampering along rooftop power cables as if they were jungle creepers. I have never seen such a big gathering of monkeys as I did at the Monkey Temple - there were hundreds of them bobbing up and down the steps. A monkey paradise you might say!

We also discovered a city-centre bar, 'Bouncer', which serves booze at a reasonable price and features table service from what seem to be the various entrants of a 'Miami Vice pimp lookalike' competition. It is one of only a handful of bars in Jaipur and I hit the beer with a relish!

Most towns in India don't cater for people going out drinking. A lot of folk here are teetotal (despite the popularity of whisky with the menfolk). My liver had been dancing a merry jig of recovery in recent weeks. Not any longer!

On Monday (4th Feb), I had to finally wave goodbye to Laura, Paul and Viru at Jaipur train station, and start the next leg of my travels. I really enjoyed travelling round Rajasthan; I've come away with a greater appreciation of India's wonder and diversity, plus many great pictures and memories.

The memory card that sits in my camera is precious, and I am dreading having to pass it into the hands of a stranger to get photo CDs made. I have nearly 900 pics now! It was good to travel with Laura and Paul, they are nice easy-going people.

Yesterday I boarded a night train to Mumbai. The ride lasted a mind-numbing 17 hours, taking us about 800 miles south. It was a surprisingly smooth experience - gone are the days of people hanging off the sides and roofs of carriages. The practice was outlawed among passengers about ten years ago. I paid about 25 quid for a bed in an air-conditioned carriage that was finished in squeaky-clean blue leather and smelt of hospitals.

As I woke the next morning the train was crawling through the suburbs of Mumbai. The tinted glass of the air conditioned carriage revealed glimpses of palm trees, slums and inner-city debris. During the journey I'd got chatting to an Indian lady, Sunita. I mentioned I was on the lookout for a room and in an incredible act of hospitality she has invited me to stay free of charge at her Mumbai apartment for three nights! Brilliant news!

So I am presently crashing in a spare bed on the 27th floor of a newly-built city centre tower block. The flat I'm staying in belongs to Sunita's family, and is rented to a group of five youngish professional guys who are training to be investment bankers and such. Real estate prices in Mumbai are so high (second only to Tokyo in the entire world) nearly everyone here has to co-habit or flat-share, living crowded and intermingled lives.

The guys came from various far-flung areas of India to seek work in Mumbai. I met a few of them on the morning I arrived. Hanging out around the flat they converse in English with one another, and seem keen to assimilate themselves into the western world as fully as possible. I feel like I have met Indians from all walks of life now!

Mumbai is one of India's biggest cities and a centre of big business. It is also home of the Bollywood movie industry. I'd always wanted to visit, because my dad was born here and spent the first few years of his life in the city. He's never had a chance to come back yet, so I wanted to check out the place and bring a few photos home to him.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but on first impressions it seems a surprisingly nice place. The hustle and bustle of the city is surrounded by sea, giving you a place to escape to for some clean air. Everywhere there are palm trees and skyscrapers and in the hot sunshine, things have a slightly tropical feel. Mumbai is a mix of high-rise buildings, shanty towns and double-decker buses, topped with a smorgasbord of old British architecture.

I spent a while walking round the city centre on foot, and found a cheap restaurant where I enjoyed a fantastic gobi masala (cauliflower curry) for lunch. Then I decided to pop to an internet cafe to write this, and now two hours have passed in the blink of an eye. Time to go and explore some more! Ciao for now folks.