We arrived in Delhi and after a shower, travelled by car down to Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. It's known as the "Pink City" because it was painted that colour (symbolising hospitality) in honour of the Prince of Wales' visit earlier last century on the orders of the Maharaja. The journey took around 5.5 hours, and as we went further south, we passed carts pulled by camels. We stopped to visit a temple, and I had a surreal conversation with an Indian guy wanting to practice his French. We stayed at the Evergreen Hostel, which was grubby but had a little garden and rooftop swimming pool, which we took advantage of. It was so nice to finally feel cool and watch the bats skimming the water (to catch insects? have a drink? I couldn't tell). We were joined by a gem dealer from Switzerland.

After boasting for so long about my iron constitution, I succumbed to my stomach upset since the age of five. Not to be too graphic about it, but I had no idea it was so relentless and awful - I have a whole new sympathy! I had terrible stomach pains and was hot and achy with a fever. I'd only had one meal that day - in a restaurant recommended by the car driver. They had tried to con us with tap water in an unsealed mineral water bottle and didn't apologise when we called them on it, so I can't help but think it wasn't the most scrupulous establishment. But what can you do? We'd been on a bus for 27 hours and were hungry...

After a grim night with next to no sleep, I had to meet the car at 8.30 the next morning for sightseeing. I started to walk up to the Amber Fort but began to black out and thought I was going to be sick, so I sat in the gardens with the monkeys and dogs and waited for Ash. A crowd of about 10 Indians came and stood around me, staring. I tried to smile but was not in the mood and cried instead. There is nothing worse than feeling rough away from home.