track our trek

with limited time in india, we were anxious to get out and see as much as possible right away...we took the advice of several people and headed to a hotel to hire a driver...for a little less than $40 a day, we hired a driver to take us on a 10 day tour of rajastan to many of the major tourist attractions in north india along with some places off-the-beaten path. it's a bit expensive, but well worth it, since it was clear after half a day here that this place would be emotionally exhausting...and if we had to get ourselves from one city to the next by bus and train, we wouldn't see half as much... so satish picked us up at 8 on sunday morning and we headed off to agra...it was the best decision we could've made. satish has been driving for 7 years for a hotel which is mentioned in lonely planet...he is easy going and friendly, and easy to talk to...he is taking wonderful care of us...we just told him our budget, and in each city, he finds us clean rooms to stay in & takes us to restaurants where we are sure not to get sick (extremely high priority!)...we have both been suffering for a few days w/ indigestion, but nothing incapacitating so far, thank god! maybe this is what people mean when they say "everybody gets delhi belly." we felt immediately at home and relaxed, so it was easy to sit back and take in the sights and sounds as we drove through the countryside. we decided to extend our stay by a few days so we'd have time to travel as far west as jaisalmer and go on a camel safari....so our 13 day itinerary will take us to agra (home of the taj mahal), jaipur, pushkar, udaipur, jodhpur, ranakpur, and jaisalmer. phew!