Is it really March

Well what an exhausting week we have had since leaving the serenity of the Goan Coast.
We took an overnight bus from Goa to Mumbai, the buses are very good as they have actual double beds on the top half so you lie down and draw a curtain and sleep all the way which is great on a 12 hour bus journey!
We enjoyed Mumbai and did some shopping in the Bazaars and visited some of the local sights.From Mumbai we got a bus to Aurangabad which is around 350 kms inland to see the Ellora and Ajanta Caves Buddhist,Hindu and Jain Caves sculpted between Ad 600 - 1000 and clinging to a horseshoe shaped escarpement on a mountain.

Amazing Buddhas and a Shiva (Hindu holy deity) that is the largest monolithic sculpture in the world, hewn from the rocks by 7000 labourers over a 150 year period, lucky the same team werent tasked with the job of building Wembley stadium, or were they?

That afternoon we jumped on another bus to Rajasthan another 15 hour bus trip, then a change at Gujarat for a 5 hour trip on another bus to Udaipur the most romantic city in India!
On the way Bryan had been preparing himself for the up and coming Holi celebrations in India, where Hindus celebrate by throwing coloured paint and water at each other. Young and old the whole of India gets involved.
Bryan got amongst it with some vigour and set about buying a huge water pistol with a pump action and plenty of powdered paint for ammo.
However the morning of Holi we were on this bus and Bryan got on very well with the driver and his mate and they thought it would be fun to get this pistol out and attack passers by. But as Bryan put the colour in his waterpistol the water ran out all over the floor of the bus, dyeing it green. Luckily the driver found this hilarious ( his bus was a wreck). Then a water and paint fight started in the cab of the bus with the driver being the instigator and taking his hands off the wheel and eyes off the road, the whole bus was swerving up the road!!
Bryan thought it then best to put it away as, we really didnt want a crash on our hands too!

We arrived safely in Udaipur and it is beautiful lakes with floating wedding cake style palaces that were used in the James Bond Movie Octupussy.

We and the rest of India are now waiting for the cricket world cup to start and there is talk of nothing else here, Bryan has the same conversation with nearly every Indian he meets usually;

Indian; Hi where you from
Bryan; New Zealand
Indian; ahh Stephen Flemming!

Anyway keep warm

Lots of love Julz and Bryan