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Days 111-114: Water, in sufficient quantities, is a sure-fire salve for the nerves of the most jangled traveller. Udaipur had lots of it. With a whitewashed palace in the middle of a man-made lake made famous by the James Bond movie Octopussy, and a golden-hued palace lining the shore, Udaipur was one of those picture-postcard destinations that we were happy to get to, then take root for a while.

While in Udaipur, we hit upon the local Navrati festival, the hallmark of which was the colourful nightly co-ed stick-dancing in which most of the local youth made an appearance. The whole spectacle was dynamic, vibrant and, we strongly suspected, a great way to meet new babes.

Day 110: There’s always something comforting about buying food and drink from a vendor which verifiably makes more than a thousand of said snack per day. This lassi stand, just inside the main gate near Jodphur’s famous clocktower, was pumping out their famous cardamom-flavoured lassi at a dozen a minute in the short time that we were there. Dang they were good too!

I’d like to sat that these two posers were enjoying a day off school to help run the family business, but if they were, they certainly were dab hands at it.

Days 111-114: You couldn’t complain about the view from the rooftop in Udaipur. Hotel Wonderview indeed. Nice folks too.

Day 110: Jodphur’s fort was the most magnificent of those we had seen in India; one local sign proudly reminded us that it had recently been named Asia’s best fort. (It’s always difficult to judge these things.)

One thing was for sure; the audio tour of the fort and palace was truly wonderful, narrated roundly and proudly by an elderly Indian who reminded me of a subcontinental James Earl Jones. From the top of the ramparts, we gazed down at the blueness and listened as this sonorous voice unapologetically narrated the rich history of the palace.

It was a colourful visit, the first night of a local festival which brought hundreds of dressed-up locals through the fort and down to a temple to crack coconuts, empty the milk over repersentations of their gods and in this way paying their respects.

Day 110: In Jodphur, with only a day to see the city and its environs, we headed out on one of the popular locality tours for some hands-on experiences. Making a turban, for example, seemed to come easily to me, although the final product did not entirely resemble the demonstration model.

Our impromptu pottery class was also a hit, but here Kate outshone me.

Symmetry, I have always thought, is often overvalued. The pottery teacher reassured me that my pot could be sold for 1 rupee in the local market. Three cents? The man was too kind.

Day 109: Arriving late in Jodphur by train, we disembarked one station before Jodphur central to be just around the corner from our home for the night, the Durag Niwas Guest House. A night before we left Australia, a friend of ours advised us that the best places to stay in India were family-run guest houses, and this place really proved the point. Simple, but a little oasis in the middle of a busy city, it also supported a small NGO operation teaching English to women from lower castes. Highly recommended.

Hello Sophie!

Day 108: Jaisalmer was the western extremity of our trip to Rajasthan, and India too. From the fort, you could almost see the Pakistani border, and there were frequent air force operations throughout the day as Indian military flights landed at an airport just out of sight to the south and west of town. The fort itself rose like a giant sandcastle in the middle of the desert.

Day 108: Inside the restored palace within Jaisalmer’s fort was a room in which dozens of portraits of the Mughal rulers hung. These were men whose reputations firmly depended on their moustaches.

All throughout Rajasthan, but particularly in Jaisalmer, Jodhpur and Udaipur, we came across men with both ears pierced - a Mughal tradition that has survived to this day?