17th - 20th Oct. Varanasi Temperature: Hot and humid, maybe 35 degreesSkanky large rivers: 1Grasshoppers: Millions everywhere around the hotelLovely meals: At the Radisson hotel (only 500 rps -approx 7 pounds)Pictures taken of the river: Around 100Dead bodies: 2 (perfectly normal) The train was very late arriving at Varanasi, 5 hours late in fact! Even British Rail were never that bad. Again we were bombarded by the usual touts, rickshaws etc. (which we're ver...

14th - 16th Oct. Agra and Fatehpur Sikri Temperature: Hot and humid, maybe 35 degreesWonders of the World: 1Monkeys: Angry and scaryStaring men: Maybe a millionPictures taken: Around 200 Travelling from McLeod to Agra meant a 10 hour bus trip to Shimla again, an overnight stop at Shimla then 2 trains to Delhi with 2 nights (to buy train ticket) in Delhi, then a 3 hour train to Agra. Lots and lots of travelling! We chose a hotel close to the Taj Mahal, a regula...

3rd - 11th Oct. Mc Leod Ganj, Dharamsala (1770 metres) Temperature: Comfortable 24 degrees, sunny everyday! Cool at night.Hours on bus: 10Buddhist monks and nuns: hundredsMonkeys: loadsJewellery stalls: loads and loads of wonderful things! Our bus driver from Shimla to Dharamsala was a complete nutter. Many occassions we over took lorries on windy narrow mountain roads with on coming traffic. Held our breath lots of times! We did wonder whether our bags were go...

26th Sept. - 2nd Oct. Shimla (2205 metres - you can get Acute Altitude Sickness from hights of 2500 metres) Temperature: Comfortable 20 degreesHours on train: 12Power cuts:loadsMonkeys: loads Train to Kolka arrived on time at exactly 6am, so Carl had to eat his socks, mmm tasty! Still hasn't done it mind. The toy train from Kolka to Shimla was only slightly smaller than our UK trains, but very small compared to the normal Indian trains. This scenic train journ...

21st - 25th Sept. Delhi Temperature: felt like 40 degrees, hostest we had experiencedRip offs:1 but thousands of attemptsRefunds: 1Hours on train: 30Power cuts:10Early starts: 1Cows: loads The train journey up to Delhi wasn't as bad as expected, but it was an early start, 5am! The seats weren't great because our beds were separated by a few in between, so we had to sit opposite 2 men the whole journey. The elder man was a really messy, noisy eater who snored an...