Last Updated 2nd May

We arrived @ 1 am in the morning to delhi airport.

We stayed for three nights at the Marina Hotel, Connaught Circus.

Not the greatest 4 star hotel ever . 4 stars = hot water + toilet. Nearly bankrupted us as well as we have stayed in much nicer places for 1/10 the cost !

Delhi was a bit manic for us. Lots of touts trying to scam the newcomers. It took us 3 goes to get to the railway station office for foreigners having been redirected twice by touts for travel agents with scams such as it's moved to this address and one guy even had an official looking laminated pass to show !

Then we escaped to varanasi on the train. Only 14 1/2 hours, lucky we booked AirConditioned. Stayed in an ok place recommended by someone we met on the train. Near to Ghats along the ganges where the bathing and cremation occurs. Paul did some typing (2 hours) for a blind guru communing with his followers around the world via hotmail. Got a few bars of chocolate for our troubles.Saved by a powercut as RSI was seting in. Mouse in our room that night nibblnig at our bscuits. Mentioned it to the owner who seemed nonplussed. Informed us that the Mouse is the animal that pulls Ganesha's (the elephant god) chariot!!

Then to Khajuraho..looking at temples...with lots of erotic sculptures! Took lots of photos.. Will sell for a few rupees somewhere

Then went to Agra for 2 days for the Taj Mahal and the abandoned city of Fatepur Sikri. Stayed in a nice hotel, with a pool. Lots of agressive touts again and apart from the monuments not a lot to commend it

Day train to Jaipur, the Pink city. More relaxed than Agra and easier to walk around without being pestered. Saw the main sights and the Amber Fort. Walked to the Tiger fort for a great view of the city. Hotel very relaxing, great restaurant

Night train to udaipur where we had a nice room in a Haveli (courtyard) by the lake. Quite Touristy but relaxing. Saw the sights and relaxed. Went for dinner in the Lake Palace Hotel but decided against blowing 200 dollars on an nights stay !

Now we considered getting to Ajanta and elora caves but the flight from udaipur is no longer in service. It'd take forever overland so we decided to head straight south to Goa. Did this in 36 hours by bus and train and a few 4 hour waits at stations. Saw bombay from the back of an auto-rickshaw ! Neither of us wanted the hassle of a big city and they don't come much bigger than bombay/mumbai. Saw the slums. Probably as much as Bill Clinton did who was there a few days before

Arrived in Margoa, the main town in south Goa. Hassle free but very hot n'humid. Sweated around town and went to colva beach in the afternoon which provided some respite. Beautiful palm fringed sand stretching north and south as far as the eye can see. The following day we head further south to Palolem beach. About 2 kilometers of curving palm fringed beach with beach huts for food and beer ! We stayed off the beach in a cabana, a large room with a straw roof in a lovely tropical garden with a coconut palm growing up through the ceiling and a hammock outside. The restaurant attached was excellent and "green/organic" - they served fresh wheatgrass juice in addition to fresh pinapple/guava/pappaya/mango and coconut milk. They also had excellent local hooch called urrak distilled from fermented cashew apple! It was a very relaxing place with yoga classes and ayurvedic massages etc. We needless to say spent the next 7 days chilling out on the beach, getting a sun tan and swimming in lovely warm water!!

Next we headed further south to Kerala, "Gods own country" as the tourist board has it. We headed straight up the coast to a place called Varkala, a nice small seaside town percariously perched on a rapidly eroding cliff top. Everything was closing down as it was the end of season. More relaxing walks. Then onto the Kerala backwaters which involved cruising around on boats, one hired, one ferry, watching the slow paced life of the denizens, fishing, cooking, washing, doing the lotto, that kind of thing.

After all the steaming heat of the south there is only one thing to do and that is to head for the hills via a steep hairpin bus ride. This gets us in the habit of checking for bald tyres before we get on a bus! We went to Theddady and Periyar wildlife park, didn't see any tigers but loads of deer, monkeys and leeches. Locals swear by tobacco snuff to burn them off and by golly it works! Also went on a great tour of a spice plantation and drank the locally grown coffee.

Off by rollercoaster bus again to Munnar in the middle of acres and acres of tea plantations. Cycled and took the tourist bus around. Following that the next stop is Ooty an old British Hill station up in more cool hills via a steam railway, the one in 'Passage to India". They must have speeded up the film cause its very slow in real life - 5 hours, but very scenic. Ooty is cool.. we needed extra blankets at night, even though its 18 degrees C ! (we must have acclimatised to the heat!). Missed the horse races there but went walking instead.

More hairy buses to Mysore where we have seen the famous palace illuminated by 50,000 lightbulbes. Seeing an inland fort today, Bangalore tomorrow night then fly to Nepal the following evening.

Shorts; Margaret was sick (physically) after our only western meal of the trip, in pizza hut! Paul is getting fat on all the delicious indian food. 20 Samosas for a quid and proper curries every night! Paul has discovered indian barbers do wonderful shaves...20p for the best shave of your life..if a bit worrying at times...