We arrived at Abu Road(the closest station to Mount Abu) late at night so just got a room at the train station and the next morning we took a wander to the bus station to get a bus to Mount Abu. It was amazing just how nice everyone was, with pretty much everyone there wanting to know, "which country?", "name?" and "is this your wife?" Even when people were ripping us off they were very nice about it, one of the guys working at a stall at the bus station couldnt help giggling like a little girl when he told me my lunch would cost 17 rupee's (less than 15p.)

On the bus up to Mount Abu we spotted a new type of monkey that we'd not seen yet so we were pretty excited about that (well i was anyway, think Joanne is getting a little bored with the monkey chat.) We'd been told by quite a few people that Mount Abu was going to be really cold and to wrap upbut i guess Indian cold and Scottish cold is a bit different because after 5 minutes of being there i was getting the sun cream on and Joanne was making light work of a softy softy (Indian version of a Mr Whippy icecream.)

We found the hotel we were planning on staying at pretty easy, althoug we didn't get off to the best of starts with the manager (who we imaginitively named Mr. Hotel) by walking through his newly tarred drivewayas it was just being finished. We stayed in Mount Abu for three nights, partly because we enjoyed how relitively quiet it was and after saying just how much we didnt miss TV the day before we discovered we had HBO in our room so watched a few films every night.

There wasn't too much to do in Mount Abu itself, although it was a beautiful little town. We went on a pedalo on the lake one afternoon, walked to the nearby Dilwara jade temple (the most intricate Jade temple in India but we weren't allowed to take photo's unfortunately) and had a wander in the forests- but didnt manage to spot any bears of wild cats. Every night Joanne would get hyper on softy softy's and we'd be in our room for the 9 0'clock movie on HBO.

When we decided to leave and try head further south, the extremely unhelpful guy at the railway booking office told us there was a week's waiting list for any train so we decided to go to Abu Road to see if we could get more luck there, and were told we could get a bus to Bombay that day then a train to Goa. So we hung around at the bus stationand had some more banter with the stall workerswho all wanted their photo's taken. However, when the bus arrived we were told there was only one seat left..but before i had the chance to abandon Joanne and head to the beach, our stall friends had some words with the conductor and we were told we could both get the bus if i sat in the cabin next to the driver on the 2nd driver's bed.

The bus journey took the rest of the day and all night (18 hours in all) but went pretty fast and wasn't too bad, apart from the screaming baby and the fact that imy water bottle leaked all over the spare driver's bed and my trousers and im pretty sure the two drivers thought i'd had an accident.

We were dropped off at the outskirts of Bombay at rush hour and we had to wait a few hours until the crowds died down before we could fit on the train, since people were hanging off te sides with one hand and business men sitting on the train roofs. Bombay was really nice and we stumbled upon an arts festival and sat around at the harbour, where we were offered to be in a film that we had to turn down because we were getting a night train to Goa.

Ao thats about it up to now, were staying in a little village called Vagator at the moment but we'll tell you all about it in our next blog. Need to go for now because Joanne is waiting for me at the beach for some lunch.

Hope everyone is doing ok and keep us updated with everything,

James