The blues

I was struck down. Nasty nasty tummy bugs! Not even a week in, pft. I couldn't even keep water down, which was a bit worrying. I blame a disgusting fruit korma I ate, and the thought of paneer makes my stomach turn still. Thankfully the main yuckiness only lasted 24 hours and I was in a nice cosy cool room, but it extended our stay in Udaipur.

When I surfaced, we finally visited the palace which, while quite stunning from the outside, is a bit disappointing inside. And the boat trip we'd been looking forward to turned out to be a bit of a rip off. Udaipur is a pretty place for monkeys, honeymoons and tour groups, but it was time to move on.

We left early for a six-hour bus to Jodhpur. At the bus station street people begged and clawed us, dusty little people who live on the scrap of park opposite. It was a bit much for such an early hour. The bus journey was so bumpy I thought my stomach was going to jump out of my mouth and at one point I whacked my head on the ceiling. When a woman in front puked out of the window, it blew backwards spraying everyone inside. But the long road wound through the desert and there was plenty to look at, so I clung on gawping at the skinny men in overgrown turbans, the stately camels and the huge slabs of marble being chopped and sold.

Jodhpur is blue. The old town, where we're staying, is made of glowing Brahmin-blue buildings all cobbled together along winding streets which lead up the hillside to the fort. The fort is incredible, it looks like it just sprouted out of the mountain when someone dropped a magic bean.

It all looks a lot nicer from above than it feels from inside - Jodhpur is choked with fumes, deafening with horns and stinky with open sewers. It's charming anyway. The crazy market is full of delicious smells of spices and guava and glinting colourful saris. There's even a world-famous omelette man in the main square: a tiny shack stacked with white eggs and a friendly little dude selling masala cheese omelette sandwiches for less than 50p.

We wandered around the town and took a tour of the fort, and even watched Macbeth in a cool green garden within the fort. Aside from that our guest house roof was a perfect place for being lazy, staring at the fort and talking to people.