Another very interesting but good breakfast of some sort of naan style omelette at the hotel, all washed down with our beloved Chai, I'm becoming obsessed!
We said our goodbyes to everyone we had met at the hotel and we're hoping to see a few of them again in Varanasi if they managed to book overnight trains for tonight. As it's peak season for tourism at the moment, everyone we have spoken to is finding it very difficult to book transport around India as it gets booked up weeks and sometimes months in advance. So I feel quite lucky at this point that the tourist company are taking over all that stress of researching transport as other travellers have had to stay up to a week longer in a their current destinations before being able to get transport out.

We had a private car pick us up from the hotel at 10.30 am, and off we went on our journey back to Delhi! Now... the journey back had to be one of the most adrenaline pumping experiences of my life up to date. The driver was clearly used to this journey and was weaving in and out of cars with cms to spare, if that, and even driving on the other side of the road against on coming traffic (I wish I was joking) in order to keep going. The only time we stopped was for food at a food court. We shared the most amazing curry called Paneer Butter Masala. Paneer means cheese in Indian so I think it was houllumi but I'm not 100% sure. Either way it was gorgeous, I really am enjoying the food here!

Back on the road again and back re-living the film Mission Impossible, weaving through traffic at 60mph. I really wanted to film it on my GoPro just to prove what we experienced but I genuinely struggled pull my gripped hands away from my seat to get it out my bag at the time. Honestly... I can't believe I'm still alive to tell the story.

The closer we got to Delhi, the more dusty and smoggy the air became. Both of us have developed a cold since being here which we think is just the change in atmosphere and temperature etc. Nothing that a little bit of Lemsip that I packed won't sort out! Once in the thick of Delhi, the dusty air started to stick to the back of my throat as I could feel it getting sore. Eventually my voice went. The smog just kept getting thicker and thicker until it completely covered the entire sun and the city was left dark and dingy. The whole city was covered. The reason for this- Diwali is the festival of light where thousands of fireworks had been set off just 5 days before. The smog covering the city was a result of the pollution from these fireworks and also farmers from the neighbouring state Punjabi burning the stubs of their crops too much this year- approx 15 million tonnes of crops! This smoggy pollution has now settled in Delhi and won't shift for a month or so because of the changes in air pressure. It's unbelievable really! One local told me that this year, Delhi has beaten Beijing for the top spot as the world's most polluted city! No wonder my voice had gone! It's scary to think how quickly it effected me though. I couldn't wait to get back out of the city already!

We arrived at the tourist office, thankfully in one piece! Eventually the tourist advisers finished going through our trip itinerary with us. It's looks good so far! They gave us some beers, chai and snacks while we waited for our night train. By this point, we were quite hungry again so we wondered back to the rooftop 'Exotic Cafe' for dinner. I wasn't starving so I had a honey and lemon pancake- hoping that would soothe my sore throat and developing cold. Finally, we were dropped off to the New Delhi train station by our old friend Shonny, who was again pissed as a fart! Thankfully the Tuktuk ride should have been 5 mins long but it took us 20 mins to get there as he kept pulling over to tell Matt and I how much he loved us and that now we are family! Matt was laughing along but I had had enough at that point and just wanted to get the hell out of Delhi, away from the constant noise, business and now dusty smog. We've got our good cop bad cop act down to a tee!

One of the tourist guides took us into the station and straight to our train and thank god he did as there were 16 platforms... possibly a tad difficult to negotiate when there's no English signs. Eventually we boarded the train and he took us to our seats/beds. We were staying 3rd class air conditioning on this train journey as there were no available trains to Varanasi left, so they had to pay for emergency tickets whatever that means. I made sure that the next two train journeys would definitely be 2nd class tier as there is slightly more room. Our cabin contained 8 beds, 6 opposite each other (2 sets of 3 beds on top of each other about 3 ft apart) and 2 on the end. The people staying with us, all of which were locals, were really friendly and we all got chatting and laughing in no time, they all love to talk about London! One of the boys with us was a 19 year old heading off to his first year at University to study Chemistry. His parents were stood waving at the window as we left and for some reason he reminded me of my little brother Jack, so naturally we took him under our wing!

They were bringing around small cups of Chai tea on the train for 10 rupees each (12p) and I'd read that train Chai was suppose to be really good and it didn't disappoint! We put our beds out for the night about 11pm, and Matt had requested I stay on the top bunk away from all the havoc and stares as it made him feel uncomfortable which I was content with, he's always looking out for me! I hoped we'd get some sort of sleep throughout the night...Here goes!