On Thursday night I didn't sleep very well as I had a really high temperature (it's hot enough as it is already) and still felt generally crap. But when I did wake up the next morning, I felt well enough to continue as planned and head to Ranthambhore about 4 hours away. The journey was okay if not a little slow, bu when I arrived I did find a swimming pool with water in which was a relief! Shame it was really dirty though :-s I checked in and chilled out in my room/by the pool, gradually feeling a little better throughout the day.

Ranthambhore has the 'Ranthambhore National Park' which is home to 26 tigers, and the whole town is centred around this. You can explore the park either by canter (20 people) or gypsy (4 people, 3 times the price). Gypsy's are more cmfortable, more flexible as to where they can drive and stand a slightly higher chance of spotting a tiger, so this is how I wanted to go. I was told there were no spaces left on gypsy's (only 15 are allowed into the park for two sessions each day) but I didn't really believe it. It turned out they were very highly demanded but as I was alone I was able to get a place and even got a decent price (only twice the price) which was good. I also made a couple of new Indian friends and got a free lift on one of their motorbikes into the market 10 minutes away!

It was a really hot day, about 35 degrees, so I didn't have a t-shirt on. Walking through the market, I have never been stared at so much in all my life - EVERY single person was watching me walk past and half said hi or shook my hand - crazy! Once I had walked round the market I went back to the shop where my friend was waiting for me and one of his friends had a shirt on that I wanted. He showed me where he had bought it from, so I bought one the same, then he got a print done on it the same as his for me. They loved me in that shop (more than usual) so i got a photo or 2 then got a lift back to the hotel.

I went into the shop nextdoor to use the internet which was UNBELIEVABLY slow. After about 10 minutes and one loaded page I gave up and refused to pay, obviously. I did get chatting to a group of Scottish people though, 3 girls and a guy. They also couldn't hack the internet any longer so we left and they invited me back to their hotel. We woke up the hotel worker to get us a couple of beers, pulled round some chairs, killed all the wasps in the area and talked for a couple of hours. We also got some texas holdem poker with fox mint chips going which was fun! On the way back I was stalked by a pack of dogs down an unlit road which was a bit worrying. When I got back I had to wake the security guard to let me in, he was asleep balanced somehow between two chairs and when he woke up he fell off. By this time it was about 3am which was a bummer as I had to be up the next morning at 6 for the tiger safari!

So 6.25 comes and there's a guy knocking on my door "SAFARI SAFARI!" I put on some clothes, grabbed my bag and was in the gypsy by 6.30. We picked up 3 other people from the hotel I had been drinking beer in just hours before and set off down the road, hitting speed bumps at high speeds in this supposedly all terrain vehicle. We were the third group to arrive in the park out of 45 which was good. We saw some bright coloured birds, eagles, woodpeckers, kingfishers, spotted deer, different varieties of antelope, mongoose and then stopped for a break. A canter came past while we were stopped and they had just seen a tiger. They explained where and we drove there relaly fast! Some of the slopes and roads were really steep and bumpy so it was much fun! We got there but couldn't see it and before long there were 3 canters waiting too. One of the canters which was full of Indian's saw it and all started shouting so it went again straight away. We were really annoyed; they had already seen a tiger and then ruined this opporunity for us. It didn't come back again for ages, so luckily for us the canters gave up and left us alone. We were really quiet and patient and eventually we got to see the tiger! It was quite far and in the bushes but walked around a bit and watched us the whole time, I still managed to get a good picture by taking it through a binocular lens and was just relieved to have seen a tiger. I won't lie to you, I would have been disappointed if I hadn't! Many people don't get to see any, but some that morning had seen 4 tigers and one group the next morning got to see a tiger chase and catch a deer, take it down to the riverside then eat it with its cub. That would have been amazing to see.

The rest of the day I caught up on sleep, chilled out by the pool and ordered food. In the evening my driver knocked on my door and invited me to have a couple of beers with him and a friend. Fortunately his friend spoke better English than he does so I was able to have conversation. Little did I know that the beer we were drinking was Kingfisher Strong as opposed to normal Kingfisher, meaning it's about 10% and not about 4%. I slept well that night, haha!

In the morning we left at 10 for Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. On the way some people had set up a road block with a line of rocks to try and stop the cars and take money. My driver wasn't having any of it and drove up over this bank to avoid it! Also at one point there was a bicycle, a lorry, a motorbike and a car all overtaking each other at the same time coming towards us! This time we had to go down in a bank and all the abuse the car has taken has given it a small puncture so we have to stop every now and then for air. We stopped for (rip off) lunch on the way and also in a nearby town called Fatehpur Sikri. We stopped here to see the highest gate in Asia and I got a guide for an hour as I managed to get him down to about 10p. Inside the gate is a replica area of Mecca and a mosque, inside which I tied 3 strings for 3 wishes. Outside the mosque was a tranny who was having... their... picture taken by a professional photographer. They wanted me in the picture, so somewhere in India sometime soon I'm probably gonna be in some weird magazine which is a bit worrying!

On the final stretch to the hotel I spotted another Pizza Hut so stopped off to take advantage of the bargains again! On my receipt my waitress wrote "Dear Guest. Thank you for your lovely visit. It was really nice pleasure to serving Good Looking Guy" - hehe. Then it was up early at 5.30am to go and see the Taj at sunrise. It's expensive to get in at a tenner, especially as it's only 25p for Indians! Plus they all seem to skip the queue. It was really amazing, got some nice photos. Also bought the photo and negative from the professional photographer as it wasn't much and was a great photo with the reflection and everything. I stayed for about an hour and a half taking it all in.

Afterwards I used the internet but the computer crashed loosing my type up on here so I quickly left after a bit of an arguement. I was harrassed for ages by rickshaw drivers wanting to take me to the 'Baby Taj.' Being a bit annoyed at the internet incident after they had been following me saying "Baby Taj" for about 10 minutes I turned to them and said "I've just seen the real Taj why the hell would I want to see the Baby Taj!" and I think they got the message! I've also picked up a good way of getting rid of people trying to sell me things, example: "You want these bracelets?" "Eugh, they're ugly." "You want chess?" "I hate chess" etc etc! I went to Agra Fort this afternoon which was good but I'm all forted out now. Think there's still one left to see which I can handle.

About to head to the train station now where I'll have to wait for 5 hours before my train leaves. Then the train itself takes 12 hours so I'm not much looking forward to it! Varanassi is my next and one but last stay in India; I need to be wary and careful there as there were bombings recently and it's generally meant to be a bit dodgy. Here goes...!