Hello, Sir, Hello?

Dear diary, it's been a while. A few days really, but in those few days we both got a bit sick. Probably not the best country to get sick in, but probably one of the least surprising as well. We've been playing it pretty safe, but you can't always win.

At the gates, Jaipur, the pink city

So last I wrote we were in Delhi. From Delhi we took the train to Jaipur and had a couple of nights there. I had a pretty mean fever there, so we decided to stay another night. Unfortunately Suryya Villa, the place we were staying had no more room for us the next night, so we moved next door. Even though next door had palace in the name, it was a bit of a downgrade and still the same price.

In Jaipur we got a rickshaw man to show us around the sights. His name was Yusuf, he was a pretty good guy, he didn't try to pull too many scams, not as many as the driver we had in Delhi. We don't have much time in each place which is why we have been toured around etc.

We are now in Udaipur, which is really where we should have come from Mumbai, but the past is the past just leave it behind (ruuuuuuuuuuuuunnnn awwwwwwaaaayyyy etc). It's a very nice city, but you know, there's still that overhanging stench all around and the honk honk beep beep and the hello...sir...hello? From every shop corner. It's not as intense here though. We went to the City Palace, which was very interesting, I liked that a lot, probably one of my favourite places I have been to in India. Mostly just the way you could read things from the wall, and following the signposts took you on a complete tour of the place.

I must say the thing that has surprised me the most, and of course it's not the stench or the poverty or the loudness of the beeping of the cars or the speed that buses overtake on the wrong side of the road going up or down a mountain, though they are all pretty full on...is the lack of cricket.

I honestly expected to see kids running around everywhere, scraps of wood, bucket stumps, makeshift cricket games everywhere. To be honest, I haven't really seen a ball bowled in anger at all. Only one underarm lollipop early in the trip in Mumbai, and we went past an oval where a kids cricket match looked to be being prepared, but that's it.

And that, that may explain the current situation in Indian cricket. They are down vs England in the Tests 2-0, and are being destroyed in the third test, with A.Cook already on 200+. I actually saw a few minutes of a program, it was kind of like Insight on SBS, and the question they asked was "what's wrong with Indian cricket?" They did just win the world cup a few months back though....you know, you can't win them all, and they are missing Zaheer Khan who is better than the rest of the bowlers put together. So that's that on cricket. I read somewhere else that if Sachin Tendulkar scores another century, it will be his 100th, a mammoth effort that.

After all of these Hello, sir? Hello? The tactic to try and get you into a shop, onto a rickshaw, into a scam, etc, I can't stop think of Lionel Richie. Hello. Is it me you're looking for? Maybe that should be the next answer back. Hello friend, Hello, is it me you're looking for.

The plan from here is to go by an overnight train tomorrow night to Agra. I have heard a few people say that there is nothing but the Taj Mahal there. From Agra we are going to go to Nepal, so we might return to Delhi and take a flight. Which of course renders that previous flight fairly useless, but that doesn't matter.