Hello everyone. Firstly, thanks for the messages (keep them coming!) and secondly, apologies for not posting sooner, but finding the internet is proving a little more difficult than we imagined. Anyway, here we are in bl***dy hot India, safe and sound (so far) however the pollution is intense so we are suffering slightly with bad chests.

Right, what can we say about Delhi? The first thing that hits you (apart from the heat and the whisky from Stu's hip-flask!) is the chaotic driving, the endless sounding of horns, the total disregard for lanes, and most of all the cows……the cows rule the road!!!As you navigate through the streets, the second thing that hits you is the poverty - we thought we were prepared for this, but you'd have to see it to believe the number of homeless people, often living next to open sewerage, hardly mustering enough energy to beg for a few rupees and still managing a smile and a "hello" as you walk past.

On a lighter not though, we did manage to have a snake pushed through the car window on our way from the airport which wasn't the best, and the driver dumped us in the middle of chaos as he couldn't find our hotel… cheers! Luckily, we used the force and found it ok.

First night on our own before we met our fellow "travellers' we ventured into New Delhi (Delhi is actually made up of 7 cities) using the new metro system and being the only westerners we were stared at as if we had two heads, something now we've got used to.

New Delhi isn't much to write home about; it was brought to prominence by the British and now has western-style shops, ticket touts and even a pub called 'Piccadelhi' (as you can imagine, we fully researched the local lagers - mostly to calm Belle's nerves!), with almost everyone wanting to know your name, where you're from, and then, "would you like to buy a train ticket to Agra?". The highlight though [after a few beers] was the auto-rickshaw back to the hotel with our drunken driver who stopped mid-route to stock up on probably his third bottle of whisky of the day - if it wasn't for the beers we'd had earlier I think we could have died from a heart attack. Good fun though, and only 40 rupees (which is about 50p)!

We met our fellow "travellers' the following morning and went to sample the delights of Old Delhi. This was a completely different ball game, and can only be described as madness. The business and narrowness of the streets, the smells, the overall energy is amazing. We visited a Sikh temple, the spice and Sari markets and generally walked around opened mouthed in amazement - it was our first taste of "real" India and the first time we actually appreciated what we've set out to see… fabulous!

Next stop, Agra….. home of the Taj Mahal………..