Well I guess there is some truth in what you say dad - the journey took a lot longer because we were traveling uphill.We've spent the past few days in sleeper trains, overnight buses and almost giving 80 year old toothless men heart attacks by asking them to cycle us and our massive bags around towns for the equivalent of about 30p.

The journey to Bangalore was a bit touch and go as we both spent the entire journey fighting the urge not to spew as the bus driver sent me flying off my seat too many times for it to be accidental by driving through every massive pot hole on the road and played Bollywood videos full blast on a loop which would've been ok if the journey hadn't lasted 16 hours.

We spent a couple of days checking out Bangalore, almost managed to go to the Bangalore Open which just so happened to be on but sadly we couldn't re-arrange our train tickets.Starting to realize that we seem to attract the only rickshaw drivers in India who speak absolutely no English, insist they know where we want to go then after half an hour of aimlessly driving round in circles, give up, light a cigarette and try force cash out of us.The driver we got on leaving Bangalore was no exception and after finally reaching the train station he almost punched James who refused to pay full fare for quite blatantly taking the Michael.

After taking the overnight train to Hyderabad, James decided to celebrate his recovery from food poisoning by ordering chicken which subsequently gave him food poisoning for the overnight train to Bhopal. That journey was a bit of an ordeal as we immediately got cornered by a group of Indian guys who insisted on being photographed individually with each of us and talked at us non stop until we went to sleep. The language barrier really hasn't seemed to be an issue, apart from when one of the young guys with a massive smile on his face asked James "are you a b******" about 10 times before we realized that he was actually asking James if he was a pastor.Apart from that minor misunderstanding they seemed to think we were pretty cool, that was until a cockroach scurried up James' trouser leg, he screamed like a girl and ran the length of the train jumping up and down smacking his legs and yelping.

We spent a couple days in Bhopal, checked out a mosque and took a train to Satna (another place we were happy to just be spending a couple hours) then went to Kujaharo which was absolutely beautiful.We spent a day checking out some amazing temples then were lucky enough to see the Sound and Light Show at night.

The next day we took a bus bright and early at 4.30am to Varanasi, all fresh faced and excited and arrived there at about 11.30pm by which time James was knee deep in sewage after falling over in a field on his way back to the bus on a toilet stop and I sounded like Marge Simpson after spending the trip shouting to James over the constant sound of the horn.So by the time we reached our hostel we were sleepy, starving and absolutely stinking - the "long way up north" had well and truly kicked our asses.Although all our despair immediately vanished after we discovered HBO and room service at the hotel…. Things were looking up!

Joanne