We were up at 5.30 this morning to make sure our bags were sorted. Breakfast was the best yet, a rice dish. At 7am we were picked up and crammed into a 4x4 and driven to Amber Fort. I had no idea what to expect of it and, quite frankly, words don't do it justice. Driving through the green valley, a stretch of wall appeared on the hillside to our right, to the left was a similar wall that got bigger and bigger eventually becoming the fort. It is a golden, orange, sand colour and looks incredible against its lush background. From it the wall stretches out and around the village of Amber. In the distance I see that this wall cuts strikingly across two hills creating a sharp 'M' shape.

To climb the hill to the fort people are taken in two's by elephant. This seemed exciting until I saw the elephants and the gigantic cue and then I just felt sorry for the elephants. The ride was fun, and luckily our 'driver' – for want of a better word – wasn't one that hit his steed but still I wished there was another way. Unfortunately it would seem that without 'working' or 'domestic' elephants there really would be a small number left here. From what I can tell it's mostly due to destruction of their habitat.

The fort itself is made up 4 floors. Once we reached the fourth, my camera battery died so I changed it. I took two photos and then it froze. The screen went blank and the lens would not retract. It then transpired that Debi's had frozen also. Other cameras were misbehaving too. I even took the video camera, that Kaveh had charged the previous night, for 5 minutes and then its battery died. Pretty surreal, that's for sure.

The architecture, however, was gorgeous. The panoramic views left me in a daze. On the way back to the cars we passed stalls, sellers, beggars and snake charmers.

Later on, after lunch at the Idex office, it was time to head to the train station. The train was late by about an hour which is nothing when you hear that the first group's train was 5 hours late going to camp and 10 hours late on the return journey! I was excited about the prospect of an overnight train, but the novelty wore off when we realised we weren't all together but in small groups amongst strangers. To be fair, the strangers seemed mostly welcoming but it was still a nervy start. Sleeping wasn't the easiest option either as the cabins were very hot and quite small. They had good fans, but they woke everyone up if we turned them on. At least we know what to expect on the way home!