Back home 5 April

Home at last, after eight wonderful weeks. This quote, painted on the wall at Martin's school, sums up our trip really! We had a very good flight home and were greeted at Heathrow by the wonderful Luna and her parents. What a treat! She is growing so beautifully. It quite made up for the trauma of arriving home - and for the ghastly, rainy weather followed by snow the next morning!

Delhi 1 April - 5 April

Delhi - we are staying in The Imperial, which is recognised as the best hotel in Delhi - if not India! It is special - but you certainly pay for it! Moop was ill, so we didn't go out until the last day. We went to our all India favourite, the Crafts Museum in Bhairon Road. It was even better than our last visit, because we discovered the textiles building. It was superb! Huge floor of fabrics, amazingly well displayed for India! The other areas were also really well done. Amazing sculptures, toys and jewelery mostly guarded by sleeping guards! We are so pleased that we are leaving India on a high!

Darjeeling 29 March - 1 April

Glenburn is quite gorgeous - but you have to experience the worst roads ever to get there! It is six km from Darjeeling, but it would take well over an hour to get there! We never made it. We went down to the river instead, past all the tea pickers. That road was monstrous too!

Paresnath Jain Temple 26 March

Paresnath Jain temple was the most wonderful visit. Jains are happy Buddhists - and we felt happy as soon as we walked through the gate. It was built by a rich jeweller in 1867 - and every square inch sparkles with mirrors, glass and tile fragments. Mr Moon's tiny blue shop, built into the temple walls, was lovely to look at.

Kolkata 23 March - 29 March

Kolkata - huge, dirty city, with 17 million inhabitants. We are staying in a mega-trendy hotel bang in the middle! The New Market is actually 170 years old. Not quite sure what Spiderman is doing there!

Lucknow 20 March - 23 March

Lucknow is an interesting Muslim city we feel we want to revisit. We only had three nights - which means two days - and the second day was Holi - the colour festival, when we were advised to stay in the hotel! It looks like a worthwhile town for next time - with an excellent Taj!

Varanasi 17 March - 20 March

Varanasi - it is all about people! The guide books say there are a million, the taxi drivers say there are two and a half million - it feels like ten million! We had a brilliant walking tour of the old city, just behind the ghats. I got shoved by a cow in one of the very narrow streets! Cows are everywhere. They even seem to be able to climb the steps down to the Ganga - or Ganges as we know it!

Khajuraho 15 March - 17 March

Khajuraho is really little more than a village, but it is stuffed with temples from the 1st century AD. About 90% of its amazing carvings are the usual sort of Gods, people and beasts - but the other 10% show what the villagers were really up to! Now it is a tourist destination, with loads of hotels. We at last found a tailor at the Taj Chandela Hotel, and have been busy stocking up!

Orchha 12 March - 15 March

Orcha is a pleasant large village - or very small town - stuffed with ruins and strange temple spaces. This lovely little lad had just pocketed 10 Rupees! A bargain!

More Gwalior - 11 March

We went to a very nice music museum in a lovely building with an internal courtyard and a wonderful tree. Then we went to an equally good archaeological museum at the foot of the Fort. It was a large open square, filled with great carvings - like this Hanuman. They made up for yesterday's miserable museum.

Gwalior 6 March - 12 March

We are now staying at the Gwalior Taj, Usha Kiran Palace - and we like it a lot! These pictures are the Fort - not the hotel! Our room is excellent and the staff are brilliant. Gwalior itself is a bit of a dump, but it has the most wonderful Fort we have ever visited. Very unusual Palace, with a mixture of blue paint and blue tiled details. The temples there are also very unusual and very fine. Carved into the mountain sides, on the way up to the Fort gates are beautiful Jain statues of Buddhas. The whole area is a mix of different periods from 8th century to 18th century. As ever, all the happy times of the 15th century were completely destroyed by the Moguls in the 18th century! We went to a strange and not wholly successful open air concert - but were glad to get back to our very comfortable hotel. The music in the dining room far exceeds anything we heard at the concert!

Samode Haveli, Jaipur 29 February - 3 March

We are staying in Samode Haveli, a delightful hotel in Jaipur - and contrary to what we were told, the food is very good.! Room 123 is great. We will definitely return. We have found lots of nice places and things to see in Jaipur, including this wonderful padlock display in one of the bazaars in the pink city. The bazaars are very beautiful and good fun to wander round. We went back to Niro's, which was our favourite restaurant in Jaipur last year. Still excellent. We also found an old, discarded bit of funfair, with a wonderful, small Ferris wheel and a roundabout made of rusty, painted metal.

Shahpura Bagh, Shahpura 24 Feb - 29 Feb

We are back at Shahpurah Bagh, staying with our friends, the Singhs, in their wonderful, ancestral home. It feels as if we really belong here. The photograph of both of us is at the family Fort, which we are hoping to help them develop into an exraordinary Heritage Hotel. The first picture is of Sat at the back, with Sheelu, Indrajit and Mahinda, Sat's mother, in the front. Maya, Sat's wife, was arranging flowers at the time! The photograph below was one of hundreds of wonderful family pictures. This one was The Chamber of Princes from 1943, with their ancestor in the second row, third from the right. It was a hand tinted black and white photograph, with all the princes wearing beautiful pastel coloured coats and the brits looking boring in grey. How wonderful if Sat produced a family history with just part of his collection of photographs and family portraits! He showed us a slide show of some of the family weddings, including his parents' and including his. They are completely timeless - especially because he and his father look interchangeable!