the happy little world of miss ktp!

well ive had quite a few firsts since being back in bangalore, philadelphia cheese, cranberry juice and now french toast! im being spoilt!! got up this morning and violet, seamus' maid, made me french toast and chai it was brilliant! just what i needed! eventhough i arrived in bangalore almost a week ago now i decided to unpack last night! when i arrived i just chucked (literally) everything onto the sofa and table in my room and just put up with the fact that i had to rummage through piles of rubbish to find anything! as i was trying to sleep last night i had one of those moments where i couldnt relax cos i just wanted to tidy up (it doesnt happen very often but when it does, i make the most of it!) so thats what i did. it still looks a bit messy but at least i know what i have and where it all is! im starting to get a bit worried again about baggage allowance. i cant have more than 25kg now after sending home 57kg can i?!?!?! if i do then i think its time to be ruthless and jus...

im back! yaya! had quite a nice relaxing last day in hyderabad although i was followed by a really dodgy guy on a bike while i was in my rikshaw! to make up for it though i managed to get the new HARRY POTTER! its well good and im almost finished it, it goes everywhere with me at the mo and every spare chance i get i read a bit of it! my flight from hyderabad to bangalore was about 2hrs late and i wasnt impressed as it was cutting into valuable cosmo time! chuh! but i managed to land at 11pm, manjunath, seamus' driver, picked me up and dropped me straight to cosmo, i managed to get a bit of time in there before the cops came, grr! quite a few people were out though so that was cool! then went back to seamus' and we giggled the night away catching up with all the gossip! yesterday was a trip to leela for some good food and even better company! met up with ajay which was ace cos i didnt think id get to see him again before i left for uk, as well as scouse john, glady...

well, ive gone from being a princess in a very posh hotel to a wanna be princess in a very tacky castle! im now in hyderabad in a place called amrutha castle,it sounds really nice on the net and in the rough guide! i was expecting it to be standing on its own maybe on a hill or something but no its slap bang in the middle of hyderabad with 2 hotels either side! its a bit of an eye sore! would look fine if placed in the middle of alton towers or somewhere like that! i walked into reception and had to stop myself laughing! theres a huge stained glass window behind the desk, wooden floor, huge wooden booths, one for reception, one for info, etc, theres a ye olde english pub (which is closed tonight, on a friday?! come on!), some big wooden tables for another restaurant then you go up in the lift and all the rooms are positioned around a central turret and the carpet is bright green! my room is named 'percival' is really big and basic but nice, huge bed, desk that makes me ...

well im living in the life of luxury at the moment and its great! Flew to delhi yesterday and that was where i left becca, im now travelling on my own! i was greeted at the airport by 2 guys from 'culture holidays' who were there to pick me up and take me to my first hotel on my golden triangle tour. it was the metropolitain Nikko Hotel and was lovely! i even had a bath, with bubbles to make it that extra special! hehe. i then put on my slippers provided by the hotel, got ready for bed and got in between the crisp white sheets and sunk into the overly soft and fluffy pillows!!!!! this morning i caught the train to jaipur, A/C of course and the trouble is that im not used to A/C so im absolutely freezing everywhere i go! got to jaipur and was met by my tour guide and driver for the day. our first stop was an elephant ride (much comfier than a camel!) up to the amber fort, next the wind palace, the water palace, city palace, observatory and any other tourist spots in jai...

the meals here get better! got up this morning quite hungry and so ordered an omlette with cheese forgetting that pushkar has no egg! so i was presented with this eggless omlette! i wouldnt recommend it by the way! well the monsoon has now hit rajasthan. its not too bad at the moment. its rained most of today but just a drizzle (its spitting!), so no torrents of water flowing down the streets - YET! hopefully our journey to jaipur tomorrow will go ok, i dont fancy spending hours on a hot and stuffy bus cos the roads flooded! done sooo much shopping here! its great! so cheap too! not looking forward to packing tonight though cos my bag was full when i left banaglore! so far on my travels ive left something at each hotel to make room for something new!! its been books, toiletries, trousers that were a bit minging anyway and some writing paper! every little extra bit of space helps! ill definately be leaving at least one book here, maybe even more! oops! hehe the shopah...

well im now in pushkar and its a very holy place so its all veggie food, not even eggs, no alcohol and we have to be back at our hotel by 10pm. its lovely though, called the hotel white house. we arrived here from jodhpur at 7pm and had dinner. i asked for a cheese burger and got a cheese veggie burger insteasd. ah well, wont do me any harm! not really seen any of pushkar yet, gonna explore tomorrow after my head massage at 9am! we're staying here till sunday and then moving onto jaipur. jodhpur was nice. we stayed at an ok hotel, the room was fine for a night but the views and food on the rooftop restaurant made up for it! this morning we went up to the fort and had an amazing view over the blue city. our bus journey to ajmer then pushkar was quite scary! we had far too many near misses (surely it should be a near hit instead?!) and one cow wasnt lucky enough cos we actually hit it. thankfully it did run away not looking injured, probably just as shook up as i was sit...

howdy! well still having a great time travelling. im in jaisalmer, rajasthan at the moment and its a beautiful place, if a bit touristy! the fort looks just like a huge sandcastle looking over the rest of jaisalmer and out hotel has a great view of it from the rooftop restaurant. yesterday afternoon we set off to go on a camel safari! i was dead excited and was even offered a turban to wear! seeing as i wasnt going to be a party pooper i took up the oportunity straight away and donned a bright orange one! we stopped off at a few places on the way in the jeep and had a cup of chai in the middle of nowhere at a little shack before clambering aboard our camels! thankfully i didnt fall off, but it wasnt easy staying on while the camel stood up and sat down! the ride wasnt the smoothest ive been on but i think it might have been more comfortable than our bus ride from ahmedabad to jaisalmer that morning!! we rode the camels (mine was called michael jackson by the way! ace!) for ...

ive just found out that....... H IS GAY! nooooooo! guess ill have to admit it now - rfa, ross, etc you were all right. *grr!* maybe i can still convert him? hmmm! xx

right well weve just booked our coach tickets to jaisalmer in rajasthan. i leave ahmedabad on saturday am to go to an ikat weaving village then travel on to rajasthan; i plan to spend a week there with becca visiting various places and then onto delhi where ill probably be online again. today we had a day off from the library and went into the city. we visited a textiles museum and then did a bit of shopping and pottered around as best we could in the heat! having a quiet night today, just chillaxing with the girls and its back to the grindstone tomorrow morning, up at 7am!! *yawn!* thats the 3rd day in a row, thought this was supposed to be a holiday?! xx

well we arrived safely in Gujarat after deciding to fly rather than risking the train or bus from Mumbai. Eventhough in Ahmedabad weve seen only about 2 puddles the rest of Gujarat, in the south is still quite flooded. weve had a bit of rain, but not much, its really hot and muggy, thankfully where we are the moment is all airconditioned! We are staying at the NID (National Institute of Design) in their guest house. its quite nice feeling like a student again! the campus is lovely and the scenery (mainly guys) is rather nice too!! ;-) we are here for about a week to study in detail the topics we want to do for our dissertations next year, bit geeky but really useful and interesting! Weve also met a really nice guy called Erol whos been helping us and showing us some of his textile techniques. Gujarat is more of what id expect from india and i love it! we were driving down the main road in a rik last night, looked to where all the traffic was waiting at the traffic lights a...

well today is my last day in bangalore! wow! im planning on spending the day at leela having our champagne brunch and seeing everyone before we head off on our adventures! eventhough gujarat is pretty much underwater we are still planning on going there but if its really bad we will probably go to rajasthan earlier. its really exciting planning all the stuff for my travels and cant wait to see more of india! not sure when ill next be able to type this but ill keep you informed! not really sure how im feeling, nervous, excited, scared, happy, sad, just 'meh' really! anyways better go and pack my inflatable boat ready for gujarat!! *glug glug* xxxxxx

well im free! finished work yesterday. i cried 15times, everyone was keeping a tally! i got some lovely gifts and cards from people at work which was really nice. im gonna miss them all so much, most of them ill never see again probably. and so now the frantic packing has started! its crazy! im gonna end up leaving so much stuff i think eventhough 37kg has already been sent home! im even leaving some shoes behind *shock gasp* it must be bad! off to the cinema later to see war of the worlds and then more goodbyes later on. i really want to get on and go travelling now cos the goodbyes are getting a bit too much! as my dad always says, my bladder is too close to my eyes!!! hehe. just found out alot of gujarat is flooded at the mo so we are trying to sort out our travelling plans for while we are out there. hopefully itll be ok. have to wait and see i think! right well just a short and sweet on for now gotta go, soooo much stuff to sort out and people to see! ttfn xxx