Apologies for the declining rate of posts in recent weeks. It wasn't that we were wanting for Internet connection – this is modern India, they may not have refuse collection but the whole shebang is wireless – more that the sensory, cultural, culinary and historical overload left me wondering how on earth I could begin to sum it up in a blog post or ten.

So I have decided not to really try, but just pick a few of the 2,000 or so photos which I swear have added a couple of hundred grams to the weight of my MacBook.

One word of warning, I do know this is supposed to be a food blog but – and don't tell my publisher this – the more time we spent in India, the less food came to dominate my attentions. Not sure, but I don't think I am writing a wholly food-orientated book any more. It became harder and harder to focus just on what I was eating as everything else just sort of began to crowd in. Including camels.

After Jaipur, Rajasthan still had one wondrous sight hidden up its voluminous sleeve: Udaipur, with its lake palaces and yet more maharajah action.

 Though we wouldn't make it as far west as Jaisalmer, so I can't speak for that, Udaipur was easily the most seductive of Rajasthan's cities with an easier-going atmosphere. We even got to see the Maharana's (Udaipur has a Maharana, not a Maharaja, I should add) lavatory.

Great shops, too.   I don't know about you, 

but legion are the occasions I have searched for a Specs 'n' 

Dentures outlet near me.

The street food was perhaps not as diverse as in Jaipur, but you can't beat swirl of sugary batter and a big vat of boiling oil.

One day I hired a car and driver and took off to the largest Jain temple in India, Adinath near Ranakpur, with its 1,500 columns.

Unspeakably beautiful inside, though not enough to persuade me to become a Jain. Sounds like awfully hard work, what with the 'not harming a fly' edict and all. What, not even those mosquitos which wake you up by buzzing Britney Spears' 'Toxic' in your ear drum at two in the morning?